Research Focus Areas

Short Biography

Ria-Maria graduated from the University of Vienna with a Master´s degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology early 2017. Currently, she is a PhD student and uni:docs fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna, supervised by Peter Schweitzer and co-supervised by Florian Stammler (Arctic Centre, Rovaniemi). Her research focuses on youth wellbeing and “lifestyle migrants” that are in search of a “good life” in Finnish Lapland . She has been contributing to the project: 'Live, Work or Leave? Youth – wellbeing and the viability of (post) extractive Arctic industrial cities in Finland and Russia' by the University of Lapland, Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi. Currently, she is engaged with the project “Enhancing liveability of small shrinking cities through co-creation” by Aalto University, Helsinki as a guest researcher. The project examines local initiatives and practices of placemaking in severely shrinking small cities, as well as local, regional and national planning strategies of dealing with urban shrinkage in Finland, Russia and Germany. She has been conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the towns of Kemijärvi, Kolari, Pyhäjoki and Rovaniemi.

Current Affiliations

• Current research affliation with the Arctic Centre/University of Lapland in Rovaniemi (Finland):
  "Live, Work or Leave? Youth – wellbeing and the viability of (post) extractive Arctic industrial cities in Finland and Russia"
  https://www.arcticcentre.org/EN/youthwellbeing
  https://www.arcticcentre.org/EN/About/Contacts/anthropology

• The project “Enhancing liveability of small shrinking cities through co-creation” is funded by the Academy of Finland and other country-based funding agencies in the framework of the ERA.NET Plus program. It was launched in January 2021 and will be implemented by an international consortium consisting of research teams in Finland, Russia and Germany.
  https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/focusing-on-the-liveability-of-small-shrinking-cities