Heta Tarkkala
Biographic Data
| ID | 291142 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Heta Tarkkala |
| GIVEN NAMES | Heta |
| FAMILY NAME | Tarkkala |
| SIGNATURE | TARKKALA H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Helsinki |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5284-3091 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Repairing (with) Algorithmic Systems
Complete the Test First” Prescreening Tests at the Margins of Digital Public Administration
Western welfare states are rushing to digitalise access to public services and citizens’ interactions with public institutions. Finland exemplifies this trend towards digital‐first administration. In this article, we discuss digital public administration and the interaction between citizens and the state through the example of digital prescreening tests. Digital prescreening tests are interactive webpages or mobile apps in which a citizen‐user is…
The politics of constructing health data spaces
This article explores the construction of health data spaces through the lens of border work. It provides insights into the complex attachments and detachments that come to the fore when establishing centralized health data access bodies in the Nordic countries. By comparing Denmark, Norway, and Finland, the study unveils a variety of border work practices. These practices include the complex interplay between national infrastructures, local prac…
Adjusting expectations actionable
Our paper is a case study of the making of data-driven healthcare and anticipation work done by developer-experts in a project for implementation of an integrated patient data management platform in Finland. We focus on ‘personalised treatment plan’, a trope that experts regularly use when talking about the objectives of data management reform and their wishes for datafication of healthcare. We conceive of the personalised plan not primarily as a…
A solidarity paradox - welfare state data in global health data economy
Nordic welfare states have well institutionalised practises of gathering health and social wellbeing data from their citizens. The establishment of population registers coincided with the building of welfare state institutions and a social contract relying on solidarity. During the last decade, the significance of Nordic registers and health data has increased and they have become sources of economic value. Recent policies expect registers, healt…
Facemasks, material and metaphors
In 2020, not only did the Sars-Cov-2 virus become a global pandemic, but public life also changed in the wake of various infection control measures. Increased use of masks was one of the first clearly visible changes. With the masks came stories about masks. Who wore them, where people should wear them, and why? It quickly became clear, however, that stories about 'the facemask' also have a metaphorical content, negotiating not only problems of t…
‘The window of opportunity is closing’—advocating urgency and unity
Science and science policy are characterised by expectations. These expectations—as in the field of biomedicine—may be related to describing novel findings, their use in curing diseases or their economic benefits. Previous research has shown that expectations are often communicated with the help of metaphors. In this article, we take a closer look at one metaphor—‘closing window of opportunity’—and examine how it frames discussions about policy a…
Putting Value on Extracellular Vesicles
Several studies over the years have paid attention to the entanglement of biomedical research and the multiplicity of expectations for scientific breakthroughs and economic gains. However, science and economy are by no means the only values attributed to the biomedical endeavour in an actual R&D project. In this article, we present an analysis of a case we studied in Finland, in which academic and commercial partners jointly studied minuscule ext…
“Here comes Bio-me”
Finnish biobanks have started to recruit children. The national supervising authority has emphasized the centrality of providing children with age-appropriate information. We analyzed one such campaign. We argue that by simplifying the complex socio-technical arrangements of biobanking with the introduction of a new metaphor-like concept, “Bio-me,” the campaign presents a misleading and reductionist picture of data-driven biomedicine and biobank …
The Nordic data imaginary
The Nordic countries aim to have a unique place within the European and global health data economy. They have extensive nationally maintained and centralized health data records, as well as numerous biobanks where data from individuals can be connected based on personal identification numbers. Much of this phenomenon can be attributed to the emergence and development of the Nordic welfare state, where Nordic countries sought to systematically col…
From health to wealth
Questioning the rhetoric of a ‘willing population’ in Finnish biobanking
According to surveys and opinion polls, citizens in Nordic welfare societies have positive, supportive attitudes towards medical research and biobanking. In Finland, it was expected that this would result in the active biobank participation of patients and citizens. Indeed, public support has been rhetorically utilised as a unique societal factor and advantage in the promotion of Finnish biobanks, underlining the potential Finland offers for the …
Shortcut to success? Negotiating genetic uniqueness in global biomedicine
Since the sequencing of the human genome, as well as the completion of the first Human Genome Diversity Project, the benefits of studying one human population over another has been an ongoing debate relating to the replicability of findings in other populations. The leveraging of specific populations into research markets has made headlines in cases such as deCode in Iceland, Quebec Founder Population, and Generation Scotland. In such cases, rese…
From health to wealth
Shortcut to success? Negotiating genetic uniqueness in global biomedicine
Since the sequencing of the human genome, as well as the completion of the first Human Genome Diversity Project, the benefits of studying one human population over another has been an ongoing debate relating to the replicability of findings in other populations. The leveraging of specific populations into research markets has made headlines in cases such as deCode in Iceland, Quebec Founder Population, and Generation Scotland. In such cases, rese…
The Nordic data imaginary
The Nordic countries aim to have a unique place within the European and global health data economy. They have extensive nationally maintained and centralized health data records, as well as numerous biobanks where data from individuals can be connected based on personal identification numbers. Much of this phenomenon can be attributed to the emergence and development of the Nordic welfare state, where Nordic countries sought to systematically col…
Questioning the rhetoric of a ‘willing population’ in Finnish biobanking
According to surveys and opinion polls, citizens in Nordic welfare societies have positive, supportive attitudes towards medical research and biobanking. In Finland, it was expected that this would result in the active biobank participation of patients and citizens. Indeed, public support has been rhetorically utilised as a unique societal factor and advantage in the promotion of Finnish biobanks, underlining the potential Finland offers for the …
A solidarity paradox - welfare state data in global health data economy
Nordic welfare states have well institutionalised practises of gathering health and social wellbeing data from their citizens. The establishment of population registers coincided with the building of welfare state institutions and a social contract relying on solidarity. During the last decade, the significance of Nordic registers and health data has increased and they have become sources of economic value. Recent policies expect registers, healt…
Facemasks, material and metaphors
In 2020, not only did the Sars-Cov-2 virus become a global pandemic, but public life also changed in the wake of various infection control measures. Increased use of masks was one of the first clearly visible changes. With the masks came stories about masks. Who wore them, where people should wear them, and why? It quickly became clear, however, that stories about 'the facemask' also have a metaphorical content, negotiating not only problems of t…
Shortcut to success? Negotiating genetic uniqueness in global biomedicine
Since the sequencing of the human genome, as well as the completion of the first Human Genome Diversity Project, the benefits of studying one human population over another has been an ongoing debate relating to the replicability of findings in other populations. The leveraging of specific populations into research markets has made headlines in cases such as deCode in Iceland, Quebec Founder Population, and Generation Scotland. In such cases, rese…
From health to wealth
Questioning the rhetoric of a ‘willing population’ in Finnish biobanking
According to surveys and opinion polls, citizens in Nordic welfare societies have positive, supportive attitudes towards medical research and biobanking. In Finland, it was expected that this would result in the active biobank participation of patients and citizens. Indeed, public support has been rhetorically utilised as a unique societal factor and advantage in the promotion of Finnish biobanks, underlining the potential Finland offers for the …
The Nordic data imaginary
The Nordic countries aim to have a unique place within the European and global health data economy. They have extensive nationally maintained and centralized health data records, as well as numerous biobanks where data from individuals can be connected based on personal identification numbers. Much of this phenomenon can be attributed to the emergence and development of the Nordic welfare state, where Nordic countries sought to systematically col…
Putting Value on Extracellular Vesicles
Several studies over the years have paid attention to the entanglement of biomedical research and the multiplicity of expectations for scientific breakthroughs and economic gains. However, science and economy are by no means the only values attributed to the biomedical endeavour in an actual R&D project. In this article, we present an analysis of a case we studied in Finland, in which academic and commercial partners jointly studied minuscule ext…
“Here comes Bio-me”
Finnish biobanks have started to recruit children. The national supervising authority has emphasized the centrality of providing children with age-appropriate information. We analyzed one such campaign. We argue that by simplifying the complex socio-technical arrangements of biobanking with the introduction of a new metaphor-like concept, “Bio-me,” the campaign presents a misleading and reductionist picture of data-driven biomedicine and biobank …
‘The window of opportunity is closing’—advocating urgency and unity
Science and science policy are characterised by expectations. These expectations—as in the field of biomedicine—may be related to describing novel findings, their use in curing diseases or their economic benefits. Previous research has shown that expectations are often communicated with the help of metaphors. In this article, we take a closer look at one metaphor—‘closing window of opportunity’—and examine how it frames discussions about policy a…
A solidarity paradox - welfare state data in global health data economy
Nordic welfare states have well institutionalised practises of gathering health and social wellbeing data from their citizens. The establishment of population registers coincided with the building of welfare state institutions and a social contract relying on solidarity. During the last decade, the significance of Nordic registers and health data has increased and they have become sources of economic value. Recent policies expect registers, healt…
Facemasks, material and metaphors
In 2020, not only did the Sars-Cov-2 virus become a global pandemic, but public life also changed in the wake of various infection control measures. Increased use of masks was one of the first clearly visible changes. With the masks came stories about masks. Who wore them, where people should wear them, and why? It quickly became clear, however, that stories about 'the facemask' also have a metaphorical content, negotiating not only problems of t…
Adjusting expectations actionable
Our paper is a case study of the making of data-driven healthcare and anticipation work done by developer-experts in a project for implementation of an integrated patient data management platform in Finland. We focus on ‘personalised treatment plan’, a trope that experts regularly use when talking about the objectives of data management reform and their wishes for datafication of healthcare. We conceive of the personalised plan not primarily as a…
Repairing (with) Algorithmic Systems
Complete the Test First” Prescreening Tests at the Margins of Digital Public Administration
Western welfare states are rushing to digitalise access to public services and citizens’ interactions with public institutions. Finland exemplifies this trend towards digital‐first administration. In this article, we discuss digital public administration and the interaction between citizens and the state through the example of digital prescreening tests. Digital prescreening tests are interactive webpages or mobile apps in which a citizen‐user is…
The politics of constructing health data spaces
This article explores the construction of health data spaces through the lens of border work. It provides insights into the complex attachments and detachments that come to the fore when establishing centralized health data access bodies in the Nordic countries. By comparing Denmark, Norway, and Finland, the study unveils a variety of border work practices. These practices include the complex interplay between national infrastructures, local prac…
Political science (11 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Biomedicine (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Public relations (4 works) · Biobank (3 works) · Bioinformatics (3 works)