Heli Saarikoski
Biographic Data
| ID | 3588134 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Heli Saarikoski |
| GIVEN NAMES | Heli |
| FAMILY NAME | Saarikoski |
| SIGNATURE | SAARIKOSKI H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Finnish Environment Institute |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7256-9691 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 262 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Policymakers' Perceptions of the Use of Deliberative Mini‐Publics to Support Sustainability Policies
Deliberative mini‐publics (DMPs) have emerged as a novel method to deepen public participation in complex and contentious policy decisions, such as those related to sustainability transformations. Despite an increasing interest in applying DMPs in environmental governance, little is known about policymakers' expectations regarding their applicability and impact. We address this research gap by exploring policymakers' perceptions of DMPs in a sust…
Transformative change from below? Linking biodiversity governance with the diversity of bottom-up action
Individual actors and actor groups are vital catalysts of transformative change as they are able to initiate interventions that nurture and protect biodiversity. This paper analyses biodiversity-focused practices across the civil, market and public spheres to identify the modes of intervention that actors in Europe utilise when they seek to fight biodiversity loss as part of their every-day work or voluntary activism. Studying how actors locate a…
Citizen energy lost in sustainability transitions
Countries are moving towards renewable energy systems, which creates new requirements and pressures for the established energy policy frameworks. One emerging issue is citizen energy production in community level that has been given a central role also in recent policy reforms in the EU. However, one understudied topic is how the decision-making and action in the existing and potential citizen energy communities connects to broader energy governa…
Knowledge co-production around the cormorant-fishing conflict using a joint fact-finding approach
The great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) has been a persistent source of human–wildlife conflicts in the Baltic Sea area. Fishers have perceived cormorants as competitors for fish resources, while conservationists have resisted mass hunting of the birds. In this paper, we analyse the cormorant conflict in Finland, with a special focus on its factual dimensions and the previous attempts to address the conflict at the national and regional levels.…
What about citizens? A literature review of citizen engagement in sustainability transitions research
Public engagement is understood as a prerequisite for sustainability transitions. Yet, it has remained peripheral to the transitions research agenda and the efforts to engage citizens in transitions research remain scattered. Thus, there is a need to create a more holistic understanding of how citizens participate in knowledge co-creation for sustainability transitions. We review the sustainability transitions literature from the perspective of c…
Transcending sectoral boundaries? Discovering built-environment indicators through knowledge co-production for enhanced planning for well-being in Finnish cities
Worldwide urbanisation emphasises the importance of planning for cities that sustain and promote the well-being of their residents. The planning of a living environment that supports well-being requires both intersectoral cooperation between policy sectors and interaction between researchers and practitioners. With 12 case studies (of 11 Finnish municipalities and one city region), we provide a description of a knowledge co-production process ori…
Valuation through deliberation - Citizens' panels on peatland ecosystem services in Finland
Participatory multi-criteria decision analysis in valuing peatland ecosystem services—Trade-offs related to peat extraction vs. pristine peatlands in Southern Finland
The means determine the end – Pursuing integrated valuation in practice
An Empirical Analysis of Institutional Demand for Valuation Knowledge
Eklipse
The aim of EKLIPSE is to develop a mechanism to inform European-scale policy on biodiversity and related environmental challenges. This paper considers two fundamental aspects of the decision-support mechanism being developed by EKLIPSE: 1) the engagement of relevant actors from science, policy and society to jointly identify evidence for decision making; and 2) the networking of scientists and other holders of knowledge on biodiversity and other…
Valuing nature’s contributions to people
Nature is perceived and valued in starkly different and oftenconflicting ways. This paper presents the rationale for theinclusive valuation of nature's contributions to people (NCP) indecision making, as well as broad methodological steps fordoing so. While developed within the context of theIntergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), this approach is more widely applicable toinitiatives at the knowledge?policy inte…
Creating a biodiversity science community
Science and Politics in Old-Growth Forest Conflict in Upper Lapland
This article illustrates the interconnectedness of science and politics through a case study of old-growth forest conflict in Finnish Upper Lapland. It demonstrates the ways in which “traditional science“ has failed to settle the decades-long conflict between state forestry and traditional Sámi reindeer herding, and discusses the potential of democratization of science through more inclusive forms of knowledge production. The analysis, which is b…
How different institutional arrangements promote integrated river basin management. Evidence from the Baltic Sea Region
Participatory multi-criteria assessment as ‘opening up’ vs. ‘closing down’ of policy discourses
Understanding ‘successful’ conflict resolution
Governing Old-Growth Forests
The article explores the interdependence of state, civil society, and market actors in resolving environmental conflicts through new governance arrangements. Based on policy documents and in-depth interviews, the study shows that the government-led Land and Resource Management Plans concerning the coastal rainforests in British Columbia depended for their success on governance efforts that environmental organizations and forestry corporations ini…
The Challenge of Governance in Regional Forest Planning
The opening up of Finnish forest policymaking to new interest groups and a change to more flexible forms of partnerships at multiple levels signals a transition to new governance relations. Drawing on the concept of institutional capacity, we analyze the governance potential of stakeholder forums, called Regional Forest Councils, to balance economic considerations with ecological ones in preparing Regional Forest Programs. More specifically, we l…
Public participation in practice — Assessing public participation in the preparation of regional forest programs in Northern Finland
Practical integration of river basin and land use planning
Land use planning was modernised in Finland at the turn of the millennium. Simultaneously, river basin planning based on the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) markedly changed the environmental goals for water bodies. The WFD's main objective is to achieve good ecological status in all water bodies by the year 2015. To meet this objective, traditional water protection measures are planned for preventing and reducing eutrophication in water bodie…
Stakeholder perspectives about proper participation for Regional Forest Programmes in Finland
Objectivity and the environment - epistemic value of biases
Environmental sociologists are faced with an epistemological dilemma: the ideal of objective and neutral science has lost its credibility, yet the notion of scientific knowledge as a purely social construct without any access to truth is troubling as well, threatening to lead to the ‘abyss of relativism’ in which it is not possible to differentiate between more or less reliable claims about the environment. This paper will suggest that a revision…
Naturalized Epistemology and Dilemmas of Planning Practice
This article proposes that a feminist interpretation of naturalized epistemology provides a sound basis for a deliberative planning approach. It preserves the grounds for making reasoned choices between competing validity claims while promoting a view of planning as a diverse and deliberative enterprise attentive to various ways of knowing and modes of expression. The solution is based on a revised notion of objectivity that emphasizes the import…
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) as collaborative learning process
Valuing nature’s contributions to people
Nature is perceived and valued in starkly different and oftenconflicting ways. This paper presents the rationale for theinclusive valuation of nature's contributions to people (NCP) indecision making, as well as broad methodological steps fordoing so. While developed within the context of theIntergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), this approach is more widely applicable toinitiatives at the knowledge?policy inte…
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) as collaborative learning process
Stakeholder perspectives about proper participation for Regional Forest Programmes in Finland
The Challenge of Governance in Regional Forest Planning
The opening up of Finnish forest policymaking to new interest groups and a change to more flexible forms of partnerships at multiple levels signals a transition to new governance relations. Drawing on the concept of institutional capacity, we analyze the governance potential of stakeholder forums, called Regional Forest Councils, to balance economic considerations with ecological ones in preparing Regional Forest Programs. More specifically, we l…
Public participation in practice — Assessing public participation in the preparation of regional forest programs in Northern Finland
Understanding ‘successful’ conflict resolution
Participatory multi-criteria assessment as ‘opening up’ vs. ‘closing down’ of policy discourses
Governing Old-Growth Forests
The article explores the interdependence of state, civil society, and market actors in resolving environmental conflicts through new governance arrangements. Based on policy documents and in-depth interviews, the study shows that the government-led Land and Resource Management Plans concerning the coastal rainforests in British Columbia depended for their success on governance efforts that environmental organizations and forestry corporations ini…
Naturalized Epistemology and Dilemmas of Planning Practice
This article proposes that a feminist interpretation of naturalized epistemology provides a sound basis for a deliberative planning approach. It preserves the grounds for making reasoned choices between competing validity claims while promoting a view of planning as a diverse and deliberative enterprise attentive to various ways of knowing and modes of expression. The solution is based on a revised notion of objectivity that emphasizes the import…
Participatory multi-criteria decision analysis in valuing peatland ecosystem services—Trade-offs related to peat extraction vs. pristine peatlands in Southern Finland
Creating a biodiversity science community
Citizen energy lost in sustainability transitions
Countries are moving towards renewable energy systems, which creates new requirements and pressures for the established energy policy frameworks. One emerging issue is citizen energy production in community level that has been given a central role also in recent policy reforms in the EU. However, one understudied topic is how the decision-making and action in the existing and potential citizen energy communities connects to broader energy governa…
How different institutional arrangements promote integrated river basin management. Evidence from the Baltic Sea Region
Valuation through deliberation - Citizens' panels on peatland ecosystem services in Finland
Practical integration of river basin and land use planning
Land use planning was modernised in Finland at the turn of the millennium. Simultaneously, river basin planning based on the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) markedly changed the environmental goals for water bodies. The WFD's main objective is to achieve good ecological status in all water bodies by the year 2015. To meet this objective, traditional water protection measures are planned for preventing and reducing eutrophication in water bodie…
Transformative change from below? Linking biodiversity governance with the diversity of bottom-up action
Individual actors and actor groups are vital catalysts of transformative change as they are able to initiate interventions that nurture and protect biodiversity. This paper analyses biodiversity-focused practices across the civil, market and public spheres to identify the modes of intervention that actors in Europe utilise when they seek to fight biodiversity loss as part of their every-day work or voluntary activism. Studying how actors locate a…
Knowledge co-production around the cormorant-fishing conflict using a joint fact-finding approach
The great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) has been a persistent source of human–wildlife conflicts in the Baltic Sea area. Fishers have perceived cormorants as competitors for fish resources, while conservationists have resisted mass hunting of the birds. In this paper, we analyse the cormorant conflict in Finland, with a special focus on its factual dimensions and the previous attempts to address the conflict at the national and regional levels.…
Transcending sectoral boundaries? Discovering built-environment indicators through knowledge co-production for enhanced planning for well-being in Finnish cities
Worldwide urbanisation emphasises the importance of planning for cities that sustain and promote the well-being of their residents. The planning of a living environment that supports well-being requires both intersectoral cooperation between policy sectors and interaction between researchers and practitioners. With 12 case studies (of 11 Finnish municipalities and one city region), we provide a description of a knowledge co-production process ori…
Objectivity and the environment - epistemic value of biases
Environmental sociologists are faced with an epistemological dilemma: the ideal of objective and neutral science has lost its credibility, yet the notion of scientific knowledge as a purely social construct without any access to truth is troubling as well, threatening to lead to the ‘abyss of relativism’ in which it is not possible to differentiate between more or less reliable claims about the environment. This paper will suggest that a revision…
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) as collaborative learning process
Naturalized Epistemology and Dilemmas of Planning Practice
This article proposes that a feminist interpretation of naturalized epistemology provides a sound basis for a deliberative planning approach. It preserves the grounds for making reasoned choices between competing validity claims while promoting a view of planning as a diverse and deliberative enterprise attentive to various ways of knowing and modes of expression. The solution is based on a revised notion of objectivity that emphasizes the import…
Objectivity and the environment - epistemic value of biases
Environmental sociologists are faced with an epistemological dilemma: the ideal of objective and neutral science has lost its credibility, yet the notion of scientific knowledge as a purely social construct without any access to truth is troubling as well, threatening to lead to the ‘abyss of relativism’ in which it is not possible to differentiate between more or less reliable claims about the environment. This paper will suggest that a revision…
Stakeholder perspectives about proper participation for Regional Forest Programmes in Finland
Public participation in practice — Assessing public participation in the preparation of regional forest programs in Northern Finland
Practical integration of river basin and land use planning
Land use planning was modernised in Finland at the turn of the millennium. Simultaneously, river basin planning based on the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) markedly changed the environmental goals for water bodies. The WFD's main objective is to achieve good ecological status in all water bodies by the year 2015. To meet this objective, traditional water protection measures are planned for preventing and reducing eutrophication in water bodie…
The Challenge of Governance in Regional Forest Planning
The opening up of Finnish forest policymaking to new interest groups and a change to more flexible forms of partnerships at multiple levels signals a transition to new governance relations. Drawing on the concept of institutional capacity, we analyze the governance potential of stakeholder forums, called Regional Forest Councils, to balance economic considerations with ecological ones in preparing Regional Forest Programs. More specifically, we l…
Governing Old-Growth Forests
The article explores the interdependence of state, civil society, and market actors in resolving environmental conflicts through new governance arrangements. Based on policy documents and in-depth interviews, the study shows that the government-led Land and Resource Management Plans concerning the coastal rainforests in British Columbia depended for their success on governance efforts that environmental organizations and forestry corporations ini…
Science and Politics in Old-Growth Forest Conflict in Upper Lapland
This article illustrates the interconnectedness of science and politics through a case study of old-growth forest conflict in Finnish Upper Lapland. It demonstrates the ways in which “traditional science“ has failed to settle the decades-long conflict between state forestry and traditional Sámi reindeer herding, and discusses the potential of democratization of science through more inclusive forms of knowledge production. The analysis, which is b…
How different institutional arrangements promote integrated river basin management. Evidence from the Baltic Sea Region
Participatory multi-criteria assessment as ‘opening up’ vs. ‘closing down’ of policy discourses
Understanding ‘successful’ conflict resolution
Creating a biodiversity science community
Valuing nature’s contributions to people
Nature is perceived and valued in starkly different and oftenconflicting ways. This paper presents the rationale for theinclusive valuation of nature's contributions to people (NCP) indecision making, as well as broad methodological steps fordoing so. While developed within the context of theIntergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), this approach is more widely applicable toinitiatives at the knowledge?policy inte…
The means determine the end – Pursuing integrated valuation in practice
An Empirical Analysis of Institutional Demand for Valuation Knowledge
Eklipse
The aim of EKLIPSE is to develop a mechanism to inform European-scale policy on biodiversity and related environmental challenges. This paper considers two fundamental aspects of the decision-support mechanism being developed by EKLIPSE: 1) the engagement of relevant actors from science, policy and society to jointly identify evidence for decision making; and 2) the networking of scientists and other holders of knowledge on biodiversity and other…
Participatory multi-criteria decision analysis in valuing peatland ecosystem services—Trade-offs related to peat extraction vs. pristine peatlands in Southern Finland
Transcending sectoral boundaries? Discovering built-environment indicators through knowledge co-production for enhanced planning for well-being in Finnish cities
Worldwide urbanisation emphasises the importance of planning for cities that sustain and promote the well-being of their residents. The planning of a living environment that supports well-being requires both intersectoral cooperation between policy sectors and interaction between researchers and practitioners. With 12 case studies (of 11 Finnish municipalities and one city region), we provide a description of a knowledge co-production process ori…
Valuation through deliberation - Citizens' panels on peatland ecosystem services in Finland
What about citizens? A literature review of citizen engagement in sustainability transitions research
Public engagement is understood as a prerequisite for sustainability transitions. Yet, it has remained peripheral to the transitions research agenda and the efforts to engage citizens in transitions research remain scattered. Thus, there is a need to create a more holistic understanding of how citizens participate in knowledge co-creation for sustainability transitions. We review the sustainability transitions literature from the perspective of c…
Citizen energy lost in sustainability transitions
Countries are moving towards renewable energy systems, which creates new requirements and pressures for the established energy policy frameworks. One emerging issue is citizen energy production in community level that has been given a central role also in recent policy reforms in the EU. However, one understudied topic is how the decision-making and action in the existing and potential citizen energy communities connects to broader energy governa…
Knowledge co-production around the cormorant-fishing conflict using a joint fact-finding approach
The great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) has been a persistent source of human–wildlife conflicts in the Baltic Sea area. Fishers have perceived cormorants as competitors for fish resources, while conservationists have resisted mass hunting of the birds. In this paper, we analyse the cormorant conflict in Finland, with a special focus on its factual dimensions and the previous attempts to address the conflict at the national and regional levels.…
Transformative change from below? Linking biodiversity governance with the diversity of bottom-up action
Individual actors and actor groups are vital catalysts of transformative change as they are able to initiate interventions that nurture and protect biodiversity. This paper analyses biodiversity-focused practices across the civil, market and public spheres to identify the modes of intervention that actors in Europe utilise when they seek to fight biodiversity loss as part of their every-day work or voluntary activism. Studying how actors locate a…
Policymakers' Perceptions of the Use of Deliberative Mini‐Publics to Support Sustainability Policies
Deliberative mini‐publics (DMPs) have emerged as a novel method to deepen public participation in complex and contentious policy decisions, such as those related to sustainability transformations. Despite an increasing interest in applying DMPs in environmental governance, little is known about policymakers' expectations regarding their applicability and impact. We address this research gap by exploring policymakers' perceptions of DMPs in a sust…
Business (16 works) · Environmental resource management (16 works) · Political science (16 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Ecology (12 works) · Geography (12 works) · Economics (11 works) · Environmental Science (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Environmental planning (8 works)