Emma Lamberg

I am currently working on Care Deficits: Social Reproduction, Households and Everyday Life in a Withdrawing Welfare State, a four-year personal postdoctoral project funded by the Kone Foundation. The project examines how socio-economic transformations reshape relationships between states, markets, and households. Through ethnographic time-use observations, time-use diaries, and in-depth interviews with working-age parents in Finland, the project explores how households experience and respond to macroeconomic pressures, as well as how everyday practices of social reproduction contribute to broader social and economic transformations.

I completed my PhD in Sociology in 2023 (University of Turku, Finland). My dissertation examined how young women in Finland become members of the “work society” and imagine their futures while negotiating work, gender, and aspirations. I subsequently worked in the project Equality to Economics, Feminism to Fiscal Policy, led by Hanna Ylöstalo, where I studied feminist economic expertise and initiatives seeking to transform economic thinking and policy-making.

My research has been published in journals such as Gender, Work & Organization, International Political Sociology and The Sociological Review. Beyond academic publishing, I am committed to making research accessible to wider audiences. I am one of the four writers of the monograph Feminismiä talouteen: Opas kriittiseen talouslukutaitoon [Feminism and the economy: a guide to critical economic literacy], written by Hanna Ylöstalo, Heini Kinnunen, Emma Lamberg and Inna Perheentupa (Gaudeamus, 2024). Peer-reviewed yet also intended for a broader audience, the book engages with and develops further feminist, intersectional theorising on the economy, economic thinking and economic policy. Together, we also created the five-episode podcast Feminismiä talouteen!, which discusses the themes of the book in an accessible manner. In 2025, our work was recognized with the State Award for Public Information (Tiedonjulkistamisen valtionpalkinto), awarded for enriching public debate on the economy through a multi-voiced approach.

As a researcher, I enjoy collaborating with the academic community, policy makers, non-governmental organisations and grassroots groups. I also strive to combine research and activism to imagine and enact alternative, socially just and ecologically sustainable futures.