Maija Faehnle Email & Phone Number

Just transformation group, Societal Change Unit

• Member of Syke's Built Environment Solutions group. Tasks include coordination and implementation of research, development and societal interaction activities, e.g.
• Leading VNTEAS project 'Local civic action increasing societal resilience' (2023-2025)
• Research on collaboration between municipalities and the civil society and the role of network organizations as part of 'Vapaa!-Fri!' project by Ministry of Justice (2022-2023)
• Research on digitally mediated decarbon communities and collective capacities in energy transition in 'DigiDecarbon' project (Academy of Finland 2022-2024)
• Communication management and research on civil society in the Academy of Finland strategic research project 'Collaborative remedies for fragmented societies — Facilitating the collaborative turn in environmental.
• Leading Academy of Finland project ‘Urban and regional planning with the young generation - collective and intergenerational learning encouraging sustainability transformations (URGENT) 2019-2023, syke.fi/projects/urgent

• Communication management in the Academy of Finland strategic research project 'Dwellers in agile cities' which creates measures for improving social urban development, with particular interest on experiments and.
• Collaboration with diverse actors such as housing companies, immigrants, elderly, remote workers, construction companies, housing estates and state and city officials
• Design, implementation and evaluation of the communication and collaboration process, e.g. communication strategy development, social media analytics, communicating research activities and results to diverse actors and.
• External at the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE

• Communication management in the Academy of Finland strategic research project 'Dwellers in agile cities' which creates measures for improving social urban development, with particular interest on experiments and.
• Collaboration with diverse actors such as housing companies, immigrants, elderly, remote workers, construction companies, housing estates and state and city officials
• Design, implementation and evaluation of the communication and collaboration process, e.g. communication strategy development, social media analytics, communicating research activities and results to diverse actors and.
• External at the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE

• Advocative action research on urban civic activism, collaborative/sharing economy and metropolitan development in 'Urban Civic Activism asResource for the Metropolis'​ project by Helsinki Metropolitan Region Urban.
• Collaboration with urban civic activists, cities, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Justice, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, Housing Finance and Development Centre of.

Finnish Environment Institute SYKE

• Coordinating a multi-level collaborative project on developing policy guidelines on use of green infrastructure in healthy and resource-efficient cities
• Responsible for the coordinating work package of an interdisciplinary research programme (ENSURE, http://www.helsinki.fi/henvi/research/ENSURE.htm)
• Applied research on managing scale challenges in urban policy-making and planning
• Developing SYKE’s R&D activities as a member of SYKE’s Land Use team, specialist of collaborative planning, cross-cultural communication and urban research-practice collaboration

• The eServices and eDemocracy Programme SADe / Information Services on Built Environment:
• project manager for the software requirements specification for a map based questionnaire and inventory tool Harava
• responsibilities in competitive bids, public procurements in the SADe programme
• steering the work of consultants and developer groups
• organizing the user-centered design process

• Part-time work
• editorial and secretary tasks
• competitive bids (press contract)
• marketing and advertising the journal in events and online

• External planner at the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE
• managing of one of the two sub-projects in preparing an International Future Vision for the The Finnish Journal of Urban Studies (Kone Foundation 2011)
• customer analysis, survey study, identifying promising actions in strengthening the role of the Journal as the top journal in this field in Finland
• implementing the chosen actions in the journal's editorial practices

• External researcher at Finnish Environment Institute SYKE (excl. November and December 2010 because of another project)
• design and implementation of an interdisciplinary project (Multicultural urban nature – integrating multicultural information in urban nature policy and planning’, HENVI 2008–2011)
• management e.g. recruiting, budgeting, team leading, evaluation
• applied research in Helsinki metropolitan region, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto
• collaboration with organizations and groups working for bridging and supporting diverse cultures
• guidance for public officials and planning experts on cultural sensitivity in collaborative planning

• The eServices and eDemocracy Programme SADe / Information Services on Built Environment: responsibilities in the pre-study for developing e-services and e-democracy:
• state-of-art analysis and exploration of promising examples and potentials for service innovations on public participation, open data and co-production of knowledge
• analysis of built environment permit procedures and potential savings by a new e-service
• participating in the creation of the vision and targets for information services on built environment in terms of public participation and built environment permits

• Responsible for the social scientific part of an interdisciplinary project (‘GreenDecision – Integrating ecological and social information in urban planning’, Academy of Finland 2006–2008, City of Helsinki Research.
• case studies with planning experts, municipal decision-makers, NGOs and residents
• project management incl. recruiting, organizing the interdisciplinary process with the natural scientific sub-project team, project marketing, dissemination
• conference assistant ('Forest recreation & tourism serving urbanised societies', COST E33 'FORREC' and 11th European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) – Joint Conference 28–31 May 2008, Hämeenlinna, Finland)

• Leading development of a cross-border local democracy and collaboration model ‘Kansalaiskanava – Citizen Channel’ (The Urban Programme for the Helsinki Metropolitan Area 2005–2007)
• coordinating sectoral, project-based and city-specific participation practices towards an integrative long-term model, including establishment of cross-border forums for bridging diverse local actors and administration.
• advertising, media collaboration, workshops, seminars, neighborhood activities
• facilitating development of an evaluation tool for customer feedback processes
• managing negotiations e.g. in the steering group and in the advisory board with city officials, local activists and participation professionals

• Managing the project ’KEKSU – Sustainable development in the context of municipal planning and participation system’ (Ministry of the Environment and Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities 2003-2005)
• coordinating the development work of three municipality groups, e.g. on managing urban sprawl and improving the effectiveness of citizen participation
• facilitating a comparison of area-based citizen participation models
• preparing a policy brief and a guidebook (‘Kestävä kehitys näkyväksi, osallistuminen toimivaksi – avauksia maankäyttöön)

Several part-time and full-time contracts at Departments of Forest Ecology and Biological and Environmental Sciences, including tasks in teachnig (Master students' course 'Urban Forestry') and in R&D projects including 'VAMMI – Follow-up indicators for the nationally valuable landscapes' and 'MYTVAS – Measures of the EU Agri-Environmental Protection Scheme.

‘Kansalaiskanava – Citizen Channel’: Summary study of the local SWOT analyses on the neighborhoods of Helsinki, made by neighborhood associations. Part-time work.

Public Works Department, Green Area Division: trainee May - June 2002, tasks on public involvement, e.g. public meetings, field trips, preparing planning material, documenting participants' input for the Board responsible for decision-making, organizing a Nordic conference of forest experts. After the training I worked at the division until June 2003 doing.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Regional Studies, Leadership And Management, Urban Planning

PhD thesis: Collaborative planning of urban green infrastructure – need, quality, evaluation, and design. Department of Geosciences and.

Urban Planning

Education record

Master Of Science (M.Sc.), Urban Forestry, Environmental Science

Public version of the Masters' thesis: Osallisuus kaupungin viheralueiden suunnittelun haasteena. Helsingin kaupungin rakennusviraston.