What is fascinating about your research area?
Participatory mapping methods are not new, but their use in digital form has developed considerably during the last decade. This offers exciting opportunities to implement place-based social scientific knowledge into both urban planning practice and empirical research on human-environment interactions. In my own research, I use digital participatory mapping methods to understand how urban environments support population health and well-being and how these benefits may differ based on who you are and where you live your life. This means understanding how people use the urban environment and how they experience the environments they are exposed to.
Which central message should your students remember?
I would like to challenge students with a GIS background to think critically about the origin of different forms of knowledge portrayed in a GIS environment. For students coming from fields using predominantly qualitative research methods, I wish to introduce a more human-centric view to GIS methods and spatial analysis.
Why did you decide to do research and teach at our Faculty?
Starting from November 2022, I will join the FWF research project CURB – The COVID-19-pandemic as a disruptive force for urbanization in the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In this project, we’ll use digital participatory mapping methods to understand the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic on urban life. My previous research has focused mostly on the Nordic countries and I’m excited to learn more about Austria as a planning and research context.
Which three publications characterise your work?
- Kajosaari, A., & Pasanen, T. P. (2021). Restorative benefits of everyday green exercise: A spatial approach. Landscape and Urban Planning, 206, 103978.
- Kajosaari, A., & Laatikainen, T. E. (2020). Adults’ leisure-time physical activity and the neighborhood built environment: a contextual perspective. International Journal of Health Geographics, 19(35).
- Kajosaari, A., Hasanzadeh, K., & Kyttä, M. (2019). Residential dissonance and walking for transport. Journal of Transport Geography, 74, 134–144.
Thank you & welcome to our Faculty!
- Anna Kajosaari worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University Department of Built Environment focusing on health-promoting urban environments and public participation GIS methods. Further research areas: Participatory planning, urban green space, health geography. Starting in November 2022, she will join the FWF research project CURB – The COVID-19-pandemic as a disruptive force for urbanization in the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
- Working Group: Spatial research and spatial planning / Alois Humer
- Lecture in winter term 2022/23: Introduction to Public Participation GIS Methods for Spatial Research and Spatial Planning
- Research gate profile
