The Finnish Society for Environmental Social Science (YHYS) organizes annually a competition to award outstanding Master’s thesis. The prize has been named after the society’s long-term chair and Finland’s first environmental policy professor, Yrjö Haila. The aim of the competition is to find and reward distinguished thesis from the field of environmental social sciences, understood in broad terms. The selected high-quality thesis should address a multidisciplinary research audience and produce new environmental social scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the awarded thesis is expected to be societally important, be oriented towards providing solutions to problems, and develop good societal practices regarding environmental issues.
The awarded thesis is nominated by the board of the Society, based on the decision of an annually changing jury. This year, the members of the jury were Anni Turunen from Syke, Annika Lonkila from Syke and University of Jyväskylä, and Professor Nina Tynkkynen from Åbo Akademi.
This year, 18 theses were submitted to the contest. Seven contestants came from the University of Helsinki and six from the University of Eastern Finland. The University of Jyväskylä and Turku contributed both with two theses and Tampere university participated with one contestant. Half of the theses were written in Finnish and half in English.
The jury had high quality bunch of theses to pick the winner from. In particular, two theses stood out, and one of them was awarded the victory of the thesis competition and the other an honorary mention.
The winner of the Yrjö Haila Master’s thesis award 2024 is Johanna Luoma from the University of Jyväskylä, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Luoma’s thesis is titled: “Ympäristöeettinen tutkielma kuluttajan vastuun ehdoista”, which translates freely as “Environmental ethical thesis on the terms of consumer’s responsibility”. The thesis is a high-quality work that demonstrates mastery and application of extensive theoretical discussions. It engages a multidisciplinary research community and enhances understanding of current issues in the field of environmental social sciences. The thesis is socially significant, outlining a much broader perspective on individual responsibility for climate change than is typically understood in Finnish societal discourse. It has a strong policy orientation and tackles a major question with a refreshingly bold approach. The topic is examined broadly yet in a reader-friendly manner.
The honorary mention goes to Anni Piiroinen’s thesis: ”Making fields clean: glyphosate-based domestication on Finnish farms”. The thesis was done in the University of Helsinki, Master’s Programme in Environmental Change and Global Sustainability. The thesis explains the practices and reasons for the use of a controversial pesticide in an interesting and insightful manner, appealing to a multidisciplinary audience. It addresses a current and engaging topic with a rich analysis and an ambitious theoretical approach. The description and reflexivity of the research method are commendable. The author presents the results in a natural and accessible writing style.
The winning thesis can be found here: https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/95146
The thesis awarded with the honorary mention can be found here: https://helda.helsinki.fi/items/0fd7446b-fcb7-4476-bc66-2b6cf1a40316 (not available before article publication)
