Maarit Laihonen

Maarit Laihonen is currently doing research on the ethical and political issues related to the history and future of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The aim of the study is not only to understand the diversity of values associated with nuclear technology, but also to establish general ethical principles for understanding the social role of technology and energy.

During her residency period, Laihonen will be working on the data and theoretical issues of her project that is funded by the Kone Foundation, with a particular focus on analysing and writing about the future perceptions of nuclear professionals and actors, and the ethical role of nuclear weapons in perceptions of security. Laihonen is working on the issues she examines both on the basis of empirical data and conceptually.

Maarit Laihonen is a researcher at the University of Eastern Finland. The topic of her PhD thesis was the politics associated with the decisions made in 2010 regarding nuclear power plants; the role of technology and economics in understanding social justice. She has also studied issues related to the forest industry and bioeconomy, tensions in academia, the ethics of anarchism and the organisation of protest camps. She has examined nuclear power from a variety of perspectives, from feminism to the philosophical foundations of the production of knowledge in artistic research. She is interested in the potential of different methods and data to address complex societal issues, and has used a variety of methods in her work. She has also taught philosophy of science to PhD students in several disciplines.