Leading researcher
PhD
Docent in Environmental Policy and Technology Studies, University of Helsinki
Contact information
firstname.surname@syke.fi
Phone: +358-40014885
Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) /
Circular economy solutions
Postal address: Latonkartanonkaari 11
FI-00790 Helsinki, Finland
Dr Helena Valve is a social scientist with a long experience in environmental policy research. Her work draws from human geography, policy studies and science and technology studies (STS). The research topics vary from the evaluation of circular economy policies to analyses of biodiversity action and ecosystem restoration. She takes actively part in methodology development, generation of policy support and testing of new means of knowledge co-production.
Research interests
- Definition of liabilities in environmental governance
- Instrumentalization of environmental policy
- Economization of waste and side-flows
- Transition management and governance
Key focus areas
- Nutrient recycling, reorganisation of fertiliser markets
- Making of the new plastic economy
- Wastewater infrastructures
- Ecosystem restoration
A new project:
Politics of incomplete infrastructures: Wastewater treatment and sludge processing in a circular economy
Recent scientific publications
Valve, H., & Valkama, P. 2024. Nature-issues: Ecosystem restoration as a reorganiser of social–material relations. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486241281226
Valve, H., Lazarevic, D., Hyysalo, S., Lukkarinen, J., Marttila, T. 2023. The interrupting capacities of knowledge co-production experiments: A sociology of testing approach. Environmental Science & Policy 147: 255–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2023.06.019
Iho A., Valve H., Ekholm P., Uusitalo R., Lehtoranta J., Soinne H., Salminen J. 2023. Efficient protection of the Baltic Sea needs a revision of phosphorus metric. Ambio 2: 1389–1399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-023-01851-2
Andersen, M.S., Andersson, A., Brady, M., Graversgaard, M., Kilis, E., Pedersen, A.B., Hvarregaard Thorsøe, M., Valve, H. 2023. The Helsinki Convention’s agricultural nutrient governance: how domestic institutions matter, Journal of Baltic Studies, 54(3): 443–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/01629778.2022.2155202
Valve, H. & Salminen, J. 2022. ‘I don’t fertilise quite like that’: Mediating and distancing capacities of nutrient records at Finnish farms. Journal of Rural Studies 95: 58–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.07.026.
Valve, H., Lazarevic, D. & Pitzén S. 2022. The co-evolution of policy realities and environmental liabilities: Analysing the ontological work of policy documents. Geoforum 128: 68–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.12.005
Thorsøe, M.H., Andersen, M.S., Brady, M.V., Graversgaard, M., Kilis, E., Pedersen, A.B., Pitzén, S., & Valve, H. 2022. Promise and performance of agricultural nutrient management policy: Lessons from the Baltic Sea. Ambio, 51(1): 36–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01549-3
Humalisto, N., Valve, H. & Åkerman, M. 2021. Making the circular economy online: a hyperlink analysis of the articulation of nutrient recycling in Finland. Environmental Politics 30(5): 833–853. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2020.1817291
Valve, H., Lazarevic, D., & Humalisto, N. 2021. When the circular economy diverges: The co-evolution of biogas business models and material circuits in Finland. Ecological Economics 185, 107025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107025.