Olga Gurova starting as special researcher at Laurea

Laurea University of Applied Sciences has launched a career path for researchers this year, and recruitment for ten researchers has started in that connection. Tasks are opening in all research programmes at Laurea, including a Sustainable and versatile social and health sector, the Service business, and circular economy, and Uniform security.

Doctor Olga Gurova has been named to the post of special researcher - the second step on the career path of a researcher. Gurova, who defended her doctoral dissertation at the Russian State University for Humanities, comes to Laurea from Aalborg University in Denmark, where she has served as an Associate  Professor in Consumption Studies in the Faculty of Humanities.

Olga Gurova's background is that of a sociologist, and for the past 15 years she has focused on consumption, markets, inequality, and sustainable development especially from the point of view of culture and fashion.  Before going to Aalborg University, Gurova worked in Finland as, among other things, an Academy Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki.

In 2015 she studied Finnish clothing designers and the challenges of sustainable fashion in their small-scale companies (read more about the study in the article “A Critical Approach to Sustainable Fashion: Practices of Clothing Designers in the Kallio Neighborhood of Helsinki”  or watch the film “Take it slow!”). In another study she interviewed Finnish decision-makers from various ministries, for example, on how they see and shape policy for the Finnish fashion industry (read about it in the article “In search of a moneymaking machine”). In Denmark one of her main research projects related to sustainability of wearable technology.

- Sustainable development has long been an important theme in my research, Gurova says.
- In addition to environmental points of view, it is always important in the examination of sustainable development to consider other aspects as well, such as social sustainability. At the same time, I always also emphasise that when considering the circular economy, the name of the concept itself includes the word “economy”. Therefore, economic sustainability is important.

Olga Gurova is very enthusiastic about her appointment and is looking forward to working at Laurea. In addition to the theme of sustainable development, she can identify several points of contact between her approach to research and that of Laurea.

- One key angle is the so-called ‘triple helix’ model – the idea that to create new innovations, we need to create collaboration among institutions of higher education and researchers, and between the public sector and enterprises. This point of view is close to my heart, and is also extensively implemented at Laurea, she says.