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New Media student Juulia Juutilainen has been awarded the Rajapinta Association Thesis Award. Rajapinta is a Finnish researcher community focusing on digital social sciences and awards theses studied in Finnish universities. The awards are given to theses that are social science motivated studies of technologies or are using technology to help to run with social science research.

Juutilainen’s thesis studies controversial forest relationships in Finland and studies the topic from academic and artistic points of views. Juutilainen explains her topic in her abstract as follows:

Forest relationship is a hot, controversial topic in Finland. The importance of forests is undeniable, yet multifaceted, including community, spiritual, personal and economic components. While most Finns identify themselves as forest- loving people and are eager to share their experiences of peace and empowerment in the forest, they are not so troubled with the rapid growth of the forest industry in Finland. How can this be explained?

The aim of my thesis is to study these controversial forest relationships and find out how and why they are constructed and how they manifest in different representations of forest. The thesis is composed of two parts, a written part and a production part.

Juutilainen’s thesis can be read in full via our .