Biography
Sofia Laine is a Research Professor at the Finnish Youth Research Society, Finland. She has a PhD in Development Studies and has actively worked and published on issues related to (more) global youth research, youth engagement and more recently on the concept of planetary youth research. She is also a Dance Movement Therapist (DMT), a resource for developing artistic and creative embodied techniques for conducting youth research. She is the author and editor of several academic books and anthologies.
Her current project – Planetary Youth Research – argues that youth research should be driven towards a “planetary approach”: planetary not only in terms of achieving a global scale but mainly in terms of prioritizing the relation between humans and more-than-human nature located on the planet. This creative approach, called “planetary youth research”, explicitly implies an ethical purpose of overcoming the traditional and historical exploitative relationships between human beings, and between human beings and other beings and things. It demands from the field of youth studies an engaged and applied ethical framework, that can provide solutions to address the complex challenges of sustainable development and the well-being of all living beings