Projects

Stability and Change in Language Contact: The Case of Southern Ndebele (South Africa)

Linguistic Variation as an Indicator of Historical Relations and Language Contact: A Comparative grammar of four Mara Bantu languages (Tanzania)

Niti's research interests lie in the intersection between design methods, knowledge systems particularly local, traditional and indigenous knowledges, and participatory social design-driven transformation. She is currently exploring the relationship between post-colonial indigenous research paradigms (Chilisa 2019) and integrated product development strategies for holistic knowledge production that implements cognitive justice (Visvanathan 1997; 2021) for research at the Cultural Interface (Nakata 1997, 2007; Durie 2005). Over 30 years of professional creative practice in design and innovation. This includes 15 years of leading interdisciplinary teams for fieldwork using design anthropology methodologies (rapid ethnography, indepth interviews, day in the life, observations and shadowing in markets, farms, villages, borderlands and more). Fieldwork personally completed in South Africa, The Philippines, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and with local assistance in Benin and Malawi. Networks span the African continent. Public recognition of original knowledge production includes Invitation to mainstage of TED Global 2017 in Arusha Tanzania TEDTalk video https://www.ted.com/talks/niti_bhan_the_hidden_opportunities_of_the_informal_economy

(1) South Korea’s official development assistance in East Africa South Korea’s role in its recent development partnership with a focus on the Global Saema?l Undong (New Village Movement, SMU) programme. South Korea's official donor rhetoric points towards more symmetric aid relationships: emphasis on national ownership, request-based approach, notions of self-reliance and non-hierarchical relationships. Tanzania’s experience with the SMU programme has been selected for an in-depth case study. (2) International aid and institutional development in North Korea The interaction between international aid actors, the DPRK government and beneficiaries has resulted in the emergence of – what institutional theorists call – a ‘new field’. Using qualitative research methods, this research project identifies, categorizes and discusses a set of endogenously grown institutions in the DPRK that have emerged as part of the ‘new field’.

After my retirement I'm on professorial contract continuing to conduct research and supervise PhD students in Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. My own research areas include histories of global development, Finnish development cooperation and Tanzanian long-term development history. I supervise students whose topics are in some way related to any of these.

Projects

Educated Girls and Women in Tanzania - Socio-cultural Interpretations of the Meaning of Education

I am doing PhD research on corporate responsibility in African states with a case study focused on a large investment by multinational oil and gas companies in Tanzania. I am a political scientist (MSocSc World Politics, MSc African Politics) and now working within the field of management and politics. Previously, I have worked as an advisor within development cooperation, and have rich experience of development policy, especially in relation to global economics and finance.

BSc Sociology and Media Studies, undertaking her master's degree in Journalism. Research topic: Journalism Education in Tanzania.

I am an anthropologist with a long and multifaceted experience in researching Africa and in acting as the PI for research projects on Africa. Thematically I have examined various societal changes that take place in the coming together of global and local regimes of economic and socio-cultural value. My specific research topics include the following: women traders and socio-economic empowerment in Tanzania; youth cultures' and culture industries' social and economic significance in South Africa; music industry structures, practices and value chains in South Africa and Europe; clothing and fashion industry-related entrepreneurships in South Africa and Tanzania; emerging black middle classes. I am fluent in KiSwahili language.

Projects

Youth music and the construction of social subjectivities and communities in post-apartheid South Africa

Current research on internationalization of higher education through North-South collaboration. Lead and participated in various collaboration projects with Universities from Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa and Eritrea.

Saila-Maria Saaristo is a doctoral researcher and lecturer in Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, and a member of Urbaria (Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies). Her current research project focuses on studying inequalities and discriminations, which are approached through the case of inequalities in access to housing, with a particular focus on homelessness and forced evictions. The study investigates especially gendered, classed and racialised housing exclusions. In addition to the academic career, Saaristo has worked extensively as a consultor, manager and coordinator of different kinds of international cooperation projects financed by the European Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, in the areas of urban development and housing, civil society, good governance and democracy, human rights, and gender. She has worked and lived in many countries, including Cape Verde, Tanzania, Mozambique, Brazil, Bolivia and Portugal.

Projects

Transformative Actions? Occupations and Evictions in Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal