Antibiotics have made it possible for people to live longer, healthier lives. Antimicrobial resistance, however, is an increasing problem, especially in low-resource settings. This project will employ a range of methods from microbiology, clinical medicine and sociology to produce new knowledge about how AMR genes spread especially in poor West African regions, in areas where local capacity to address AMR is lagging behind, and identify ways to curb the spread of AMR. This knowledge can be utilized in national and international health policy and medical research.

Team

Isidore Bonkoungou, Victorien Dougnon, Kaisa Haukka, Bourema Kouriba, Salla Sariola, Marko Virta

The research objective is to provide quantitative data on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in Indonesian environments, especially in river environments.

Team

This project, funded by the Academy of Finland (2013–2016), provided theoretically innovative and empirically new and valuable knowledge of the complex dynamics between governance and resistance in the context of the dominant, neoliberal development paradigm. It studied social and political struggles in three countries in South Asia – Nepal, Bangladesh and India – by examining social movements that fight against forced displacement and slum demolitions – all caused by development projects. The project engaged critically in the debate on neoliberal development by analyzing problems related to it, charting possibilities for addressing hem, and offering alternative visions for socially, culturally and politically more sustainable models of development.

Team

Antibiotic resistance (AR) is a major health threat for humans. In Europe 25 000 patients die yearly from infections caused by antimicrobial resistant bacteria. There is increasing concern that the food production chain may play a significant role as a reservoir and disseminator of AR since over 65% of the antibiotic use takes place in animal production. An important part of the dissemination of antibiotics and the evolution of AR bacterial organisms depends on either intestines of animals receiving antibiotic treatment or water environments.

Team

Marko Virta, Windi Muziasari, Vanny Narita, Anis Mahsunah.

We will make use of Finnish research expertise to improve the laboratory infrastructure, management practices, and education of the local personnel, first in Burkina Faso and then elsewhere in Africa.

Team

Christina Lyra, Leena Räsänen, Edina Rudner, Isidore Bonkoungou

research on user-designer interaction has of yet poorly elucidated how meta-communication (communication about communication) is an important means in projects of “massive change”. Meta-communication or multi-actor ‘talk about how to talk’ is key in negotiating shared meanings so that the process for change initiated at a political or organizational high level can proceed also at the micro level despite experiences of tension and perceptions of contradictions and different time frames across this and other levels. This empirical focus is on a comparative analysis of projects in the Republic of South Africa, all of which had to do with on bringing about massive changes for the better in comparison to status quo. On the basis of an analysis of participant observation and analysis and interpretation of the written materials and notes made and collected, the goal is to describe and interpret how meta-communication helps to deal and to handle in constructive and generative ways tensions, contradictions and critical voices both outside and inside a project, which tensions otherwise might be destructive or degenerative. The goal includes to generalize beyond the particular materials how meta-communicative talk is a discursive resource for participants, as goes for facilitator participants in consulting or researcher roles, in particular.

Team

Antti Ainamo, Aalto University Ilari Lindy, University of Turku Associated: Marie-Laure Djelic, ESSEC, Paris, France