The Critical ChangeLab at the University of Oulu is implemented by the INTERACT Research Group. The roots of the group are in Human-Computer Interaction, European Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Participatory Design, and Activity Theory research communities. The research group focuses on understanding and supporting participatory design, user-centered design, value co-creation, user driven innovation and human interaction in IT (information technology-based services in divergent everyday life contexts.

Team

Marianne Kinnula

Marianne Kinnula is an Associate Professor in Human-centred design and digitalisation, and the research unit vice-leader of INTERACT research unit in University of Oulu, Finland. Her research is in the fields of information systems and human-computer interaction with inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. Social sustainability of technology in terms of social inclusion, empowerment, and ethical stance in technology development and use at different levels, individual, organizational and society level, are in the heart of her research. 

Eva Durall Gazulla

​Eva Durall Gazulla is Academy postdoctoral researcher at the INTERACT research unit at University of Oulu, Finland. Her expertise areas include media and technology, design and learning using critical approaches as well as participatory design and futures techniques. Eva’s current research focuses on supporting democratic values in technology through critical and creative approaches. Since September 2023, she leads the Critical DataLit project, funded by the Finnish Research Council.  evadurall.com | Mastodon

​Heidi Hartikainen 

​​​Heidi Hartikainen is a postdoctoral researcher in Child-Computer Interaction at INTERACT research group in University of Oulu in Finland, and the coordinator for the Critical Change Lab project. She is interested in the themes of activism and empowerment through technology, especially concerning youth safety and security online. In her work she draws from critical and participatory methods when engaging youth to critically examine emerging technologies and envision our technological futures.   

​Anu Kajamaa

​Anu Kajamaa is a Professor of Education and leader of the Continuous learning research group at the Faculty of Education and Psychology. Her research focuses on continuous and collective learning, distributed creativity, collaboration, learning processes, organizational practices, management, and change and development via interprofessional working and formative interventions. Current research contexts are primary schools, teacher education, prisons, libraries, health care and social care, makerspaces, and entrepreneurship hubs/fab labs and other hybrid organizations.

​​Tuija Cornér

​​Tuija Cornér is a PhD researcher at the University of Helsinki. In the EU-funded Critical ChangeLab project, she is part of a research team at the University of Oulu. Her doctoral research focuses on continuous learning and collaborative learning processes. Her research draws from applications of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), such as the Change Laboratory method, expansive learning and transformative agency. 

​Yusra Niaz 

​​​Yusra Niaz is a Doctoral Researcher at the INTERACT research unit at University of Oulu, Finland. She has an educational background in English Linguistics and Vocational Teacher education. Her doctoral research focuses on the relations young people make when they participate as design protagonists to design future technologies within this more than human centered design world. Other research interests include social semiotic multimodal analysis, participatory design, critical approaches to learning and futures techniques.

​Erja Taskinen 

​​​​Erja Taskinen is a research assistant at the INTERACT research unit at University of Oulu, Finland. She has an educational background in visual design and started her journey at the University of Oulu as a trainee in the INTERACT research unit, where she designed games that support critical data literacy. She is actively participating in planning and ideating for Oulu2026 culture capital year as an artist and indigenous Skolt Sámi community member.
erjataskinen.com | Linkedin | Instagram