Elina Mäkinen

I am a Professor of Science, Technology, and Organization. My research connects organization studies and science and technology studies, focusing on knowledge production, work, and careers especially in academia. I have conducted research on the organization and management of interdisciplinary research, collaboration at disciplinary and professional boundaries, and academic entrepreneurship. My research has appeared in journals such as Management Learning, Research Policy, and Science, Technology, & Human Values.

I am currently leading the Competing Imaginaries of Ethical Science (IMAGES) project, which explores ethics and the rise of non-animal methodologies in life sciences. The project is funded by the Emil Aaltonen foundation.

I have a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Sociology from the University of Helsinki and a Ph.D. in Organization Studies from Stanford University. I am a docent at the Faculty of Social Sciences at University of Helsinki.

I currently teach Organization Theory and Analysis and Expertise in Organizations, as well as supervise master’s and doctoral students.

Member on the editorial advisory board of Journal of Organizational Change Management

Member of the Finnish SCANCOR Board

Member of the Ethical Review Committee for Non-Medical Research in Human Sciences at Tampere University

Interdisciplinary science; Team science; Work and careers; Knowledge making practices; Academic entrepreneurship; Commercialization of scientific findings; Research ethics and ethical regulation

2023–ongoing: Professor (Science, Technology, and Organization), Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business.

2018–2023: Associate Professor (tenure track), Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business and New Social Research.

2017–2018: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Tampere, Institute for Advanced Social Research.

2015–2017: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Tampere, Faculty of Management.

2010–2015: PhD Student Researcher, Stanford University, Graduate School of Education, Stanford, CA.

Ruthanne Huising, Kasper T. Elmholdt, & Elina I. Mäkinen (2025): Introduction: The Changing constitution and ecology of expertise. Research in the Sociology of Organizations 97: 1–21.

Elina I. Mäkinen (2025): Learning to see: How scientists develop professional vision and decomposition expertise. Research in the Sociology of Organizations 97: 45–68. 

Charles J. Gomez, Dahlia Liebermann, & Elina I. Mäkinen (2024): Hedgehogs, foxes, and global science: How ecological networks reveal research recognition of countries and universities. Research Policy 53(7): 105040. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2024.105040

Elina I. Mäkinen, Eliza D. Evans, & Daniel A. McFarland (2024): Interdisciplinary research, tenure review, and guardians of the disciplinary order. The Journal of Higher Education 96(1): 54–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2024.2301912

Elina I. Mäkinen & Adi Sapir (2023): Making sense of science, university, and industry: Sensemaking narratives of Finnish and Israeli entrepreneurial scientists. Minerva: Review of Science, Learning and Policy 61: 175–198. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-022-09485-6

Elina I. Mäkinen & Terhi Esko (2022): Nascent academic entrepreneurs and identity work at the boundaries of professional domains. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation 24(3): 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/14657503211063896

Elina I. Mäkinen (2022): Power and knowledge negotiations in a collectivity of practice: From peripheralization to epistemological suspicion. Management Learning 53(3): 502–524. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505076211036970

Elina I. Mäkinen, Eliza D. Evans & Daniel A. McFarland (2020): The Patterning of collaborative behavior and knowledge culminations in interdisciplinary research centers. Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy 58(1): 71–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-019-09381-6

Elina I. Mäkinen (2019): The power of peer review on transdisciplinary discovery. Science, Technology, & Human Values 44(6): 1020–1047. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243918822741

Elina I. Mäkinen (2018): Tuning clinical recruitment around cultural taboos in a human microbiome study. Science as Culture 27(4): 464–487. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2018.1508429

Elina I. Mäkinen (2018): Action in the space between: From latent to active boundaries. Science, Technology, & Human Values 43(2): 349–374. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243917722842