Research Interests
mining, metal production, legal anthropology, environmental anthropology, linguistic anthropology, environmental rights, corporate social responsibility
Research Areas
Finland, Ecuador, Peru
Profile
Jenni Viitala is a PhD candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and an associate at the Max Planck Institute. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Tampere, Finland, and has also studied at the University of Texas at El Paso, USA. Viitala’s research focuses on transnational metal production, resistance against mining projects, and the social and environmental responsibilities of mining and metal processing companies. In her MA thesis, Viitala studied political agency and resistance against a gold mining project in rural Cajamarca, Peru. She has also conducted research on a housing dispute in London, UK, and on state funding of indigenous leadership in Palomino, Colombia. Her current research project focuses on gold supply chains between Ecuador and Finland with an emphasis on the legal and moral responsibilities of European companies.