Vuokko Niiranen, Professor of Social Management Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland and a member of NAOF’s Scientific Council, held her farewell lecture in Kuopio on 21 September. In her lecture, Niiranen discussed the benefits of cooperation across administrative boundaries, and the Auditor General Tytti Yli-Viikari was among the audience.
“Vuokko has served as an excellent link between public administration and research. She has encouraged researchers and students at the University of Eastern Finland to use the audit reports produced by the National Audit Office in their own research work,” Yli-Viikari says.
Niiranen has emphasised the role of the cross-disciplinary approach as a factor supporting change in public administration. In her farewell lecture, she highlighted the need to pull down silos in central government and to focus on a multidisciplinary approach in the drafting of policies. Niiranen also urged politicians, public officials and researchers to cooperate and engage in a dialogue.
Yli-Viikari and Anna-Liisa Pasanen, Director for Performance Audit at NAOF, contributed to the book published to honour the career and work of Vuokko Niiranen with an article on managing sustainable development across administrative boundaries.
Niiranen is specialised in the steering and management of social welfare and health services, and decision-making in the sector, as well as in the relationship between central and local government and changes in it. She is a member of NAOF’s Scientific Council and served as a member of NAOF’s Advisory Board between 2008 and 2015.