Pauliina Krigsholm is a postdoctoral researcher at Department of Built Environment, Aalto University School of Engineering, Finland, and a senior researcher at Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI), National Land Survey of Finland. This month, we discussed her recent work, which among other things explores the importance of geo-spatial data and its provision by public authorities.

General Background:

Pauliina Krigsholm, D.Sc. (tech.), works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Real Estate Economics research group, Aalto University, and as a senior researcher at Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI), a governmental research institute that carries out research and development for spatial data infrastructures. Her research and publications focus on land policy and land governance institutions. Her work deals particularly with formulation and implementation of land market interventions at local level, and delivery of trusted and formally recognized information about the ownership, value, and use of land. In addition to her academic work, Pauliina has contributed to internal research and development projects at National Land Survey of Finland and to several policy assessment projects with a land policy focus initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office (Finland).

What are you passionate about?

I love problem-solving and making sense of complex phenomena. Perhaps that’s why I’ve gravitated toward research and academia in the first place. I’m of course passionate about my research topics – we are in the middle of times that call for effective and socially just policy and governance solutions, and through my research, I hope to create knowledge that increases our understanding how to achieve that. In recent years, I’ve started to feel increasingly passionate about disseminating and communicating research to practitioners in a clear and impactful way. Working in a research project that puts high emphasis on societal impact (Smartland.fi) has thought me that i) actors at different governance levels are actively looking for new research knowledge that could help them in designing effective and legitimate (land) policies and ii) there are ways to enhance the dissemination of knowledge.

What are you working on these days?

At Aalto, we are in the final year of the abovementioned, multi-year research project focusing on sustainable land use policies at local level. In this project, I’ve had the opportunity to broadly learn about the land policy practices of Finnish municipalities and the role of municipal officials in land policy formulation and implementation. At this point we are wrapping things up and try to take care of the project administrative tasks such as reporting, but also finalize some research papers that we’ve started during the project. For example, I’m studying the legitimacy perceptions of the land policy officials, work presented also at the PLPR annual conference in Cardiff.

At FGI, I’m working with my colleagues on the topic of value-creation in the land administration domain. Despite the common rhetoric of the increasing value of geospatial data, many important questions remain unexamined, such as how the value is created and for whom geospatial data types are valuable. We strive to conceptualize the value creation mechanisms of cadastral data (land and real property information stored in registers of cadastral systems) and to further explore what kind of data the register authority, on the one hand, and the users of cadastral data, on the other, envision for the future.

What brings you to PLPR?

Much of my research relates to property rights, planning, and law in some way, making PLPR a natural academic circle for me. Our research group at Aalto has strong connections to PLPR and particularly those working with land policy topics are encouraged to participate in the annual conferences. My personal count is now three attended conferences and I’m looking forward to increasing that in the future. I find the international community of PLPR provides a valuable reflective surface for understanding the similarities and differences in national institutions.

Anecdote: things we don’t know about you?

I grew up close to the Arctic Circle in the city of Rovaniemi and as a child, my aspiration was to become a professional cross-country skier. At some point I realized that was not in the books for me and decided to focus on my academics instead. I still have maintained my love for skiing and other outdoor activities. I also enjoy reading, cooking, and hunting out pieces of second-hand designer furniture.