"More Similar than Different"
The Welfare of Roma Children and Youth and the Realization of their Rights in Finland
Abstract
Ethnologists and anthropologists alike are increasingly conducting applied research outside academia for various institutions and organizations, where there is a growing need for researchers able to collect, manage and evaluate qualitative data on human behaviour. The advantage of ethnographic fieldwork methods and analysis is thar they can provide in-depth knowledge on a specific research problem from a holistic perspective. But, with research being one of the basic tasks of "pure" science, concerns have been voiced over "academic freedom" in projects outside academia. On whose terms and for whom is the research conducted.
This article describes one particular research prcess and its findings. The first part of the article provides background on the project, which
is a study on the welfare and rights of Roma children in Finland conducted during a six-month period in 2008-2009. The project serves as an
example of research which ethnologists might conduct outside, or rather in cooperation, with the non-academic world. The second part of the article is a summary of the final research report originally published in Finnish. It describes the general findings of the research project. By explaining
the background of the project in more detail, I believe other researchers who are perhaps conducting similar kind of research "outside
academia" can benefit and learn from our experiences.
