Jani Erola appointed Academy Professor

The Research Council of Finland has appointed Professor Jani Erola, Director of the INVEST Research Flagship Centre at the University of Turku, as an Academy Professor. The six-year term will allow Erola to open entirely new perspectives on intergenerational research, potentially transforming the field of socioeconomic inheritance studies in Europe.

Since 2019, Jani Erola has led INVEST – the Flagship on Inequality, Interventions, and the Welfare State. His research topics have broadly addressed socioeconomic inheritance, social moblity, social class, education, income, inequality and sociological research methods, and attitudes toward the welfare state.

“This new funding enables me to open up completely new lines of research. I plan to explore how socio-technological megatrends are linked to social mobility and, in particular, to equality of opportunity,” Erola explains.

The research will focus on rising education levels and their gendered transformations, labour market polarization, and the changes brought by digitalization, especially artificial intelligence.

“Labour markets are becoming increasingly polarized. On one hand, we see more highly paid, demanding jobs, while on the other, lower-level jobs remain stagnant in terms of income. At the same time, digitalization—especially AI—may significantly reduce the value of certain types of work,” Erola says.

Through his research, Erola aims to find an answer to a pressing question: whose jobs will AI replace?

According to Erola, AI is part of a broader digitalization process that has so far received little attention in intergenerational research.

“We don’t yet see the full effects of AI, but it’s going to be a major factor,” he notes.

The revised Academy Professorship funding scheme provides funding to researchers who are at the international forefront of their fields and whose research strives for scientific renewal and breakthroughs. They are expected to advance the scientific expertise in their field in Finland.