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Professor Virpi Timonen

Professor Of (Sch Office - Social Work & Social Policy)
ARTS BUILDING
      
Profile Photo

Professor Virpi Timonen

Professor Of (Sch Office - Social Work & Social Policy)
ARTS BUILDING

 Virpi.Timonen@tcd.ie

 3531896 2950


Virpi Marianna Timonen is Professor of Social Research and Theory at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Professor of Social and Public Policy at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She completed her DPhil in Politics at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) in 2001. Her research spans social policies in ageing societies, sociology of intergenerational relationships, and research methods. Her investigations of intergenerational relations and grandparenting have provided new insights into how older adults contribute to the maintenance of family solidarity but also disrupt established roles. Professor Timonen has theorised how successful and active ageing are socially constructed through policymaking; her Model Ageing theory takes a critical stance on paradigms that dominate policy making for older adults. Her work on qualitative research methods has made Grounded Theory more accessible for researchers across disciplines and substantive fields. Her current research, funded by the European Research Council's Advanced Grant, generates new insights into material and environmental legacy-making among co-existing generations. Among recent publications, her 2025 book Social Policy: The Quest for Freedom, Equality and Justice, is published by Polity (Cambridge) and available open access. An open access book forthcoming in 2026 with Cambridge University Press, titled Small Worlds: Theorising Material and Environmental Legacies, puts forward her original concept of legacy-making that refers to future-oriented ideation and actions pertaining to the material and environmental effects that humans leave behind. For research interests and publications in chronological order, please see: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/virpi-marjaana-timonen/ For publications by citations, please see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CJzPXEgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao For information about the Legacies ERC project, please see https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/material-and-environmental-legacies-in-the-21st-century
  Ageing and the life-course   FAMILY   FAMILY STUDIES   Globalization   Intergenerational Solidarity   Migrant care workers   OLDER ADULTS   OLDER PEOPLE   OLDER PERSONS   Politics of the welfare state   Senior Citizen Service Programs   Social security policy   Social Services   Social Services Planning/Policy   Social Welfare Planning/Policy   Sociological Theory   Welfare Reform
Virpi Timonen, Malin Emilia Bäckman, Federica Previtali, Friedemann Martin Yi-Neumann, Young-Kyu Shin, Small Worlds: Theorising Material and Environmental Legacies, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2026, Notes: [In Press], Book, PUBLISHED
Technology for care and living: A critical perspective in, Handbook of social care policy, Edward Elgar, 2026, [Lolich, L. & Timonen, V.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
What Do We Leave Behind? Theorising Material and Environmental Legacies Through the Prism of The Gift in, editor(s)Ruth Morgan , Oxford Intersections: Environmental Change and Human Experience, Oxford University Press, 2026, [Virpi Timonen, Eunsil Shin, Malin Emilia Bäckman, Federica Previtali, Friedemann Martin Yi-Neumann], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Katharine Schulmann, Virpi Timonen, Catherine Conlon, Whose vulnerability? Inverting constructions of older people as a vulnerable group during the coronavirus pandemic in Ireland, SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 9, 2026, p100640 - 100640, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Timonen V, Foley G, Conlon C., Quality in qualitative research: a relational process, Qualitative Research Journal, 26, (3), 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Bäckman, Malin, Timonen, Virpi, Caring With/In Place: Future-Oriented Practices of Care in Local Initiatives in Gothenburg, Sweden, Area, 58, (3), 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Soares Ruokosuo, Eerik, Rostgaard, Tine, Perek-Bialas, Jolanta & Timonen, Virpi, Social Dimensions of Resilience in Older Adults: A Systematic Review, Health and Social Care in the Community, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Timonen, Virpi, Hamilton, Myra, Williams, Alison, Craig, Lyn, (De)gendering employment and family practices through grandparental childcare in Australia, Community, Work & Family, 2026, p1-25 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Adamson, Elizabeth, Hamilton, Myra, Timonen, Virpi, Williams, Alison, Craig, Lyn, Constructing the `good grandmother': uncovering intergenerational tensions between grandparent employment and childcare in Australian policy dialogue, Ageing and Society, 46, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Bäckman, Malin, Timonen, Virpi, Environmental relationalities: how urban dwellers in Gothenburg, Sweden, understand and relate to the enviroment, Environmental Sociology, 2026, p1-14 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
  

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Timonen, Virpi, On the Power and Vulnerability of Concepts. Politics and Rights Review, 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Conlon, C., with contributions from V. Timonen and G. Dowling, Supporting parents communicating with children aged 4-9 years about relationships, sexuality and growing up, Dublin, HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme, January, 2018, pi - 106, Report, PUBLISHED
Scharf, T., Timonen, V., Conlon, C. and Carney, G., Changing Generations - Findings from new research on intergenerational relations in Ireland, Dublin and Galway, Trinity College Dublin and National University of Ireland Galway, April, 2013, 20 pp., Report, PUBLISHED
Kamiya, Y., Murphy, C., Savva, G. and Timonen, V., Profile of Community-Dwelling Older People with a Disability and their Caregivers in Ireland, Dublin, The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing and the Department of Health and Children, May, 2012, Report, PUBLISHED
Alan Barrett, George Savva, Virpi Timonen and Rose Anne Kenny (eds), Fifty plus in Ireland 2011: First results from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, May, 2011, Report, PUBLISHED
Pierce, Maria and Timonen, Virpi, A Discussion Paper on Theories of Ageing and Approaches to Welfare in Ireland, North and South, Dublin & Belfast, CARDI, 2010, Report, SUBMITTED
Timonen, V., Doyle, M. and Prendergast , D. , No place like home: Domiciliary Care Services for Older People in Ireland, Liffey Press, Dublin., 2006, Book, PUBLISHED