people

Vesa-Matti Lahti

Senior Lead, Foresight and Strategy

Who?

Vesa-Matti Lahti works in Sitra’s foresight and insight team. He is especially interested in updating the ideal of Bildung. His other interests are the future, writing, travelling by land, Siberia and the social dimensions of climate change.

What?

Vesa-Matti has a doctoral degree in Social Sciences and his dissertation was in the field of environmental sociology. He has previously worked at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation; at the Academy of Finland; as a journalist on the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat; and as author or editor of several non-fiction books. Vesa-Matti was one of the authors of Maailman tila ja Suomi (State of the World and Finland), a book that received the Tieto-Finlandia prize in 2000. Kaikki jakoon! Kohti uutta yhteisöllistä taloutta (A fair share – Towards a new collaborative economy), a book he co-wrote with Jenni Selosmaa, was published in 2013. His latest non-fiction book Siperia kutsuu! (Siberia calling!) was published in 2017.

Vesa-Matti is happy to discuss any subject, so don’t hesitate to contact him!

What else?

Vesa-Matti’s hobbies include culture, studying the history of the 1920s, riding, badminton, Scandinavian stud poker (sökö) and enjoying a semiactive social life. His two children and other good people make him happy, along with good plays, films and books.

Vesa-Matti believes that society needs ecological reconstruction, that is, changes in practical actions, structures and ideals. He believes that – unfortunately – we will not be able to escape the consequences of climate change in the next few decades. Therefore we should already be looking for ways to mitigate those consequences at all levels.