Our values and philosophy
Our work is motivated by the dream to build a world where the material needs of all — and not just those with able bodies — can be met without harming the planet, or other people. Where the colour of one’s skin, religion, ethnicity, nationality, age, abilities, gender or sexuality does not hinder one’s access to rights and adequate care.
Our work is informed by an ethics of needs. For us, people’s needs are just not something passive to be acted upon. Care needs have agency: they make the world go round.
From this perspective, any human activity — any business, any policy — may be understood as serving someone’s care needs. Often, this happens at the cost of the needs of others.
Presently, the needs of the globally wealthy override the needs of others, including the needs of the planet and non-human life. This threatens the liveability of the planet, and also the survival of the human species.
This competition over whose needs matter is not a zero-sum game. Quite the opposite. It is a complex mess, where the human and non-human needs of care inteweave with one another.
It is up to us to make this weaving sustainable, liveable and just, for all. Driving the change is our purpose and mission.
Behind
The GoodMess
The GoodMess was founded in December 2024 by our CEO Dr Tiina Vaittinen, PhD. After 17 years in the academia, she felt the need to take her research skills and wide expertise skills closer to practice. This “something” ended up being a career transition out of the university and to the founding of The GoodMess.
Photo: Hanie Pälli
With two degrees in International Politics, a minor in Transnational Anthropology, a PhD in Peace and Conflict Research, and a thoroughly multi-disciplinary postdoctoral research career, Tiina is a truly versatile specialist.
Tiina is an experienced fundraiser, grant writer and project leader: Having built most of her academic career on highly competitive research funding, she’s got a tip or two in her sleeve on how to turn small resources into big results.
For instance, in The Pad Project, Tiina developed — together with her team and various stakeholders — a model of sustainable continence care can help reduce the environmental burden of single-use adult incontinence pads across societies.
The model was well received internationally, and it could be applied to other care technologies, too, helping us to fit our material care needs within the planetary boundaries.
Tiina is also an expert on questions of international labor migration and political economies of old age care. Her prize-winning PhD Thesis focused on these questions, and in 2024, she led a commissioned study for Work in Finland, mapping the ecosystem of labor recruitment in the Philippines for the purposes of the Finnish government.
International migration is also a matter of just sustainability transitions. Ageing societies are filling their labour shortages by means of international recruitment form poorer countries, and the present practices are far from just and sustainable.
Simultaneously, racism and negative attitudes against migration are rampant across societies. Climate change, conflicts and environmental disasters are forcing people to leave their homes.
These developments are interconnected with the global production chains and extraction of raw materials for both health tech and green technology. Tiina’s versatile experience and background allow us to see the big picture in today’s global challenges. The world may be a mess — but it is a mess that we can disentagle, for justice.
The GoodMess is not just a one-woman show, however. Tiina’s vast international networks extend from the academia to praxis to policymaking to industry to arts. Through wide range of partnerships, The GoodMess thus has the capacity to build extensive projects, nationally and internationally.
On her spare time and as part of some of our projects, Tiina still continues to do academic work. She holds a research affiliations with three academic institutions: The WHO Collaboration Centre on Health in All Policies and Social Determinants of Health at Tampere University, Finland, National Ageing Research Institute (NARI), Melbourne, Australia, and The Geller Institute for Ageing and Memory (GIAM), University of West London, UK.
See Tiina’s full Academic CV here.
You can also find out about her work at Google Scholar, Academia.edu, or LinkedIn – or simply by getting in touch!