Senior Researcher
+358 40 516 9189
anu.gretschel@youthresearch.fi
I work as a senior researcher in the Finnish Youth Research Society. My specialized interest is in the relationship between society, municipalities, and young people. This entails research projects related to youth participation, their impact creating possibilities, democracy, equality, evaluation of youth work as well as developing public services through negotiations between young people, professionals, and decision-makers.
I’m currently working on three projects. ‘Young Local Citizens and the State of Democracy’: Towards Equality and Real Impact’ is funded by the Regional State Administrative Agency, the Foundation for Municipal Development, and the Ministry of Justice. This project began in spring 2025 and will continue until January 2028. I am also writing an article about the accessibility of open youth work evenings from a Freedom of Choice perspective. This writing project has been made possible as a part of the Centre of Expertise for Regional Knowledge Production on Youth Work, which is led by our organisation and funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Responsibility for writing and updating the Youth Wiki chapters on Finland has given continuity to my working processes for several years now. Youth Wiki is Europe’s online encyclopaedia of national youth policies rooted in the EU Youth Strategy. The database includes 34 European countries, each with ten different thematic chapters (more information about the updating process of Youth Wiki). Youth Wiki is funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme and by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. An important aspect of this work is being part of the YouthWiki correspondents’ network.
Recent publications in English
Gretschel, A. & Kautto, T. & Lehikoinen, J. & Lehtonen, M. & Särkiluoto, V. & Tarvainen, K. (2023) Evaluation and monitoring of the activities of youth organisations in the Nordics. What could learned among the Nordic countries? Nordic Council of Ministers. TemaNord 2023:531. The publication is available also in Finnish and Swedish.
Gretschel, Anu & Korhonen, Antti (2019) What the European co-operation teach us about the nature of tools used in evaluation of (open) international youth work. International Journal of Open Youth Work, Issue 3, 83-92.
Cooper, Sue & Gretschel, Anu (2018) Evaluating youth work in its contexts. Teoksessa Pam Alldred, Fin Cullen, Kathy Edwards and Dana Fusco (toim.) SAGE Handbook of Youth Work Practice. Lontoo: Sage, 608–622.
Publications in English
Gretschel, A. & Kautto, T. & Lehikoinen, J. & Lehtonen, M. & Särkiluoto, V. & Tarvainen, K. (2023) Evaluation and monitoring of the activities of youth organisations in the Nordics. What could learned among the Nordic countries? Nordic Council of Ministers. TemaNord 2023:531. The publication is available also in Finnish and Swedish.
Gretschel, Anu & Korhonen, Antti (2019) What the European co-operation teach us about the nature of tools used in evaluation of (open) international youth work. International Journal of Open Youth Work, Issue 3, 83-92.
Cooper, Sue & Gretschel, Anu (2018a) Evaluating youth work in its contexts. Teoksessa Pam Alldred, Fin Cullen, Kathy Edwards and Dana Fusco (toim.) SAGE Handbook of Youth Work Practice. Lontoo: Sage, 608–622.
Juha Nieminen & Anu Gretschel (2018b) The “Social” in Youth Work: Snapshots of Finnish Youth Work Policy and History. Teoksessa Howard Williamson, Tanya Basarab & Filip Cousseé (eds.) The History of Youth Work in Europe. Youth Work and Social Work. Connections, Disconnections and Reconnections – the Social Dimension of Youth Work, in History and Today. Volume 6. Youth Knowledge #23. . Council of Europe and European Commission, 95-107. https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/youth-partnership/the-history-of-youth-work-volume-6
Gretschel, Anu (2017a) From Groups to a Network – Using the Speech Act Theory in the Development of CSYP Measures in Local Level in Finland. Teoksessa Magda Nico & Marti Taru & Dunja Potočnik & Andrei Salikau (eds.) Needles in haystacks. Finding a way forward for cross-sectoral youth policy. Partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the Field of Youth. Bruessel: Council of Europe Publishing, 119–127. https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/youth-partnership/needles-in-haystacks
Anu Gretschel (Ed.) & Tina Cupar & Merle Linno & Tomi Kiilakoski & Noora Hästbacka & Antti Korhonen (2017) Studying the impact of international youth work – Towards developing an evaluation tool for youth centres. Helsinki: Finnish Youth Centres Association. Suomen nuorisokeskusyhdistyksen julkaisuja, 1/2017. Finnish Youth Research Society/Finnish Youth Research Network, Internet Publications 113.
Older ones
Kiilakoski, Tomi & Gretschel, Anu (2014) Challenging Structured Participation Opportunities. In Perspectives on Youth: European Youth Partnership Series under the topic “2020 – what do YOU see.” Partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth. http://pjp-eu.coe.int/documents/1017981/7110731/Kiilakoski-Gretschel.pdf/32f2bbd6-5eef-480f-9ba8-d5e27d2efb57
Gretschel, Anu & Kiilakoski, Tomi & Laine, Sofia & Levamo, Tiina-Maria & Mäntylä, Niina & Raisio, Harri (2013) Report on New Ways of Youth Participation, Spesifically in Local and Regional Levels. In co-operation with The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and Partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth or Finnish Youth Research Network. Helsinki: Nuorisotutkimusverkosto/-seura. http://nuorisotutkimus.fi/julkaisuja/youthparticipation_goodpractices.pdf (Available also in Russian).
Feldmann-Wojtachnia, Eva & Gretschel, Anu & Helmisaari, Vappu & Kiilakoski, Tomi & Matthies, Aila-Leena & Meinhold-Henschel, Sigrid & Roth, Roland & Tasanko, Pia (2010) Youth participation in Finland and Germany. Status analysis and data based recommendations. Finnish Youth Research Network, Bertelsmann Stiftung und Forschungsgruppe Jugend & Europa am CAP, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. http://nuorisotutkimus.fi/julkaisut/verkkojulkaisut (Available also in Russian)
Laine, Sofia & Gretschel, Anu (2009) Whose arena the EU youth policy is? Young participants’ involvement and influence in EU youth policy from their own points of view: Case of EU Presidency Youth Event in Hyvinkää, Finland. Young 17 (2), 191–215. Republished in Lynne Chisholm & Siyka Kovacheva & Maurizio Merico (eds.): European Youth Studies – Integrating research, policy and practice. Triangles Series, M.A. EYS Consortium, Innsbruck, 179-193. http://www.youthstudies.eu/files/maeys_reader_2012.pdf Republished in (2016) Tommi Hoikkala & Meri Karjalainen (eds.) Finnish Youth Research Anthology 1999-2014.