Eeva Kesküla

I am an anthropologist specializing in the intersection of labor, identity, and global energy transitions. My research explores how large-scale economic shifts—from the rise of digital nomadism to the decline of heavy industry—reshape the lives of the working class.

Through long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the mining communities of Estonia and Kazakhstan, I have documented the complexities of the post-Soviet labor process, gender dynamics, and industrial health. My work seeks to understand not just the mechanics of work, but the political and social realities of those performing it.

Over the last four years, I have collaborated on interdisciplinary international projects focused on green transitions, specifically within Estonia’s Ida-Virumaa mining region. My current research compares the "lived experience" of postsocialist transitions with the current shift toward green energy, examining how local actors navigate and give meaning to these periods of monumental change.