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Artikkelissa kysytään, miten viimesijainen turva tukee sen varassa elävien hyvinvointia. Hyvinvointi ymmärretään relationaalisena sekä loving, having, being ja doing -ulottuvuuksista koostuvana ko­konaisuutena. Aineistona on käytetty ryhmähaastatteluja, joihin osallistui pitkäaikaisesti toimeen­tulotukea saaneita ja paljon sosiaalipalveluita käyttäneitä henkilöitä. Ryhmähaastattelut toteutettiin eri puolilla Suomea. Tuloksena esitetään, että viimesijaisessa turvassa ymmärrys hyvinvoinnista pai­nottuu liiaksi materiaaliseen hyvinvointiin. Yhden ulottuvuuden voimakas painoarvo vie huomion muilta hyvinvoinnin ulottuvuuksilta ja siten se saattaa heikentää muita mahdollisia tapoja tukea hyvinvointia. Muiden ulottuvuuksien nykyistä parempi huomiointi ja relationaalinen hyvinvointikä­sitys viimesijaisessa turvassa voisi osaltaan tukea muutosta kohti kestävää hyvinvointia.

Knowledge production concerning local environmental problems could be more transparent. Polluted soil as an environmental problem is examined in cases from three different decades in Helsinki. The research material comprises official and public documents, such as planning documents, records of the City Board and interviews with the city's authorities. The themes of the interviews were decided after a preliminary analysis of the document data. The analysis focuses on changes in problem classification, knowledge production, risk management and the dynamics between these. Risk management and knowledge production are argued to have been conducted in a way that masks environmental problems, their historical roots and their causes from citizens and decision-makers. Furthermore, the risk management strategy transformed ecological risks into financial risks.

The article focuses on the administrative processes and factors that have been constructing polluted soil as an environmental problem on the local level. The main questions are how polluted soil was constructed as an environmental problem and by whom? The research material consists of documents from the municipality's administration, and the method of analysis is qualitative content analysis. Finally, it is argued that the definition of the problem radically changed in 20 years. However, there was a noticeable institutional delay between the national- and local-level decision-making and some randomness seemed to be involved in the process of understanding and defining the environmental problem.