Union Election Observation Mission in Bolivia. Teivainen participated in the EU's election observation missions as legal expert in Ecuador in 2002 and Nicaragua in 2001. In addition, he served as a field observer during the two rounds of the Peruvian elections in 2001. In South Africa, Teivainen was team leader of an evaluation project of the Democracy and Human Rights Fund of the Finnish Foreign Ministry in 1998. He has held several expert positions also in Nicaragua, Peru and Brazil. In addition, Teivainen has evaluated projects for the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. In the early 1990s Teivainen co-ordinated a project organized by the Student Union of the University of Helsinki in El Salvador. Awards American Sociological Association rewarded Teivainen's doctoral research with Terence K. Hopkins Award as the best doctoral dissertation about the world-system in 2000. In 2007, Teivainen was invited as a Presidential Panelist at the Association's annual meeting in New York. In 2007 Teivainen was granted a recognition award by the Academy of Finland. The award is granted to a researcher who has in a significant manner made his/her research known and increased interest in science and participated as a researcher in public debate. Teivainen was the first social scientist in many years to receive the award. In 2008, Teivainen was given the Pro Feminism award of the Finnish organization Left Women. In 2011, the University of Helsinki gave him the J.V. Snellman Public Information Award. In 2013, Teivainen received Ovet Award for the Best Initiative to Advance Understanding of Russia In Finland. This was due to his proposition of incorporating basic understanding of Cyrillic alphabet to the curriculum of Finnish schools. In 2015, in co-operation with Matti Ylönen, Teivainen received Amartya Sen Prize from the Yale University for the article: "Politics of Intra-Firm Trade: Corporate Price Planning and the Double Role of the Arm’s Length Principle". In 2017, he received Lauri Jäntti Foundation Honorary Award for the book 'Brasilia', co-authored with Maria Manner. Research interests and political activity Teivainen's research focuses on global political economy, human rights, transnational social movements, global democracy and the contradictions of capitalism. At the moment he works on democratic theory, social movements, the future of the world-system and truth commissions in Latin America. Teivainen is also leading a research project on property rights. The project is linked to the Centre of Excellence on Global