“Scientific Coffee Human-Forest-Relationships”

17. November 2021
13-15 CET / 14-16 EEST

Lukas Fehr,Eberhard Karls University Tübingen:
“Narratives and interpretations of forests in the forestry and timber sector between recreation and wood production”

 Forests offer a variety of ways in which they can be used. Timber grows in them, they can be used for recreational activities, provide protection from avalanches, are home to many creatures or are used as CO2 sinks. These uses are difficult to separate from each other in the forest and overlap in many cases. In this session of „Scientific Coffee“ I will explore the different experiences in the forest of people working in the forestry and timber sector. Connected to these experiences are disputes between different interest groups such as visitors and forest workers. This involves narratives of what a forest is, how it should be used and by whom. This includes valuations of the demands of the population on the various forest functions of use, recreation and protection.

Participation via zoom

https://uni-jena-de.zoom.us/j/66018542066
Meeting ID: 660 1854 2066 Passcode: 816180

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The “Scientific Coffee” sessions continue our cooperation and exchange on the relations between society, humans and forests that we started with the workshop “Contested Society-Nature-Relations. Forest related Emotions, Practices & Conflicts in Times of Societal Change” in May this year. They give room for open and relaxed discussions on current research subjects related to human and society relations to forests. The Scientific Coffee sessions take place as often as we find the time to organise another session – but at least one session per semester is planned.

If you are interested in contributing to the next “Scientific Coffee HFR”, please contact jana.holz@uni-jena.de with info on your subject (title and short abstract) and preferred Wednesday (13-15 CET / 14-16 EEST).

Lilian Pungas participates with Bianka Plüschke-Altof at the “Second Baltic Conference on the Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences” on 1-2 November, 2021 .

In the panel “4A Just post-Soviet environments” on 1st of November 2021 at 4.15pm, they present their joint book chapter “Same, same but different? The ‘right’ kind of gardening and the negotiation of neoliberal urban governance in the post-socialist city”. This is a chapter in the book “Contested urban green space and the question of socio-spatial justice in the city” (Eds. Helen Sooväli-Sepping and Bianka Plüschke-Altof) that will be published early 2022 by Springer.

Program and registration here

Jana Holz meets Jaana Laine (Helsinki University), Tuulikki Halla and Reetta Karhunkorva (both University of Eastern Finland) for a three-day interdisciplinary workshop at the Finnish Forest Museum Lusto in Punkaharju.

As part of a research cooperation started in 2019 and following up on a joint online workshop on “Contested Society-Nature-Relations. Forest related Emotions, Practices & Conflicts in Times of Societal Change” in May 2021 as well as a series of Scientific Coffee Sessions started in September 2021, the workshop at deepened the discussion and exchange between ‘flumen’ and the research project ‘Human-Forest Relationship in Societal Change’.

With funding from the Finnish Institute in Germany as well as institutional support by Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, a hybrid workshop format could be realized successfully.

Nine researchers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, University Helsinki, University of Eastern Finland and Jyväskylä University came together and discussed ongoing research and conceptual framework development on human-forest-relationship as well as social relationships with nature. The concepts are currently applied to qualitative case studies from various contexts such as the forest-based bioeconomy and sustainable business in Finland, forest professionals and forest owners in Finland, German bioenergy villages or the Spanish olive sector.

Ideas for further cooperation in the future go as far as a joint book project or an exhibition at Lusto Museum on society-nature relations and how to research those at the case of forests. Let’s see, what we are going to come up with next… The intensity of the exchange was accompanied by the lovely landscape of the Punkaharju region and lake Saimaa in Eastern Finland.