Scientific Coffee Human-Forest-Relationships presents:

1st June 2022

13-15 CET / 14-16 EEST

Input: Maija Halonen (University of Eastern Finland)
Socio-economic forest relations in Northern peripheries

Maija Halonen is human geographer with background in social policy. Currently she is working as postdoctoral researcher in the University of Eastern Finland and her research interests focus on the socio-economic development of Northern forest peripheries. In her project founded by the Kone Foundation, she approaches the development in the frames of global sustainability transition and through the case studies from the East and North Finland. 

In her presentation, she scrutinises discursive scenarios and frames which analysis is based on the documents and interviews with regional development actors. First, she describes the alternative scenarios for expected development paths and identifies which factors are related to forests. Then she presents the findings of the hegemonic and alternative discourses on forest-related development and constructs the frames which describe the regional forest relations. Based on the results, aspirations and good will describe different phases of the relations than the current reality and therefore forest relations seem to be transforming but very slowly in Northern peripheries. The most striking note call for understanding, appreciation and acknowledgement of forest relations which people in the middle of the specific forests have and have had for generations. 

Zoom-link:

https://uni-jena-de.zoom.us/j/61027392103

Meeting-ID: 610 2739 2103
Kenncode: 513063

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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 2021. 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.

More info on our past workshop: https://www.flumen.uni-jena.de/workshop-contested-society-nature-relations-forest-related-emotions-practices-conflicts-in-times-of-societal-change-27-28-may-2021-2/c

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

In April 2022, our doctoral candidate Philip Koch has spent several weeks in Jaén, Andalusia, in order to gain data for his research. He is investigating the (bioeconomic) olive sector of the province: It dominates Jaén aesthetically, economically and culturally. After a first, explorative stay in August of 2021, the focus of this research trip was on interviewing producers of olives.

Among many other aspects, the history, current state and possible future of olive cultivation were central to the investigation. Philip Koch spoke to the farmers about them being part of a bio-based economy and the significance of the olive sector’s domination of the region’s economy. People’s stances of olive cultivation depend on many factors, mostly due to differences in cultivation methods and exploitation size. Therefore, a preliminary result of the field trip is that there are, in fact, possibly conflictive relations among farmers – which will be further elaborated in the context of socio-ecological mentalities during this year.

Energy, work, and power are intertwined, both in the scientific definition of energy (the ability to do work), and in the political manifestation of human-fuel practices. Fossil fuel advocates rely upon the threat of job loss and energy dependency to mobilize affection for oil, coal or gas, but many renewable energy advocates also adopt this framework in calls for a just energy transition. Doing so helps keep modern energy cultures yoked to extractivism. Cara Daggett traced the historical emergence of the relationship between energy and work, focusing upon how work came to be understood and valued as a site of energy transformation. The energy-work ethos informed the emergent fossil fuel culture, wherein technical categories of work and waste intersect with racialized, and gendered, judgments of productivity and sloth. Thinking about energy historically suggests that shifting our fuel cultures will require a corresponding shift in (post)-industrial cultures of work and Western understandings of freedom.



Cara Daggett gave the lecture on 19 May 2022 online as part of the workshop “Mental infrastructures of modern fossil and bio-based societies”. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech where she researches feminist political ecology. See more under https://www.caranewdaggett.com/.

Recent publications of her:
“Energy and Domination: Contesting the Fossil Myth of Fuel Expansion,” (Environmental Politics) 
“Toward Feminist Energy Systems: Why Adding Women and Solar Panels Isn’t Enough,” with Shannon E. Bell and Christine Labuski (2020, Energy Research & Social Science),
“Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire” (2018, Millennium: Journal of International Studies)
Book: The Birth of Energy (Duke 2019)



From April 30 to May 14, 2022, Dr. Martin Fritz will be working as a visiting researcher at the School of Social Work at Lund University. During his stay he will work with Prof. Max Koch and other colleagues on various articles on the topic of sustainable welfare without growth and will contribute his expertise in statistical analyses of relational mentalities. Among other things, he will hold a workshop on how correspondence analyses can be used to evaluate social science survey data.

Lund University is one of the most important centers for research on socio-ecological transformation in Europe. Connections to German institutes and projects like our junior research group “flumen” have a long tradition and are important for the international networking of sustainability research.

(Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator)