- Convenors:
-
Anna Niia Varfolomeeva
(University of Oulu)
Dorothée Cambou (University of Helsinki)
Tero Kivinen (University of Helsinki)
Berfin Nur Osso (University of Helsinki)
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- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract
This session explores the role of Indigenous and local participation in rethinking just energy transitions in the Finnish Arctic by centering the experiences of Indigenous residents, migrants, youth, non-human beings, and other marginalized actors often excluded from dominant narratives.
Description
This session centers on the role of Indigenous and local participation in rethinking the green transition in the Finnish Arctic, with a focus on its impact on marginalized actors located in regions often imagined as peripheral. It explores how citizen science can serve as a transformative practice for local engagement in the sphere of energy transition. It asks how energy transition projects can be reimagined to include the knowledge, values, and rights of Indigenous and Northern communities as equal participants in envisioning and shaping Arctic futures. The session centers on the experiences of Indigenous and rural residents, Arctic youth, migrant workers, non-human animals, and other marginalized actors whose voices are often excluded from dominant narratives around energy transition. It is planned as a follow-up event that will build on the results of the workshop in October 2025 as a part of Science for Sustainability conference in Helsinki. The session will advance a collaborative written output on local participation in just green transition in the Finnish Arctic. Presenters include members of ‘REBOUND (Reconceptualizing Boundaries Together Towards Resilient and Just Arctic Future(s))’, a consortium project led by the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and funded by the Finnish Strategic Research Council.
Accepted papers
Short Abstract
Across the Nordic Arctic, expanding “green” energy projects transform landscapes while revealing the limits of a just transition. For Sámi communities, participation remains tokenistic as their knowledge is sidelined, exposing deep inequities in Nordic wind power governance and decision-making.
Abstract
Across the Nordic Arctic, the rapid expansion of so called green energy projects is reshaping landscapes and livelihoods while testing the meaning of a just green transition. For Indigenous Sámi communities, whose cultural identity and reindeer herding practices depend on reciprocal relations with the land, wind power development introduces new forms of environmental pressure and governance asymmetry. This presentation examines Indigenous participation and knowledge in shaping wind energy transitions across the nordic countries. Drawing on socio legal studies and the examination of court cases, it explores how traditional ecological knowledge informs alternative visions of energy and territory. By highlighting Sámi perspectives on land use, the study reveals how existing planning processes often reproduce colonial patterns of exclusion even within sustainability frameworks. It argues that bridging divides in the Nordic Arctic requires more than procedural inclusion—it demands a rethinking of whose knowledge counts in defining the future of green energy.
Short Abstract
The paper explores the possibilities of the Saami indigenous peoples to participate in projects promoted under the green and just transition. Current legal frameworks fail to guarantee the participation of the Saami and thus also fail to recognize their economic-cultural ways of life.
Abstract
The Finnish Arctic is changing rapidly as climate change progresses. Simultaneously, it is subject to increased geopolitical and economic interest due to its natural resources needed for the sustainability transition. Against this context, the presentation critically explores the possibilities of the Saami indigenous peoples to participate in the transition. As shown by the recent decision of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concerning Finland, mining and Saami reindeer herding, current Finnish and international legal frameworks fail to guarantee the participation of the Saami in the projects that are promoted under the transition. In doing so, they fail to account for their interests as indigenous peoples. This failure to recognize the particularities of Saami economic-cultural ways of life questions the justice of the green transition and undermines citizen trust towards authorities in Northern Finland. It also highlights the center-periphery tension between the decision makers and the people in the north.
Short Abstract
The EU's green transition in Finnish Lapland requires a sizable migrant labor force. Using the “just access” framework, this research analyzes how current governance risks perpetuate exclusion, creating an unsustainable foundation. It offers a critical roadmap for equitable, inclusive strategies.
Abstract
The European Union’s (EU) green transition in regions like Finnish Lapland creates a significant labor demand in sectors such as forestry, mining, and renewable energy. This development relies heavily on an incoming workforce of migrants, who constitute a subaltern labor force often navigating highly precarious employment and complex regulations. This research employs the “just access” framework, which uniquely integrates Nancy Fraser's three dimensions of social justice (redistribution, recognition, and representation) into a three-level model of migrant “access” (territory, rights, and society). Drawing on EU migration law, critical border and migration studies, and social justice studies, this approach enables a structural analysis of the systemic injustices faced by this workforce. The article argues that while the green transition presents an opportunity to recognize the value of workers with foreign backgrounds, existing migration governance in the EU and Finland risks perpetuating exclusion through physical, legal, and social bordering. I examine how current labor and immigration regulations, particularly in the context of Finnish Lapland, support or hinder the subaltern migrant's equitable access to Finland’s territory, rights, and society. The research analyzes critical gaps in governance, demonstrating how the lack of sufficient protection and secure legal status for these marginalized workers creates an unsustainable foundation for the transition’s required workforce. The findings provide a critical intervention in migration and climate justice scholarship by systematically linking justice theory to migration governance, offering decision makers a grounded roadmap for creating truly inclusive, equitable, and sustainable strategies for foreign workers crucial to Europe’s green economy.
Short Abstract
This paper explores new philosophical foundations and rhetorical strategies for an animal rights discourse that is more capable of traversing the gap between human and animal interests and thus responding to the various challenges presented by the Anthropocene.
Abstract
Animal law, sometimes also referred to as animal rights law, is an academic and social justice movement that seeks to improve the legal and societal status of nonhuman animals through legislation, litigation, and various forms of raising awareness including but not limited to animal law education. Though there are superficial differences of opinion within the movement, virtually all animal lawyers believe that the law offers inadequate protection to animals and that something must change as a result.
The present polycrisis brings to stark light the mutual interdependencies and shared vulnerabilities of humans, animals, and the environment. However, animal law is largely precluded from participating in these discussions due to the discipline’s obsessive focus on the suffering of individual nonhumans. This paper explores new philosophical foundations and rhetorical strategies for an animal rights discourse that is more capable of traversing the gap between human and animal interests and thus responding to the various challenges presented by the Anthropocene. Such new approaches include recent turns to multispecies or more-than-human justice as well as animal agency and representation, just to name a few examples.
Short Abstract
The paper argues that it is crucial to consider more-than-human actors as stakeholders in the energy transition. To illustrate the effects of the energy transition on more-than-human actors, the paper examines the case of wind energy development in Finland.
Abstract
The development of renewable energy deepens existing societal inequalities, severely affecting vulnerable groups, including Indigenous residents, remote communities, and more-than-human actors. These impacts often reinforce one another, as biodiversity loss results in “cultural trauma” for local residents due to its damaging effects on Indigenous and local knowledge. This paper draws on R. Edward Freeman’s stakeholder theory (1984), which defines individuals or groups affected by an organization’s activities as stakeholders. Given the direct impact of renewable energy projects on landscapes and animal habitats, the paper argues that it is crucial to consider more-than-human actors as stakeholders in the energy transition. This perspective challenges the anthropocentric nature of stakeholder research, which traditionally views nonhuman nature as a resource for human and organizational benefit. To illustrate the effects of the energy transition on more-than-human actors, the paper examines the case of wind energy development in Finland. Using content analysis of discussions in the open Finnish-language Facebook group Tuulivoimalapolitiikka, it analyzes users’ perceptions of wind power’s influence on selected animal species—specifically, the wolf, golden eagle, and white-tailed deer. The paper argues that opposition to wind power may impact the formation of stronger alliances between humans and animals, reinforcing established multispecies connections. Additionally, it discusses the value of applying stakeholder theory to analyze the impact of energy transitions on more-than-human actors.