Presentation short abstract

Diverging green transition politics are causing temporal enclosures through processes of frontier making and territorializations at the boarder of Finland and Norway. Grounded on solidarity, local communities have found successful strategies of resistance towards these undesired and unjust futures.

Presentation long abstract

“Wind is the only scalable option for new power generation - delays result in a power deficit” states the Energy Transition Outlook to 2050 of Norway as it places the emphasis of wind power production in the region of Finnmark, northern Norway. Building a narrative of urgency and uncomfortable futures, a resource frontier that encloses alternative spatiotemporal visions for Finnmark is promoted. Simultaneously, on the other side of the border in Finland a political decision is made to not designate wind power in the indigenous Sámi homeland. The divergent politics of green transitions at the Finland-Norway border clashed in the case of the Davvi windpark that was to be constructed in Finnmark. Through alterations to the landscape of the area, livelihoods such as tourism and reindeer herding and the Sámi culture on both sides of the border would have been affected. Applying a temporal dimension to the processes of frontier and territorialization dynamics, our paper analyses the solidary resistance of local communities in Norway and Finland that led to the dismissal of the Davvi windpark. The rhetorics of Davvi erased the local past as it presented the area as an empty landscape to be harnessed in the name of intergenerational justice. These temporal enclosures and dispossession of the past, present and future advanced by green transitions made it impossible for the local youth to plan or anticipate meaningful futures for themselves. Using document analysis, netnography and fieldwork, we trace the counter-narratives of the Sámi youth to voice their desired futures.