Arctic Circle Assembly

From 19th to 21st of October 2018 Arctic Circle Assembly was taking place in Reykjavík, Iceland. Our research group was well represented there.

All in all, there were 2000 participants, and our doctoral student Sohvi Kangasluoma was one of them.


On 19th of October several researchers were introducing their works at the “Paving the Frozen Silk Road – Eastern Outlooks on Arctic Geopolitics and Socio-economic Development” panel, chaired by Sanna Kopra. Jussi Huotari talked about “Arctic LNG and global production networks (GPN)”. Liisa Kauppila and Sanna Kopra presented their work “China and Arctic Futures” and Hilma Salonen gave a presentation “Energy Deliveries in the Russian Arctic: Established Systems and New Networks”.

On 20th of October Hanna Lempinen was presenting her paper titled “Societal Aspects of Energy Security: Insights from the Euro-Arctic Region” at the panel “Human Security in the Barents Region”.

At the Assembly there were 600 presenters taking part in 120 sessions and we are delighted that our research group made a worthy contribution. More information on the conference can be found here.

Tartu Workshop “Democracy in Reverse: Patterns of Autocratization in Eastern Europe and Eurasia”

On 19th of October UPTAKE research consortium organises a workshop “Democracy in Reverse: Patterns of Autocratization in Eastern Europe and Eurasia” at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the University of Tartu, Estonia.

In what ways can we compare and better understand patterns of autocratization in the postcommunist world? Autocratization can be seen as a process, in which democratic institutions, rights and practices are curtailed or undermined – to the point, of course, where an autocratic regime takes hold. However, because this phenomenon is defined as a continuum, it may also involve only incremental steps away from democratic rule, therefore allowing us to view this phenomenon in greater detail.

Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen is presenting a paper “The Conservative turn and nature – Climate denialism and ’hydrocarbon culture’ in Russia” at the “Eurasia” panel of the workshop.

More information on the workshop is available online here.

Hanna Lempinen’s article on the societal dimensions of the Barents energyscape

Postdoctoral researcher Hanna Lempinen wrote an article “At the margins of the Barents energyscape” for the latest issue of Barents Studies. The issue covers topics around marginal phenomena, and Hanna’s article is focusing on societal dimensions of energy.

In political, popular, and scholarly debates, the Arctic – and most importantly within
it the Barents region – is portrayed as being on the brink of becoming the “world’s
new energy province”. Growth in global energy demand, dwindling reserves, political
instabilities at existing production sites, warming climate, as well as advancements
in extraction and transportation technologies are pushing energy activities further
towards the previously inaccessible north. In these framings, energy in the Arctic is
mostly understood as synonymous with oil and gas production for international exports
and as a concern of markets and politics, and of technology, science, and economics.
Exploring media representations of the regional energyscape through the “theory-methods
package” (Clarke 2015, 87) of situational analysis, this article highlights the
diversity of regional energy beyond oil and gas production; the simplistic manners in
which the societal dimensions of energy are understood; the absence of everyday life,
ordinary people, and the female gender from the depictions of the regional energyscape;
and the lack of attention to climate impacts of northern energy production.

This and other articles can be found online here.

Sakari Höysniemi’s new blog post for Winland

Sakari Höysniemi wrote a new blog post “Onko Suomen ja Venäjän välinen energiakauppa uhka vai mahdollisuus?” (Is energy trade between Finland and Russia a threat or an opportunity?) for Winland project.

The report, released this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the urgent need to reduce emissions and the need to spread climate policy to all social decision-making. Few countries, however, are doing this now. Sakari Höysniemi from Winland project looks at the recent research article on how the reduction of emissions affects trade and relationships between energy producers and consumers.

Read Sakari’s full post for the Winland blog online here.

Interview with Dmitry Yagodin for Russian Media Lab

Russian Media Lab, Aleksanteri Institute’s multisciplinary research project examining Russian media and freedom of expression, conducted an interview with our new Postdoc Dmitry Yagodin. In the interview “Shouts from shadows: peculiar play in the Russian blogosphere” Dmitry talks about the topic of his still relevant PhD thesis “The Blogization of Journalism (2014)”, that dealt with how blogs politicize media and social space in Russia.

In the early 2000’s the Russian blogosphere appeared as an alternative and less constrained space for people to express themselves. This sparked Yagodin’s interest to study the topic.

Read the full interview on Russian Media Lab’s blog.

Sanna Kopra’s post at E-International Relations

E-International Relations (E-IR) is the world’s leading open access website for students and scholars of international politics, published a blog post written by Sanna Kopra and titled “With Great Power Comes Great Climate Responsibility”.

In this post Sanna reflects upon her latest book China and Great Power Responsibility for Climate Change, and discusses what is the responsibility of the Great Powers these days, when the need for climate change mitigation is so urgent. Sanna Kopra concludes, that

Without ambitious great power leadership, international climate negotiations remain in gridlock. As an established great power, the United States must renew its great power leadership for climate change at once. If it does not live upon its special responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, our chances to prevent dangerous climate change from happening look grim.

The full post is available online.

China and the “Wider” Eastern Europe conference

On 11th-12th of October the conference “China and the “Wider” Eastern Europe” at the Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS) at the University of Turku. Before the conference a Doctoral workshop was organised on 10th of October, and our Doctoral Researcher Karoliina Hurri presented there her research plan “The Construction of China’s Role in Climate Negotiation Forums: A case of BASIC countries, BRICS group and the Arctic Council”.

Apart from Karoliina, Postdoctoral Researcher Sanna Kopra is taking part in the conference, and on Friday, 12th of October she is giving a talk “The Rise of China and Normative Transformation in the Arctic: A Research Plan” at the ““Wider” Eastern Europe and China” panel.

More information on the conference is available online here.

Sanna Kopra’s interview in Keskipohjanmaa

Finnish newspaper Keskipohjanmaa published an article “Kasvojaan hiilestä pesevä Kiina mielii ilmastojohtajaksi – ilmansaasteet vauhdittavat muutosta” (Washing its hands of coal China wants to be a climate leader – air pollution speeds up the change) with Sanna Kopra’s interview in it.

By reducing its own air pollution China could significantly reduce climate change in the Arctic, Kopra says.

In Chinese big cities such as Beijing, air quality is sometimes extremely bad.

Kopra estimates that China could combine through black carbon two interests: cutting black carbon emissions can not only improve the air quality domestically, but also affect the Arctic. In recent years, China has been increasingly interested in the region.

Over 60% of the black carbon emissions worldwide over half, about 60%, originate from Asia, especially from China and India. Even though soot is generated far from the polar ice, it can stay in the atmosphere from a few days to weeks and end up thousands of miles away.

This and other thought-provoking insights can be read in Finnish here. Additionally, the interview was also published in Turun Sanomat and Lapin Kansa.

Making Home in the Industrialized Russian Arctic

A new special issue “To be at Home. House, Work, and Self in the Modern World” with a contribution from our postdoctoral researcher Alla Bolotova has been published this September. The issue is part of “Work in Global and Historical Perspective” book series published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

Alla wrote a chapter for the volume titled “Making Home in the Industrialized Russian Arctic”:

Before the Soviet period, the Russian Arctic was scarcely populated, with very few cities. Today, the Russia Arctic is the most industrialized and urbanized polar territory in the world. Numerous industrial towns were built in the Russian Arctic during Soviet industrialization. Their populations comprised voluntarily and forced migrants and their descendants. In this essay, I present the family histories of two women who settled as children in newly established towns in the north. They grew up in very different historical periods. My aim is to look at the history of the towns of Kirovsk and Apatity through the life stories of women from different generations. I explore how these women and their families adapted to new places in different historical and social contexts, paying special attention to the beginnings of their life in the north.

This essay is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Kirovsk-Apatity urban agglomeration in Murmansk Oblast. Kirovsk and Apatity, fifteen kilometres apart, were founded at different stages of Soviet industrialization. Kirovsk started to grow in the 1930s, at the foothills of the Khibiny mountains. Apatity was established in the 1950s in close proximity to Kirovsk. In 2016, there were 26,971 people living in Kirovsk, and 56,730 in Apatity.

Full text of the article can be accessed here.