Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen gave a lecture to the students of Tampereen lyseon lukio high school titled “Energia, kulttuuri ja (väki)valta” (Energy, Culture and Power (of violence)). ‘It was a pleasure to talk with such smart and active youngsters‘, says Professor Tynkkynen.
Routledge published a new book edited by Natalie Koch “Critical Geographies of Sport : Space, Power and Sport in Global Perspective”. The volume contains a chapter by Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, titled “Sports fields and corporate governmentality: Gazprom’s all-Russian gas program as energopower”.
The chapter scrutinizes Russia’s state controlled gas company Gazprom’s relationship with the population by looking at the construction of sports facilities tied to the all-Russian gas program. Discursive and coercive governmentality come together in the energopower practiced by Gazprom: via amalgamation of energy and sports the “presence” of the state is made concrete through both gas pipelines and spatially-extensive sport facilities. Gazprom’s program advances the Great Power ambitions of Putin’s regime in the name of social “responsibility”, yet the sports-orientated social program aims ultimately to responsibilization of individuals to take care of both the wellbeing of the self and the nation, its economy and military might. Its unique form of corporate governmentality is the matrimony of the energy superpower ideal and military Great Power identity that are constructed with the help of sports metaphors, values, and infrastructures.
Get the chapter here.
A new article by Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen was published “Russia’s Nuclear Power and Finland’s Foreign Policy” in the latest issue of Russian Analytical Digest.
It is a widely shared wisdom that energy is a central component in Russia’s foreign policy. The public discussion in Finland of the Fennovoima nuclear power plant, built now by Rosatom, shifted after the onset of the Ukrainian conflict. The insistence by some Finnish political and economic actors that the Russian nuclear power deal has nothing to do with foreign and security policies is worrying, as the measures taken both by the Finnish and Russian actors clearly demonstrate that the nuclear business, in particular, is highly political.
Read the full issue and the article (pp. 2-5) here.
University of Helsinki website published a big interview with Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen:
Significant financial and political interests surround the issue of exploiting Arctic areas. For the environment, the risks are monumental.
Finland will be the chair of the Arctic Council for the 2017-19 term. The Council is an international political forum for the Arctic areas.
Aleksanteri Institute’s Professor Veli Pekka Tynkkynen believes that it is in Finland’s interests to ensure continuous cooperation among the parties operating in the Arctic.
The interview is available in English, Finnish, and Swedish here.
Winland project organises a series of scenario workshops this Autumn and yesterday Energy Policy Scenario Workshop took place in Helsinki. Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen participated in it and gave a presentation “Space, Knowledge and Power in Russia’s Energy Policy”.
More about the workshop series.
“From Failand to Winland” research programme kick-off seminar was held yesterday in Helsinki. Professor Tynkkynen participated there and took part in the panel discussion on objectives and approaches in the “From Failand to Winland” research programme.
More information on the event can be found here.
A new paper by Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen was published at Winland website – “Poliittinen riski ja geopolitiikka Suomen ja Venäjän energiakaupassa – tapaus Fennovoima” (Political risk and geopolitics of Finnish and Russian energy trade – the case of Fennovoima). The paper examines the nature of political risk in energy trade between Finland and Russia through decision-making process in Fennovoima – Rosatom nuclear power project. Read the article here.
Today our researchers are taking part at the European Consortium for Political Research General Conference 2016 that is organised in Prague. Daria Gritsenko chairs the panel “Energy Governance in the Eurasian Space: Economics and Materiality”, where Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen presents his paper titled “‘Epiphytes’ of energy infrastructure and Russian energopower”.
The paper scrutinizes Russia’s state controlled gas company Gazprom’s and oil company Rosneft’s relationship with the population. I look at the construction of corporate social-responsibility objects (social infrastructure, e.g. sports facilities, churches, etc.), i.e. “epiphytes” that grown on energy infrastructures, tied to the all-Russian energy programs carried out by the two companies.
The analysis of Gazprom’s activities reveals that the practiced energopower of Gazifikatsiia Rossii derives its power from geographical imaginaries of Russia. This bipartite energopower receives its essence from the positive and negative materialities of hydrocarbons, the ability to do both “good” and “bad”, which unfolds the way the non-human is embedded in the construction of the social. This construction lumps together the material-nationalistic energy imagination, such as Russia as an energy Superpower, with universal goals such as economic growth and modernization, but also with values such as conservative gender roles. More, discursive and coercive governmentality come together in the energopower practiced by Gazprom: via amalgamation of energy, sports and (imagined) national identity the “presence” of the state is made concrete through both gas pipelines and spatially-extensive sport facilities. Gazprom’s gas program advances the Great Power ambitions of Putin’s regime in the name of social “responsibility”, yet the sports-orientated social program aims ultimately to responsibilization of individuals to take care of both the wellbeing of the self and the nation, its economy and military might. The rationalities and practices of gazifikatsiia energopower function in and combine several scales: the subject is tied to territories and the nation via gas and its epiphytes, the subject is made responsible for the biosecurity (reproduction and military might) of the population, and the global is harnessed in legitimizing the reliance on gas.
Comparing Gazprom’s practiced energopower to that of Rosneft’s reveals two fairly similar corporate-responsibility strategies, yet with a distinct focus. Rosneft is a different kind of power figure in the Russian domestic energy scene. Not because it would be less powerful, but because the energy infrastructures it produces and the social epiphytes that are constructed “on” these infrastructures are of a different nature. If Gazprom has chosen to build its power especially via gas distribution, pipeline infrastructure and sports facilities, Rosneft’s specialty is marrying Russian oil with Russian faith, the Orthodox Church. Therefore, if Gazprom’s strategy to promote the “presence” of the state and its grand objectives are made concrete through both gas pipelines and spatially-extensive sport facilities, Rosneft does this via both gasoline service stations and other oil-related infrastructures and social objects. Rosneft’s social investments (in 2012 appr. 85 M€) are directed to building and renovating schools, kindergartens and health care facilities, thus drawing from the nostalgia people feel towards Soviet era patrimonial welfarism, as well as orthodox churches and chapels that, again, appeal to core values behind national and spiritual awakening Russians have experienced, with the strong back-up of the state and Putin’s regime, during the post-Soviet years.
Listen to the latest Ykkösaamu episode on Yle Areena webpage. In the episode, Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen and senior researcher Harri Mikkola from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs discuss the Arctic region and Russia.
University of Helsinki