Sustainable Development Research Group

This research group studies the challenges of sustainable development, vulnerability and adaptation to societal and environmental changes. In our research projects we study the sensitivity and vulnerability of peoples, livelihoods and institutions to societal and environmental changes. Alongside threats to biodiversity, pressures on cultural diversity by local, national and international economic developments need our increased attention.  The adaptive capacity of Arctic inhabitants to these changes will be an important focus within our research group.

The Arctic and Sustainable Development

People in the Arctic, their institutions and livelihoods face rapid and cumulative changes in their environment and in the societies surrounding them. The speed of these changes may make it difficult for them to adapt. Growing interest to the use of the region’s natural resources and impacts of industrialization and global change increasingly and directly affect human lives and the state of the environment.

Sustainable development requires long-term perspective to the relations between the environment, society and economy. Sustainable development is a widely accepted principle but also contested. Different stakeholders have different views about what it means and how it should be promoted. We also observe a rich diversity of ways to respond to the challenges of a changing social and natural environment among Arctic inhabitants. Sustainable development is also a question of international cooperation and governance in the region. Indigenous peoples have been increasingly recognized as partners of states in international environmental cooperation.

The leader of the research group is Research Professor Monica Tennberg. The Arctic Indigenous and Sami Peoples Research Office is led by senior researcher Elina Helander-Renvall. See the full staff list.

Current Research Projects

• Assessing senses of place, mobility and viability in industrial northern communities (BOREAS - MOVE INNOCOM) -  a comparative analysis of mobility and settlement in and around communities of industrial workers in Northwest Russia/Siberia.
• Prerequisites of the Sami reindeer herding: meaning of traditional knowledge - investigates the changes regarding the activity conditions and their impact on the reindeer herding in relation to the prospects of the future., Elina Helander-Renvall.
• Senior researcher Florian Stammler  works on institution building in the Russian North, focusing on dynamics and senses of collectivity among inhabitants of the tundra and remote villages (download the publication ).
• Social impact assessment of climate change -Damocles project (2006-2009) studies impacts of climate change in the Arctic seas and in coastal regions in shipping, fishing and infrastructure. Anna Stammler-Gossman.
• Indigenous identity politics - Researcher Sanna Valkonen studies the politics of Sami identity-building in Finland. Researcher Scott Forrest compares the politics of identity-building in Finland and in Canada. Researcher Marjo Lindroth studies the political activism of indigenous peoples in the United Nations, especially in the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues.
• Social impact assessment of industrialization - ENSINOR .
• Community adaptation and vulnerability in the Arctic regions (CAVIAR)  - studies how local communities and institutions at different levels deal with societal and environmental changes. In the FIN-CAVIAR project (funded by the Finnish Academy 2007-2009), researcher Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen studies gendered constructions of social sustainability in her doctoral study.
• International environmental politics in the Arctic -Research Professor Monica Tennberg studies capacity-building in international environmental cooperation in Northwest Russia. 
• Governance of renewable natural resources in Northwest Russia  - examines the premises of sustainable forestry in the Barents region in a project,Stefan Walter.
• Effectiveness of international environmental cooperation in Northwest Russia (2002-2007), Monica Tennberg.
• Research professor Monica Tennberg leads a research network which aims at developing a pragmatist approach to study of international environmental politics. Researcher Sanna Ovaskainen analyses the ethical dimensions of arctic climate politics. 

Recent Publications  of the Sustainable Development research group.