governance

Governance is a multilevel and multidimensional concept. It brings together regulations, practices, institutions and goals such as sustainability. It includes both public and private governance. It encompasses government hierarchies, networks and governmentality. It is a dynamic notion, an object in constant flux. That is clearly visible in the Arctic, a region undergoing profound environmental, economic and social change, where new actors are coming to the fore and new regulatory frameworks are emerging. No single researcher or a single study can give justice to this richness encompassed within the concept of “Arctic governance”.

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

The idea of the Arctic Centre’s Arctic Governance Research Group is to bring a small number of scholars dealing with diverse dimensions of governance in the Arctic. Each researcher is exposed to various levels and aspects. The purpose of this exposure is to enhance the quality and depth of each individual study. Scholars are bound to be challenged on an ongoing basis and yet still remain open to other ways of thinking as to what governance constitutes. The transdisciplinary interaction leads to innovative ideas and novel interlinkages, which are reflected in developed proposals and implemented projects.

Our aim is to render complexity of Arctic governance more transparent and provide policy-makers, scholars and other actors with a more holistic knowledge-base to make better informed and more responsible decisions.

Members of the research group focus on a broad diversity of aspects of governance: international law, Arctic regional cooperation, science-policy interface, Arctic policies, sustainable development, indigenous rights and politics, local and national regulations, as well as private governance. Focus of individual studies is on the Arctic Council, environmental Law, environmental impact assessments, Arctic migration, Arctic tourism, corporate social responsibility and social license to operate, external actors in the Arctic and the European Union in the Arctic.

The research group is led by Prof. Stefan Kirchner.