EN / Research / Northern Political Economy

northern political economy

Northern Political Economy

We study the connections between power, wealth and well-being. Our common interest is to investigate the politics entailed in different conceptions of Arctic development. While our research focus is the Arctic and its socioeconomic, environmental, political and legal developments, we view these as interlinked with global processes.

University of Arctic Thematic Network on Critical Arctic Studies

Our Research

Recent book Resources, social and cultural sustainabilities in the Arctic (Tennberg, Lempinen & Pirnes, eds., 2020.) with contributions from the research group members presents well our diverse research.

Forthcoming publications by our group members include:

  • Indigenous peoples, natural resources and governance (Tennberg, Broderstad & Hernes, eds., 2021),
  • The Colonial Politics of Hope: Critical Junctures of Indigenous-State Relations (Lindroth & Sinevaara-Niskanen),
  • Living and working with snow, ice and seasons in modern Arctic: Every day perspectives (Strauss-Mazzullo & Tennberg, eds.)

The Research Group

The research group is organized as a collaborative network of researchers working in the Arctic Centre, different faculties of the University of Lapland and other universities representing different fields of expertise and stages in research careers.

The group is led by Research Professor Monica Tennberg.

Northern Political Economy Blog

  • Field notes from a peat bog

    8.8.2022 15:17

    NPE’s visiting researcher Hanna Lempinen is currently doing research focusing on the just transition of the Finnish peat industry. She did some fieldwork at a peat bog in Northern Finland in this blog post she shares some of her first thoughts.

  • The dynamics of hope, politics and colonialism

    22.6.2022 12:23

    In this blog post, Marjo Lindroth and Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen introduce their new book that delves into the more sinister sides of evoking hope in politics.

  • Commercial Waste and Tarnished Trademarks

    16.5.2022 10:05

    In this blog, Joonas Vola ponders whether the littering of environment with famous trademarks may cause harm for the reputation or value of a brand. Can the trustworthiness of a product certificate be endangered by relating it to negative activities towards the environmental sustainability in taking account the afterlife of the products?

Examples of Latest Publications
Interviews and Talks

Post human approaches to Arctic governance. Monica Tennberg in Night of Science: : ”Arctic, new perspectives” (1/2022).

Interview with Monica Tennberg on the Thematic Network on Critical Arctic Studies of the UArctic (12/2021).

Mistä on arktiset kaupungit tehty? Monica Tennberg esitteli Arctic Caféssa (11/2018) millaisia materiaaleja, taitoja, käytäntöjä ja merkityksiä arktiseen kaupunkitilaan liitetään.

Heidi Sinevaara-Niskasen ja Marjo Lindrothin haastattelu Yle Areenassa: Alkuperäiskansat ja toivon valta - miten lupauksista paremmasta ja toivosta on tullut vallankäytön välineitä suhteessa alkuperäiskansoihin (7/2017).

Monica Tennberg: What kind of knowledge for climate change adaptation? Ecological webinars, Arctic Summer Collage (8/2018).

Monica Tennberg was one of the panellist at the session "The global implications of a rapidly-changing Arctic" hosted by the Arctic Council at COP23 in Bonn November 2017.

In the video series One minute, one researcher Joonas Vola talks about how the Arctic Region is a political concept, in Finnish (9/2016).