Date: 1.-2.10.2025
Time: TBA
Venue: Epicenter, Helsinki

How does the green transition impact local communities, Indigenous Sámi, workers, and other subaltern groups? What role does the law play in ensuring a just transition? 

In this session, we invite participants to share their research and insights on the effects of the green transition in the Arctic. We will explore how legal and policy frameworks shape the transition, either by supporting marginalized groups or by excluding them from its potential benefits. A key focus will be on how legal processes account for the rights and interests of both human and non-human actors. Presentations will address the experiences of Sámi communities, migrant workers, and the broader recognition of animal rights in the context of the green transition. 

The proposed workshop aims to develop a special issue or edited volume on a Just Green Transition in the Arctic. The session authors represent ‘REBOUND (Reconceptualizing Boundaries Together Towards Resilient and Just Arctic Future(s))’, a consortium project led by the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and funded by the Finnish Strategic Research Council. REBOUND examines how legal, political, and business processes designed to facilitate the green transition affect the rights of marginalized, misrecognized, or unrecognized groups, including migrants, Indigenous populations, and non-human animals. 

The session authors—Dorothée Cambou, Berfin Nur Osso, and Tero Kivinen—will serve as coordinators while also contributing to the planned session. By the end of the workshop, the goal is to draft an outline for the special issue or edited volume. Subsequent workshops and events will be organized throughout 2025 and 2026, with the final publication expected in late 2026. 

Please send your 300-word abstract to Tero Kivinen (tero.kivinen(@)helsinki.fi) by 31 August 2025. We will confirm accepted papers by 14 September 2025. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!

More information: Science for Sustainability 2025 | University of Helsinki