The 5th Peaceful Coexistence Colloquium, 28-29 September 2023
An event organized by SUCH Research Network and the University of Eastern Finland
Knowledge and Action for Sustainable Change
University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu campus
COLLOQUIUM PROGRAMME
Thursday September 28th
8.45 WELCOME
9-10.10 GENERAL SESSION 1 (M102)
Suvielise Nurmi: Epistemological and ethical implications of relational agency
Hande Sinem Ergun & Seray Begüm Samur-Teraman: Under Nature’s Breath: Articulating Our Essence
Maxim Vlasov: Rewild, survive, thrive – Learning ancestral skills in the Anthropocene
10.20-11.30 GENERAL SESSION 2 (M102)
Michiru Nagatsu: The conceptual ecology of human-nature relationships
Janne Säynäjäkangas: Sustainability and the ontological politics of resource relationships
Katja Tiisala: The Lifeworld Approach to Sustainability
12.30-14 PARALLEL SESSIONS 1
1A: Degrowth (M102)
Julia Autio & Ella Tolonen: Collective sufficiency? You better work, biz! - An analytical framework on organizations' institutional work towards a degrowth economy
Heta Leinonen & Roni Lappalainen: A circular economy as a path to and part of degrowth: Recommendations for sustainable ways of organizing
Tina Nyfors: Integrating ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ approaches of sufficiency
1B: Heritage & conservation (N101)
Tiina Seppä & Karoliina Vilander: Water wisdom
Sonja Laukkanen: Walking landscape heritage. Performing relationality.
Sanna Komi: “The Real Truth about Wolves”: Political Ecology, Wildlife Conservation, and the Post-Truth Era
14.30-16 PARALLEL SESSIONS 2
2A: Economy & degrowth (M102)
Jean-Pierre Imbrogiano: Do we need a cultural full braking for planetary healing? An essay in favor of an official negative labeling of money.
Kaisa Matschoss, Eva Heiskanen, Laura Salmivaara & Marja Salo: One should stop complaining about what is expensive and pay for what is valuable
Teppo Eskelinen: The metatheory of economics and the sustainability transition
2B: Comprehensive well-being & lifeworlds (N101)
Inna Häkkinen: Permaculture Ethics as an Act of Resilience in Tierratraumatic Experience: Literary Dimensions
Jaana Laisi & Leena Helenius: Health as part of nature - comprehensive approach to well-being and sustainability
Helena Karhu: Shamanism and Transformative Research: Autoethnographic Path to Knowing-Being
Cultural programme and dinner (Siihtala Culture Factory, Nurmeksentie 4), 19.00-
KO:MI - Excerpts from Belonging in Nature (live music)
KO:MI is Helsinki-based composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Sanna Komi, whose third album Belonging in Nature, currently in preparation, explores the relation of human beings with their environment through the complex coexistence of humans of wolves. It draws from Komi’s doctoral thesis on the same topic, and deepens experiental dimensions of the research, which cannot always be expressed with words.
Tommi Kauppinen - poems from the book “Just maths: Lavender of the ideal”
Just maths: Lavender of the ideal is a work of poetic philosophy & a treatise on optional mathematics - Even though the themes are labyrinthine, the poems' vivid brush invites the reader to reflect on their own emotions concerning current ecological and social crisis. Just maths is imbued with wisdom of letting go of knowledge that makes you ill. Beginning anew, a reality can be met.
Friday September 29th
9-10.10 GENERAL SESSION 3 (M102)
Tom Royer: Space sustainability and commercial spaceports
Małgorzata Kowalska: Underwater stories for a more than human world
Toni Ruuska: The experiences and practices of emancipation: Reproductive labor and metabolic fit in local rural economies
10.20-11.30 GENERAL SESSION 4 (M102)
Karl Johan Bonnedahl & Pasi Heikkurinen: Developing capabilities for coexistence
Campbell Jones: I’ll see your climate change and raise you one infinity
Anu Valtonen, Tiina Seppälä & Kirsti Lempiäinen: Knowing and Caring in the Times of Crisis?
12.30-13.30 PARALLEL SESSIONS 3
3A: Teaching sustainability (M103)
Roosa Karvonen, Ratinen & Kemi: Promoting sustainability competency and self-efficacy in class teacher education
Nadia Habbiche: Finnish Early Adolescents Action Competence in Sustainable Development
3B: Poetry workshop (M110)
Tommi Kauppinen
14-15.30 PARELLEL SESSIONS 4
4A: North / South (M110)
Anna Ott & Liisa Varumo: Deconstructing biodiversity offsets: An exploration of ontological conflicts and alternative approaches to conservation in Finland and Colombia
Annie James & Neema Pathak Broome: A fine balance? Value-relations in community forest governance and radical alternatives in conservation – a case from Maharashtra, India
Katja Pellini: What is keeping the aid narrative alive?
4B Kohtuus Vaarassa opening in Finnish Onko vihreä siirtymä vihreä? (M103)
Conference dinner and cultural programme, Thu 28th
General agenda
As the multi-faceted environmental crisis keeps unfolding and its realities have become impossible to ignore, the notion of sustainability is ever more widely used. However, the notion of sustainability brings forth new divisions and politics. The hegemonic notion of sustainable development leans on the idea of governing the society into a green transition, while the growth-based economic paradigm and the associated social order remain intact. Yet various kinds of alternatives are suggested, under the notions of strong sustainability, degrowth, and the like, and by pointing to the diversity of existing and possible human-nature relations. This division is not only a political one, but comes down to epistemologies: ways of knowing, and organizing and valuing knowledge.
The 5th Peaceful Coexistence Colloquium looks into these alternatives and possible sustainable epistemologies. What should count as relevant knowledge amidst the environmental crises? What kinds of approaches in research would be more desirable than the currently hegemonic ones? What kinds of alternative ways are there for conceptualizing societies and human-nature relations? What do alternative epistemologies imply for activism and alternative organizing? Or broadly, what kinds of knowledge and action are needed for truly sustainable change?
The colloquium is an interdisciplinary meeting for people engaged in research, activism and artistic work that question mainstream solutions to the challenges that now face the Earth and its habitants. We wish to bring together people united by the interest in developing new and radical ways for thinking of and acting in the time of the environmental crisis, and by willingness to share their findings and thoughts.
For further information, please be in touch with Teppo Eskelinen (UEF): teppo.eskelinen@uef.fi or Karl Johan Bonnedahl (SUCH): karl.bonnedahl@umu.se
Practicalities
Joensuu is a nice, smallish university town, located in scenic eastern Finland. It can be reached in 4-4,5 hours from Helsinki by train. The colloquium will close so that train travel to Helsinki on the same day will be possible.
There is no shortage of accommodation options in Joensuu. A conference participant price is negotiated with Green Star hotel: 89e (single) / 99e (double) per night, discount code “UEF KOLLOKVIO”.
A conference fee of 50 euros will be charged for covering expenses. Please note that as the fee is comparatively speaking very low, no reduced fee will be available. Those working in very well-funded projects might consider paying a higher fee of 100 euros. Please register using this link.
The organisers
The colloquium is organized by SUCH (Sustainable Change Research Network), together with the University of Eastern Finland. SUCH is a transdisciplinary research network which aims to challenge the unsustainable societies of today and propose alternatives to them. The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) is one of Finland’s leading research universities, committed to building a sustainable future based on open science that makes an impact. It has campuses in Joensuu and Kuopio.
The first colloquium took place in Costa Rica at the University for Peace in 2015 and the second colloquium was hosted by University of Lapland in Pyhätunturi in 2017, and the third was hosted by University of Helsinki in 2019. The fourth colloquium was an online event, due to the global pandemic.