Papers by Hannu I Heikkinen
International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2007
Nomadic Peoples, Dec 1, 2006
Reindeer herding is an old and impressively adapted livelihood supporting a unique cultural conti... more Reindeer herding is an old and impressively adapted livelihood supporting a unique cultural continuity of both Sámi and Finnish populations in northern Finland. Through centuries both have adapted to the changing social, cultural and ecological circumstances. This article focuses on reindeer herders as active conformists who try to adapt personally and communally to changing environments. The main focus is on the adaptation models of full-time reindeer herders and especially on the rather new cultural trait that is called neo-entrepreneurship in this article as distinct from traditional reindeer husbandry as economic behaviour. The current discourse in Finland concerning reindeer herding has focused on resolving conflicts between herding and the other land use forms, such as forestry, tourism, nature conservation, hydropower and infrastructure development (Raitio 2001; Heikkinen 2003; Jokinen 2005). This article focuses instead on reindeer herders as active conformists who try to adapt personally and communally to changing economic, cultural and ecological environments.
Time and Mind, Jul 3, 2021
Indigenous peoples live their modernity alongside majority populations and global change processe... more Indigenous peoples live their modernity alongside majority populations and global change processes. This is the case with indigenous Saami who descend from a long lineage of nomadic reindeer-herding families and who now live and herd reindeer in and around the small tourism town of Kilpisjärvi (Gilbbesjávri), Finland. Saami reindeer nomadism was a highly mobile way of life at the turn of the twentieth century. However, as many Saami now live a more settled life, their culture is in constant danger of becoming engulfed by various developments, including tourism and the various forms of land use. This essay focuses on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in the region and on its dynamic changes. The essay illustrates the Saami struggle, not just with holding their ground with respect to other interest groups, but also with how their actions aim to maintain local visibility of their culture, while also ensuring a respect towards a right to agency and to culture change on their own terms. The essay's methodological findings emphasise the importance of both long-term research partnerships and of participant observation in ethnographic work, stressing how attentive "loitering around" may lay the groundwork for other forms of research methodologies and auxiliary research materials.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2022
How Should Impacts Be Assessed? gunhild rosqvist, hannu i. heikkinen, leena suopajä rvi 1 , carl ... more How Should Impacts Be Assessed? gunhild rosqvist, hannu i. heikkinen, leena suopajä rvi 1 , carl ö sterlin 2
Nordia geographical publications, Dec 1, 2012
In this article we examine the power relations of forest management in connection with private fo... more In this article we examine the power relations of forest management in connection with private forest owners' decision-making processes in Finland. Questions of power are considered through an examination of management decisions regarding even-aged and uneven-aged silvicultural systems. The application of different silvicultural methods has been a historically contested theme in Finnish forestry which has led to litigation cases between forest owners and the private forest administration since the beginning of the 20th century. The study material is derived from in-depth interviews with private forest owners carried out in 2005-2007 and from the documents of three court cases that took place between 2004-2008. The analysis utilises a political ecology framework and particular attention is paid to the interplay and construction of knowledge and power. The results reveal some major differences in how forest owners think about and conceptualise silvicultural systems and practices, and also shed light on the power relations involved in decision-making. The differences become apparent during the court cases, which also contest power relations. The results indicate that more attention should be paid to the varying needs of forest owners in Finnish forest policies.
American Anthropologist, Feb 24, 2021
Kirja-arvostelu Tamminen, S. (2019). Biogenetic paradoxes of the nation: Finncattle, apples, and ... more Kirja-arvostelu Tamminen, S. (2019). Biogenetic paradoxes of the nation: Finncattle, apples, and other genetic-resource puzzles. Duke University Press.Book review Tamminen, S. (2019). Biogenetic paradoxes of the nation: Finncattle, apples, and other genetic-resource puzzles. Duke University Press
Dismantling the barriers to entrepreneurship in reindeer management in Finland
Everyday Lifestyles And Sustainability, 2018
Metsätieteen aikakauskirja, 2012
Ecology and Society, 2016
Reindeer herding is an emblematic livelihood for Northern Finland, culturally important for local... more Reindeer herding is an emblematic livelihood for Northern Finland, culturally important for local people and valuable in tourism marketing. We examine the livelihood resilience of Finnish reindeer herding by narrowing the focus of general resilience on social-ecological systems (SESs) to a specific livelihood while also acknowledging wider contexts in which reindeer herding is embedded. The questions for specified resilience can be combined with the applied DPSIR approach (Drivers; Pressures: resilience to what; State: resilience of what; Impacts: resilience for whom; Responses: resilience by whom and how). This paper is based on a synthesis of the authors' extensive anthropological fieldwork on reindeer herding and other land uses in Northern Finland. Our objective is to synthesize various opportunities and challenges that underpin the resilience of reindeer herding as a viable livelihood. The DPSIR approach, applied here as a three step procedure, helps focus the analysis on different components of SES and their dynamic interactions. First, various land use-related DPSIR factors and their relations (synergies and trade-offs) to reindeer herding are mapped. Second, detailed DPSIR factors underpinning the resilience of reindeer herding are identified. Third, examples of interrelations between DPSIR factors are explored, revealing the key dynamics between Pressures, State, Impacts, and Responses related to the livelihood resilience of reindeer herding. In the Discussion section, we recommend that future applications of the DPSIR approach in examining livelihood resilience should (1) address cumulative pressures, (2) consider the state dimension as more tuned toward the social side of SES, (3) assess both the negative and positive impacts of environmental change on the examined livelihood by a combination of science led top-down and participatory bottom-up approaches, and (4) examine and propose governance solutions as well as local adaptations by reindeer herders as equally relevant responses to enhance livelihood resilience.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2022
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2022
Heritage for the Future Narrating Abandoned Mining Sites dag avango, é lise lé py 1 , malin brä n... more Heritage for the Future Narrating Abandoned Mining Sites dag avango, é lise lé py 1 , malin brä nnströ m, hannu i. heikkinen, teresa komu, albina pashkevich, carl ö sterlin
Polar Geography, Apr 23, 2020
Matching knowledge Demand, research Funding and knowledge Supply (DFS) is important in order to e... more Matching knowledge Demand, research Funding and knowledge Supply (DFS) is important in order to enhance societally and policy relevant research, target funding appropriately and enhance the connectivity between science, policy and society. The DFS field around reindeer management in Finland offers a fertile case study to examine interconnected and complex trends as well as the relations between herders' and policymakers' knowledge demand, ministerial funding and independent supply of knowledge by science. We identify matches and mismatches between the DFS in a case study of reindeer management in Finland across ten inductively identified themes and in time scales of 2000-2009 and 2010-2018. The main finding was that, during the latter period, the DFS matched significantly better than in the earlier period. In order to explain this, we identify and discuss five alternative and legitimate co-creation dynamics that explain how the DFS is organizing around the reindeer management in Finland. The five dynamics represent variations in the co-creation approach, fit to varying situations, which can inform of alternative ways to better match the DFS around reindeer management, and they are also applicable in other contexts.
Springer polar sciences, Oct 31, 2020
The stakeholder concept has dominated academic discussions for a number of years and has function... more The stakeholder concept has dominated academic discussions for a number of years and has functioned as a normative guide for natural resource management. However, there are at least three characteristics in stakeholder approaches: 1) all-inclusivity; 2) prioritization of economic interests; 3) ahistorical view on rights, which risk continued marginalization of indigenous people and traditional livelihood practitioners despite of the intention to nurture indigenous and local participation by acknowledging them as stakeholders. We propose, in the context of natural resource governance, to address these biases by recognising indigenous and local traditional livelihood practitioners as rightsholders. We examine in turn: 1) how to conceptualise rights-holders in governance through a social equity perspective 2) why indigenous and local traditional livelihood practitioners should be considered as rights-holders instead of stakeholders, and 3) some of the implications and tensions associated with considering traditional livelihood practitioners, including both indigenous and nonindigenous groups and individuals, as rights-holders. We illustrate and examine these questions in a case study of reindeer herding in Finland. In Finland, today, reindeer herding is practiced by both Sámi and Finn herders and, based on a social equity perspective, both groups can be considered rightsholders if we acknowledge reindeer herding as a traditional livelihood practice. As traditional livelihood practitioners, herder have their whole way of life at stake and ultimately depend on access to land. In addition, herders have (had) detailed systems of customary rights preceding effective statebased governance in the north. Such institutions are particularly pronounced for Sami reindeer herders but are applicable to both groups. Our conceptualisation of rights-holders thus recognises herders as
Nordia geographical publications, Dec 31, 2012
Resilience has become a key concept for assessing sustainability in relation to socio-environment... more Resilience has become a key concept for assessing sustainability in relation to socio-environmental change in the North. This article considers various case studies in northern Finland relating to reindeer herding, forestry and nature conservation to draw upon lessons learned for resilience studies. Mainstream literature on northern resilience focuses on resilience of local livelihoods to only certain kind of disturbances, such as climate change and resource extraction. However, also conservation efforts may threaten specific livelihoods, but there seems to be a gap regarding assessing resilience in terms of conservation efforts. This article aims to fill this gap by examining resilience of forestry and reindeer herding, important northern livelihoods, to increasing conservation efforts. It is also recommended that resilience studies should be cautious regarding the definition of the system when they are assessing its resilience. We introduce a distinction between community resilience and the resilience of livelihoods communities depend upon.
Science & public policy, Nov 29, 2019
We examine roles and knowledge by which researchers can enhance connections between science, poli... more We examine roles and knowledge by which researchers can enhance connections between science, policy, and society. We arranged a participatory scenario workshop with representatives from environmental administration to discuss how different land-use governance arrangements link to sustainability of reindeer herding in northern Finland. We used fast track scenarios as boundary objects that aimed to bring reindeer herders' problem definitions to be discussed with administrators. First, we performed the role of science arbiter by using our previous research with reindeer herders as the starting point for the discussions. Next, we discussed and elaborated diverse future alternatives via the role of honest broker. Finally, we were interpreted as issue advocates because the scenario exercise reduced the scope of preferable policy options for administrators. Performing these boundary-spanning roles in the same process, but each, in turn, enables researchers to offer views on sustainability via scenarios that break easily acceptable conventions.
Journal of ecological anthropology, 2007
Current public discourse in Finland concerning reindeer herding has focused on the overgrazing pr... more Current public discourse in Finland concerning reindeer herding has focused on the overgrazing problem and conflicts between herding and competitive forms of land use. Both herders and government administrators agree on the problems of herding, but conceptualize their causes differently. Administrators insist that sustainability in herding is reachable through bioeconomic management that unites biological metrics of sustainable systems with an economic efficiency calculus. However, we found that such policy erodes socio-cultural sustainability at the community level. It also encourages economic rationalization that leads to increased revenues but slower income growth, because it coexists with rising investment costs and decreasing producer prices caused by increased supply. Ecological sustainability is left unstable, because bioeconomic metrics focus only on partial environmental processes. This study sheds light on these intertwined trajectories by analyzing reindeer herders' efforts to reach both economic and ecological sustainability through neo-entrepreneurial strategies. The study was carried out by semi-structured interviews in 17 enterprises run by both Saami and Finnish reindeer herders. Interviews covered the working of both traditional herding and neo-enterprises and the consolidation of these efforts. The results show that the neo-entrepreneurial adaptation strategies enhance both economic and ecological sustainability, but create problems for socio-cultural sustainability.
Routledge eBooks, Apr 20, 2022
Uploads
Papers by Hannu I Heikkinen