Sea Seminar: To know, to know how, or to know with? Co-creating understanding of the Baltic Sea

Dr. Kirsi Sonck-Rautio

We know that knowledge is power. What is often less clear is whose knowledge becomes whose power, and power to do what? Scientific knowledge having power to safeguard the ecosystems of the Baltic Sea should not seem like a bad thing, yet there are several conflicts between stakeholders – including the local communities – concerning environmental governance or conservation projects. These conflicts often stem from the differences in knowledge systems applied, and one way to find effective solutions is to address these differences. The notion of finding common grounds for different knowledges has been the major themes of my work, and this talk sheds some light on this issue with different cases or projects I’ve been working on: the Sea Too project of John Nurminen Foundation, a case study of small-scale fisheries of the Archipelago Sea, and HumBio – a project examining the relationships between humans and the changing biodiversity in Coastal Finland.

Kirsi Sonck-Rautio (PhD) is an environmental anthropologist, specializing in the marine environments and political ecology. With her work she has focused on global environmental problems, such as climate change, biodiversity loss and plastic waste, and their local impacts. Environmental conflicts, different knowledge systems and the effects of politics and policies on peoples’ everyday lives has always been a major interest of hers.  Over the years, she has been conducting extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the Archipelago, and while at it, became an Archipelago dweller herself.  Currently she is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oulu and a consulting expert at John Nurminen Foundation.

The Sea Seminar series is a collaboration between the ÅAU profiling area The Sea and SOS. The seminars are organized once a month with a hybrid setup (click here for online participation), and they are open to everyone interested in marine and sustainability issues.