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FIRSTBALTICCONFERENCEONTHEENVIRONMENTALHUMANITIESANDSOCIALSCIENCES(BALTEHUMS)

October8-9,2018

FacultyofGeographyandEarthSciences,AcademicCenterforNaturalSciences,LatvianUniversity

JelgavasStreet1,Riga,Latvia

ProgrammewithAbstracts

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QuickGuideDay1

9.30-10.009.45-10.00

Registration-LobbyoftheAcademicCentreforNaturalSciencesWelcomewords:AnitaZarina,KatiLindström-107

Day2Time Parallel1–Room335 Parallel2–Room336 Parallel3–Room319 Parallel4–Room324

9.30-11.00

5-1Roundtable.Fromdropstoasea:Individuals,communities,protectionpoliciesandenvironmentalcrises:KatiLindström,AetAnnist,ElgarsFelcis,SaraPenrhynJones,KatieRitson

5-2.AdvancingBalticClimateHistory:CreatinganewModuleinEuro-Climhist:UlrikePlath&HeliHuhtamaa,PriitRaudkivi,KaarelVanamölder&KristerKruusmaa

5-3.Representedenvironments:AtkoRemmel&TõnnoJonuks,Ene-ReetSoovik,JanisMatvejs

5-4.Shapingandenlighteningthelandscapesbefore20thc:PaulsDaija,HeldurSander,VykintasVaitkevicius

11.00-11.30Coffeebreak–Room10711.30-12.30 Experimentalsession E-1.Postersession:AnatoleDanto,BaibaPrūseetal.;Provocations:JessePeterson,JasonMarioDydynski-319

E-2.Flashpresentations:HannesPalang,PéterVigh&AcademicSpeedDating-33512.30-13.30Lunch–Room107

13.30-15.30

6-1.Roundtable:TheValueofInterdisciplinaryinEnvironmentalResearch:AistėBalžekienė,AlinOlteanu,FlorianRabitz,AudroneTelesiene,MihkelKangur

6-2.Animalencounters:DanTamir,AnitaZariņa,DārtaTreija&IvoVinogradovs,DaivaVaitkevičienė

6-3.Transforming,identifyingofandidentifyingwithlandscapes:SławomirŁotysz,AnuPrintsmann,DaceBula

6-4.PotatoandtheEnvironment:Agrariansocietiessearchingforsurvivalstrategies:TimoMyllyntaus,PiotrMiodunka,PaulsDaija,AnttiHäkkinen,JanKunnas

15.30-16.00Coffeebreak–Lobbynearcafeteria

16.00-18.00

7-1.Ethicsofcareandcommemoration:Bartkieneetal,AndriusKulikauskas,AllanKährik,AleksandraUbertowska

7-2.Entanglements,sustainabilityanddegrowth:TarmoPikner,ElgarsFelcis,GuntraAistara,FlorianRabitz&AlinOlteanu

7-3.Historicalperspectivesonsustainabilityandenvironmentalism:LoretaZydeliene,LindaKaljundi,KatiLindström

18.00-18.15Finalwords:KatiLindström–Room335

Time Parallel1-Room702 Parallel2–Room336 Parallel3–Room319

10.00-12.00

1-1.Forumdiscussion:WhatistheContributionofEnvironmentalHumanitiestotheSustainabilityandClimateChangeDebate:ViktorPál,DorotheeCambou;ParkerC.Krieg,JuliaLajus,UlrikePlath,MikkoSaikku,InnaSukhenko

1-2.Posthumanenvironments:CeciliaÅsberg&ChristinaFredengren,SarahBezan,ChristinaFredengren,IgorRodin

1-3.FromUndernourishmenttoCalamities:ProblemsinFeedingPopulationintheBalticSeaRiminthe18thand19thCentury:TimoMyllyntaus,KerstiLust,PiotrMiodunka,AnttiHäkkinen,AappoKähönen

12.00-13.00 Lunch–Room107

13.00-14.302-1.MediatedGreen:Modernenvironmentalism,politicsandmedia:JenniKarimäki,LonaPäll,LīnaOrste

2-2.Balticregioninthelong-term:VladasŽulkus,LinasDaugnoraetal.,JunzoUchiyama,ElenaSalmina&SergeySalmin

2-3.EngineeringwaterattheBalticSea:AlexeyKraykovskiy&JuliaLajus,MichaelZiser

14.30-15.00 CoffeeBreak–Room107

15.00-16.30

3-1.Workshop.Engagingwithdigitalresearchinfrastructures:OpeningdoorsforGeohumanities:VickyGarnett,PirayeHacigüzeller,ElizaPapaki,LindaKaljundi,AndaBaklane

3-2.Ecocriticismandtheimaginedworlds:MadeleineIdaHarke,Elle-MariTalivee&MarianneLind,KadriTüür

3-3.Post-nuclearlivesandnarratives:SiarheiLiubimau,AlksandraBrylska,InnaSukhenko

16.30-17.00 CoffeeBreak–Lobbynearcafetria

17.00-18.304-1.Ecologicalawarenessinteachingandresearch:PhilippThapa,AlinOlteanu,ArtisSvece

4-2.PlantsandPeople:RiinMagnus&HeldurSander,LaurenElizabethLaFauci,LiisaPuusepp

4-3.Transnationalandglobalformationoflandscapes:SimoLaakkonen,PerHögselius&KatiLindström,MartinSchröder,KristīneKrumberga

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October810.00-12.00Session1.1-1. Forumdiscussion:Whatisthecontributionofenvironmentalhumanitiestothe

sustainabilityandclimatechangedebateConvenor and moderator: Viktor Pál, University of Helsinki

Discussants:DorotheeCambou,UniversityofHelsinki;ParkerC.Krieg,UniversityofHelsinki;JuliaLajus,HigherSchoolofEconomics;St.Petersburg;UlrikePlath,TallinnUniversity;MikkoSaikku,UniversityofHelsinki;InnaSukhenko,UniversityofHelsinki.1-2. PosthumanenvironmentsChair:LaurenElizabethLaFauciCeciliaÅsberg,ChristinaFredengren

Storyingexposure:Chemicalwaste,toxicembodiment,andfeministenvironmentalhumanitiesintheBalticSea

SarahBezanSkin/Screen:TheEnfleshedFossilsofJuliusCsotonyi’sInteractiveMurals

ChristinaFredengrenCheckinginwithDeepTime:intragenerationaljusticeandcarearoundtheBalticSea

IgorRodinTactilityassubjectivization/materialresistanceasevent

1-3. Fromundernourishmenttocalamities:ProblemsinfeedingpopulationintheBalticSea

riminthe18thand19thcenturyPanelconvenor:TimoMyllyntausChair:PriitRaudkiviTimoMyllyntaus

Categoriesofnutritionshortagesandpopulationcrises:Failuresoffoodsupplyin19thcenturyFinland

PiotrMiodunkaFaminesin18thcenturyPoland:Socialorenvironmentalcauses?

KerstiLustRespondingtocropfailuresinamanorialsociety:Thecaseofpost-emancipationLivland

AnttiHäkkinenTheGreatFamineofthe1860'sinFinland:Aman-madedisaster?

AappoKähönenPoliticalaspectsoftheFinnishfamine1867–1868incomparativeperspective

12.00-13.00Lunch

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13.00-14.30Session2.2-1.MediatedGreen:modernenvironmentalism,politicsandmediaChair:TarmoPiknerJenniKarimäki

Childrenofthesilentrevolution–FinnishgreenroadfromprotesttopragmatismLonaPäll

The(hyper-)mediatizationofanenvironmentalconflict:CasestudyofHaaberstiwhitewillow

LīnaOrsteDisposabilityofplasticsthroughtheperspectiveofZeroWastelifestyle

2-2.Balticregioninthelong-termChair:ChristinaFredengrenVladasŽulkus,AlgirdasGirininkas,LinasDaugnora,MiglėStančikaitė,JolitaPetkuvienė,MindaugasŽilius,TomasRimkus,NikitaDobrotin

PeopleofMesolithic-NeolithicandtheBalticSea:relictcoastsandsettlementsunderwaterandonthecoast

JunzoUchiyamaNeolithisationallergy?Comparativeperspectivesonhunter-gathererarchaeologyoftheBalticandNortheastAsianregions

ElenaSalmina,SergeySalminArchaeologicalresearchasamethodofobtaininghistoricalandenvironmentalinformation(ontheexampleofmedievalPskovstudy)

2-3.EngineeringwaterattheBalticSeaChair:LoretaZydelieneAlexeyKraykovskiy,JuliaLajus

TheBalticSeaintheenvironmental,technologicalandculturalhistoryofSt.Petersburg.MichaelZiser

Waterfalls:Hydropowerandthemodernideaofhistory14.30-15.00Coffeebreak

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15.00-16.30Session3.3-1.Workshop.Engagingwithdigitalresearchinfrastructures:OpeningdoorsforGeohumanitiesConvenors:VickyGarnett,PirayeHacigüzeller,ElizaPapakiDiscussants:VickyGarnett,PirayeHacigüzeller,ElizaPapaki,LindaKaljundi,AndaBaklane3-2.EcocriticismandtheimaginedworldsChair:Ene-ReetSoovikMadeleineIdaHarke

RomanticizingtheUntamed:MedievalismandtheRelationshipBetweenHumansandWildEnvironmentsintheChildBallads

Elle-MariTalivee,MarianneLindBirdsandplantsinthepoetryofMarieUnder

KadriTüürEcocriticisminEstonia:ashortintroduction

3-3.Post-nuclearlivesandnarrativesChair:PerHögseliusSiarheiLiubimau

‘Nuclear’urbanismre-scaled:AknowledgeinfrastructurelensAleksandraBrylska

Whatcanwecallnature?TheroleofhumanitiesinnewapproachestowardenvironmentInnaSukhenko

Whatisnewinnewnuclearcriticism?Post-Chernobylperspective16.30-17.00Coffeebreak17.00-18.30Session44-1.EcologicalawarenessinteachingandresearchChair:KristineAbolinaPhilippP.Thapa

Ecotopianismasaconnectingidea:embeddingethicsintheenvironmentalhumanitiesAlinOlteanu

Anecologicaltheoryoflearning:ThesemioticcontributiontoecologyArtisSvece

Paradoxofecologicalawareness

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4-2.PlantsandPeopleChair:UlrikePlathRiinMagnus,HeldurSander

Urbantreesassocialdisruptors:thecaseoftheGinkgobilobaspecimeninEstoniaLaurenElizabethLaFauci

Herbaria3.0:ACitizenHumanitiesProjectatthePlant-HumanInterfaceLiisaPuusepp

Urbanlandscapes-anoasisforbees4-3.Transnationalandglobalformationoflandscapes(until19.00)Chair:DanTamirSimoLaakkonen

Landscapesofwar:GlobalenvironmentalimpactsoftheSecondWorldWarPerHögselius,KatiLindström

ColdWarcoasts:Thetransnationalco-productionofmilitarizedlandscapesMartinSchröder

“Sowingtheoil”-Ruralspace,(human)resourcesandnationalwealthinVenezuelaKristīneKrumberga

Birdsintrenches:thegreeningofmilitarizationandmilitarizinghabitatsforlandscapeconservation

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DAYTWO9.30-11.00Session55-1.Roundtable.Fromdropstoasea:Individuals,communities,protectionpoliciesandenvironmentalcrises.Convenorandmoderator:KatiLindströmDiscussants:AetAnnist,ElgarsFelcis,SaraJones,KatieRitson5-2.AdvancingBalticclimatehistory:CreatinganewmoduleinEuro-ClimhistPanelconvenor:UlrikePlathPanelchair:JuliaLajusUlrikePlath,HeliHuhtamaa

Euro-ClimhistandhowtocreateaBalticModulePriitRaudkivi

Wastheweatherimportant?Theperceptionoftheenvironmentofthe18thcenturyinLivonia.

KaarelVanamölder,KristerKruusmaaStormsaroundRigainthemidofthe19thcentury

5-3.RepresentedenvironmentsChair:LindaKaljundiTõnnoJonuks,AtkoRemmel

ForestinEstoniannationalnarrativeandidentitypoliticsEne-ReetSoovik

MultispeciescityinSovietEstonianpoetryJanisMatvejs

Visualrepresentationofcities:RigaandBangkokinmoviesunderthemilitaryregime5-4.Shapingandenlighteningthelandscapesbefore20thcenturyChair:RiinMagnusPaulsDaija

PopularenlightenmentandenvironmentalhistoryinLivoniaandCourlandHeldurSander

Nothinghappensonitsown:GardenerAdamAugustHeinrichDietrich–anenvironmentdesignerandnatureexplorer

VykintasVaitkeviciusStudiesintothepastandmoderncultureofLithuania:thecaseofsacredsprings

11.00-11.30Coffeebreak

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E-1.PostersandprovocationsPosters:AnatoleDanto

Foraneco-anthropologicalapproachtochangesaffectingfishingcommunitiesintheeasternBaltic

BaibaPrūse,AndraSimanova,RaivoKalle,IevaMežaka,AgrisBrauns,DainisJakovels,JevgenijsFilipovs,IngaHolsta,SigneKrūzkopa,RenataSõukand

HabitatalterationasoneofthedriversofthechangeinwildplantusesProvocations:JessePeterson

Shortprovocationwithanexhibition:eutrophication,algaeblooms,anddeadzonesintheBalticSea

JasonMarioDydynskiStandup.Toouglyfortheark:TheRoleofAestheticPerceptioninAnimalConservation

E-2.FlashandAcademicSpeedDatingChair:UlrikePlathFlashpresentations:HannesPalangPéterVighAcademicSpeedDating:Findapersonandtalktothem!Eachpairgetsfiveminutestoquicklyintroducethemselves.Thenallpairsarereshuffled.Withsomeluck,youwillgettoknow10newscholarswhoworkonorintheenvironmentalhumanitiesandsocialsciencesoftheBalticregion.Youcancontinueyourconversationsduringthelunchbreak!12.30-13.30Lunch13.30-15.30Session66-1.Roundtable.TheValueofInterdisciplinaryinEnvironmentalResearchConvenor:AistėBalžekienėDiscussants:AistėBalžekienė,AlinOlteanu,FlorianRabitz,AudroneTelesiene,MihkelKangur6-2.AnimalencountersChair:JunzoUchiyamaDanTamir

Humanvs.Mosquito:Anenvironmentalperiodizationofthe20thcenturyAnitaZariņa,DārtaTreija&IvoVinogradovs

Beastlyencounters:bison'sreturntotheLatvianethnoscapeDaivaVaitkevičienė

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SacredRelationship:InteractionbetweenHumansandWildAnimalsinaTraditionalLithuanianFarmstead

6-3.Transforming,identifyingofandidentifyingwithlandscapesChair:GuntraAistaraSławomirŁotysz

Progressornature?DilemmasaroundtheplannedameliorationofPolesiemarshesinPoland’sSecondRepublic

AnuPrintsmannPrichudye–howidentityisexpressedinlandscape

DaceBulaLivingNexttothePort:Eco-narratives,LocalHistoriesandEnvironmentalActivismintheDaugavaDelta

6-4.Roundtable.PotatoandtheEnvironment:Agrariansocietiessearchingforsurvivalstrategies.Organiser:TimoMyllyntausChair:TimoMyllyntausDiscussants:PiotrMiodunka,PaulsDaija,AnttiHäkkinen,JanKunnas,TimoMyllyntaus15.30-16.00Coffeebreak16.00-18.00Session7.7-1.EthicsofcareandcommemorationChair:PhilippThapaAisteBartkiene,RenataBikauskaitė,DianaMincytė

Environment,emotionsandembodiedcare:Twistingtheconceptofenvironmentalcitizenship

AndriusKulikauskasEnvironmentasspiritualcapital.AnargumentforrestoringVilnius'soldestJewishcemetery.

AllanKährikPastorasasocialentrepreneur–enteringthebridgebuildingprocessbetweenpastorsbehavioralandgeographicalenvironment

AleksandraUbertowskaEcologicalartinpost-genocidalspaces.Seekinganewformofcommemoration

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7-2.Entanglements,sustainabilityanddegrowthChair:AnuPrintsmannTarmoPikner

EncounteringofdegrowthandassociatedpublicsElgarsFelcis

Bridgingtraditionalknowledgeandnoveltiesforsustainabilitytransformationsthroughpermaculture

GuntraAistaraNetworkingdiversities:Makingmosaiclandscapesandorganicsovereigntiesinpost-socialistLatvia

FlorianRabitz,AlinOlteanuTheepistemologyofenvironmentalstudies.Thereflexiveturninenvironmentalresearch

7-3.HistoricalperspectivesonsustainabilityandenvironmentalismChair:IvoVinogradovsLoretaZydeliene

‘Useful,harmfulandneutral’:theperceptionofwildlifeandtheriseoftheconservationmovementininterwarLithuania

LindaKaljundiEnvironmentalistinform,nationalistincontent?NatureandnationalisminlateSovietEstonianculture

KatiLindströmEconationalism,environmentaljusticeororientalism:ChallengesincontextualisinglateSovietenvironmentalisminEstonia

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Abstracts

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1-1. Forumdiscussion:Whatisthecontributionofenvironmentalhumanitiestothe

sustainabilityandclimatechangedebate

Convenorandmoderator:ViktorPál,UniversityofHelsinki

Discussants:DorotheeCambou,UniversityofHelsinki;ParkerC.Krieg,UniversityofHelsinki;JuliaLajus,HigherSchoolofEconomics;St.Petersburg;UlrikePlath,TallinnUniversity;MikkoSaikku,UniversityofHelsinki;InnaSukhenko,UniversityofHelsinki.Climatechange,theglobalenvironmentalcrisisandhumanity’sshifttosustainabilityaresomeof the most pressing challenges humanity has ever faced. Scientific discourse aboutsustainabilityandclimatechangeareoftendominatedbyengineering-,life-andpolicyscientists,whoaresuccessfullyplacingtheiragendaintheforefrontofscientificandpublicdiscoursesoverclimatechange.Humanities,andmanyofthesocialsciencesareoftenpushedtothemarginofthe scientific discourse over humanity’s shift to sustainability and the global climate change.Thismarginalpositionofhumanitiesandsocialsciencesimpliesthatenvironmentalhumanitiescontribute little if any to one of the most pressing global issues, and one of the foremostscientificandpublicdialoguesglobally.ThissessioninvitesenvironmentalhumanitiesandsocialsciencesscholarsfromEstonia,Finland,and Russia to tackle the role of environmental humanities and social sciences in thesustainabilityandclimatechangedebateintheBalticSearegionandalsoglobally.Discussantsrepresentvariousdisciplinesofenvironmentalhumanitiesandwillsharetheirowndisciplines’perspectivewithoneanotherandwiththeaudience.Audiencewillbeinvitedtoengageinthediscourseandiftechnologypermitstheforumwillbebroadcastliveinsocialmedia.

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1-2. PosthumanenvironmentsStoryingexposure:Chemicalwaste,toxicembodiment,andfeministenvironmental

humanitiesintheBalticSea

CeciliaÅsberg,ChristinaFredengrenAttheendofthetwoworldwars,majormilitarypowersdumpedchemicalwarfareagentssuchasmustardgas,tabun,andLewisiteintheplanet’soceans.OneparticularsiteforthedumpingofEuropeanstockswastheBalticSea.Nopreciserecordsofthispost-WW2operationexist,butestimatessuggestthataround10000tonsofmunitionsweredumpedinandaroundthebasincalledtheGotlandDeep.Whiletheoccasionalresurfacingofthesechemicalagents—infishers’nets,onthesnoutsofseals,onstonybeachescamouflagedasamber—posesatoxicthreattohumanandnon-humanbodies,thedominantscientificopinionhasbeentoletthesechemicalslieinsitu(CHEMSEA2014).Thispaperaimstonarratethealmostforgottenstoryofthismilitarymunitionsdumping,andexploreitasameansavailablefor‘facingtheplanetary’(Connolly2017)andwaysoflearningtolivewith“thewoundsoftheworld”(Sandilands2005).Reverberatingwithinpostdisciplinaryenvironmentalhumanitiesresearch,thisisimportantsotoavoidthetrapoffocusingonlyon“damagestories”orapocalypticalarmism(Åsbergetal2013).Thelivelycartographiessketchedinthispaperonthe“slowviolence”(Nixon)andaffordancesofmilitarywasteintheAnthropoceneecologiesoftheBalticSeaaddthuscrucialhumanitiesandartsinterventionsforgedbymultispeciesrelationality,science,Anthropoceneelements,feministtheoryanddeeptimeethics--sotograpplewithourpervasivechemicalexposuresandsenseoftoxicembodiment.

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Skin/Screen:TheenfleshedfossilsofJuliusCsotonyi’sinteractivemurals

SarahBezan

WhatdothepaleontologicalartsandscienceshavetooffertheEnvironmentalHumanitiestoday?Inaneraincreasinglypunctuatedbythethreatofglobalclimatechangeandthenextmassextinction,paleoartistslikeJuliusCsotonyichallengehowwerepresentlong-deadspeciesandimagineanearthhistorythatextendsbothbeforeandbeyondtheAnthropocene.Describinghisartisticintentinhisblog,“EvolutionaryRoutes,”Csotonyiwritesthathisinteractivemurals(housedattheRoyalOntarioMuseuminToronto,OntarioandtheHoustonMuseumofNaturalScienceinHouston,Texas)feature“mostlyfullsizedrestorationsofdinosaurs,positionedbesideandbehindtheskeletons,andinthesamepositionsastheskeletalmounts,allowingvisitorstocomparetheskeletalanatomytothefleshed-outrestorationsatthesamescale.”Rangingfrom15x150feetinsize,thesemulti-mediamuralsutilizemanipulationsofscaleandscopeto“animate”theskeletonfossilsintolivingcreaturesandevenincludemotionsensorsthat“selectivelyanimateplantandanimalcomponentsofthemuralsasvisitorsapproachthem”(Csotonyi,unpag).ExploringhowskinandscreensarejuxtaposedinCsotonyi’stechnologically-innovativeexhibitions,thispaperwillinterprethowdigitalmodelsproduceanimated3-Dfossilsinthesemblanceoflife.Insodoing,IexaminehowCsotonyi’snaturalscientificillustrationsexemplifywhatW.J.T.Mitchellarguesisthe“paleontologyofthescreen”thatisusedtoportraynature:avisualapparatusthatworksbackthroughawholerangeofopticaltechnologiestorepresentthedeeptimeofplanetaryhistory.

Photosource:https://evolutionaryroutes.wordpress.com

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CheckinginwithDeepTime:intragenerationaljusticeandcarearoundtheBalticSea

ChristinaFredengren

Onceuponatimetherewastheicelake,thenfollowedtheYoldia,AncylysandLittorinaSeas,thatwasbeforetheBalticoftoday,landkeeprisingoutofthedepths,butalsootherSeaswillfollow.TheBalticSeaholdsavarietyoftantalizingtemporalitiesandpacesthatinterlaceinoursurroundings and stich us into relations between human andmore-than-human generations.Thispaperwillreflectonthisandstartadiscussionontopicssuchasspectrality,ancestorship,sacrificialacts(cf.Reinert2015).InspiredbyHaraway(2016)andBraidotti(2013)wewillworkwith speculative, material stories of a number of parallel pasts, presents and futures of theBalticSea.

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Tactilityassubjectivization/materialresistanceasevent

IgorRodinIn the proposed presentation, Iwill reflect on inter-subject/objectivematerial resistance andwhat I call deep tactility, the interplay of which suggests one’s traumatic active-passiveengagementwiththeever-transformingbecomingofthematerialworld,asadistinctplaneofsubjectivization. Seeing theseas specificpathsof self-constitutionofa speakinganimal shedsdifferent light on such always-already-taken-for-granted concepts as communication, destiny,loveetc.

Such a perspective, which I refer to as entropy-centric, opposes egocentric, self-projective, peculiarly human thinking. Thus, the entropy-centric paradigm seeks to come toterms with the primary traumaticity of the Universe, the fundamental marriage betweentraumaandtransformationandcontingencyasadrivingforceofone’sbeingintheworld.Thesefactorsmanifest as and constitute alternative formsofmeaning-production through layers ofidentificationwiththeanimalworld,theworldofmatterandothernessinthebroadestsense,nottheleastincertainwaysofinterpretation/writing/theorization(symbolization). Theorizing on the vague seam between psychoanalysis and ecosophy allows bringingtogether such thinkers and practitioners as Jacques Lacan, Jean-Luc Nancy, Félix Guattari,George Bataille, Timothy Morton, Reza Negarestani, in an attempt to articulate a non-anthropocentric ontology. Within such a framework, it is only possible to understand thespeaking animal’s place in the world through its decentralization, deconstruction anddisplacement, thepossibility ofwhich, in turn, is onlypossible througha corporeal traumaticexperience.

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1-3. Fromundernourishmenttocalamities:ProblemsinfeedingpopulationintheBalticSeariminthe18thand19thcentury

Panelconvenor:TimoMyllyntaus

ThesessionispartoftheworkshopseriesoftheprojectPopulationCatastrophesinFinlandandEstoniainthe1860s(Suvikriisi),whichissupportedbytheFinnishCulturalFoundation.

Categoriesofnutritionshortagesandpopulationcrises:

Failuresoffoodsupplyin19thcenturyFinland

TimoMyllyntaus

Intuitively, famine sounds a tangible and comprehensible term.Nevertheless,when analysedcloser, it turnsanevermorecomplicatedconcept. Forexample,Merriam-Webster's Learner'sDictionarydefinesfaminesimplyas“asituation,inwhichmanypeopledonothaveenoughfoodto eat.” As a result, one immediately asks whether there is any difference between foodshortagesandfamines.

Famineshavea longhistory.The termhasbeenmentioned in thebibleseveral times,andtherethemainemphasisistoregarditasonesortofgod’spunishments.Animpressionisthatinreligiousthinkingitscleardefinitionhasbeenlessimportantthantheneedtodescribeitasadivineattempttoafflictsinfulcommunities.Invariousplaces,thebibleclaimsthat“faminesweresentasaneffectofgod'sangeragainstaguiltypeople”.

Famines are not alike. Their causes, forms of their manifestations and consequencesvary. This presentation aims to sketch profiles for different famines as well as define keyfeaturesofthem.Invariouscultures,themostcommonnominatorfor“famine”ishunger,andtherefore in many languages, the term for famine is derived from a word for hunger or itssynonym,suchasHungersnotinGerman,hungersnødinNorwegian,nälänhätäinFinnish,голодinRussianorfome inPortuguese.However,reasonsforhungerarenumerousandallcasesofhungermaynotfulfiltheessentialfeaturesforfamine.

This paper classifies definitions of famines in three categories: those based on foodsupply, foodconsumptionandmortality. Achallenge is separate famines fromother societalcrises.Faminesareoften interrelated tovarioussocial,economic,politicalandenvironmentalcrises – hardly ever it can be explainedmonocausally, just by a harvest failure, for example.Measuring theseverityof foodshortages isanotherchallenge for faminehistorians. Hasanyfamineeverbeenattributedan“absolutedeficitoffood”?Thatisoneoftheissuesexaminedinthis paper,which examines the food shortages of 19th century Finland as case studies in theattempttodefinefamine.

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Faminesin18thcenturyPoland:Socialorenvironmentalcauses?

PiotrMiodunka

Duringthe18thcentury,faminesexperiencedPolandinalternativeperiodsthaninwesternandnorthern Europe (1715, 1737). It leads to the question of its nature – was there onlyenvironmentalfactor(weather,harvestfailure)actedoralsoothers?Withoutnodoubt,intheabovementionedyears, thereweresevereextremeweatherphenomena,suchasheavyrainsandfloodswhichcausedharvestfailuresanddearness.Ontheotherhandinbothcasesafewyearsbeforefaminesaninternalpoliticaldisorderstookplace.Adifferentsituationoccurredin1772whenfamineaffectedCzechlands,Germany,Swedenbut-asfarasweknow-notPoland.It is rather surprising because although from 1768 to 1772 in Poland a civil war waged, thecumulativeeffectofdisastersdidnotappear.

So thequestion returns,whatwas themaindriving factor of famines in pre-industrialPoland? It is assumed that the harvest failures might be balanced with the protection ofpeasantrybytheirlandlords.Itispossiblethatthismechanismdidnotworkduringtheinternalupsets.Nevertheless,thisdoesnotexplainenoughamoderateeffectoftheyearof1772.ThepaperwillbeanattempttoconsiderthisissuesonthebasisofmaterialsfromsouthernPoland.

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Respondingtocropfailuresinamanorialsociety:Thecaseofpost-emancipationLivland

KerstiLust

Untilthemiddleofthenineteenthcentury,theBalticpeasantryconstantlyfacedthedangerofcrop failureandpossible subsistencedifficulties following it. Inmuchofpreindustrial Europe,theopportunitiestodealwithstressforpeopleofloweconomicstatuswerequitesmall.First,peasants'copingstrategiesforcropfailureareexamined.

Someauthorsbelievethatundermanorialism,theonlyinstitutionthatmight,atleasttosome extent, have insured local inhabitants against risks of economic stresswas themanor.Despiteawidespreadviewthattheestatesinsureditstenantsagainstextremeevents,thereislittleevidencethatmeasurestakenwereefficient.Second,thepaperdiscussesmanoriallords’reliefeffortsduringfamines.Themeasurestakenwillbeassessedinthelightofdataondeathratesandthelossoffarms.Ourdataindicatesthatmanorialestatewasaninstitutionwiththepotentialofactingtolowertheimpactofeconomicstressinthefarmingandalsoprobablynon-farming groups of rural population, but it provided only limited insurance against extremeeventsandinsomecasesevenexasperatedthecrisis.

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Thegreatfamineofthe1860'sinFinland:Aman-madedisaster?

AnttiHäkkinenTheGreatFamineofthe1860sisclaimedtohavebeenthelastpeacetimehungercatastrophe(famine)inWesternEurope(ÓGráda2009).Itmeantanearly8percentmortalityratein1868,270,000casesofdeath in threeyears (pop.1867:1.8million). Themain researchquestion iscould the catastrophe be explained by the factors of escalating social inequality, by the old-fashioned agricultural production, by the unfavorable weather conditions, by the weak,ineffectiveandpartlywrongkindofreliefpolicy,orbyallofthem.

TheFaminewillbediscussedfromfourseparateperspectives.First,byusingthefamineclassificationdevelopedbyHoweandDevereux(2007)itisanalyzedatfourlevels:themortalityrate,foodsupply,copingstrategiesandsocialbreakdown.Themainresultisthatalthoughthecriteriaof severe famineconditionswere fulfilled incertainpartsof thecountry,on the locallevel the social order remained capable and the local government organized help in thedesperateconditions.

Second,thereasonsbehindthefaminewillbeconsideredfromthepointofviewofthestructuralandeventhistorymodels(Arnold1998).Thepaperwillarguethattheflowofeventscannotbeexplainedwithoutcombiningbothoftheseapproaches.Thesystemtheoryapproach(Howe & Devereux 2004, Howe 2010) will be connected with the long-term structuralexplanations(Sen1981,1982,Mokyr1985,DilleyandBoudreau2011).

Thirdandfinally,thelocallyadoptedandtraditionallyuseddifferentmodesofpoorrelief,especiallyreliefworkwillbediscussedcritically.Thisanalysisisdoneinthelocalcommunallevel,bycomparing10pairsofnearbyparisheswithasimilarsocialstructure,industryandpopulation,butatotallydifferentmortalityrate.Bycomparingtheseparishesthewayhowaseverehungercrisesturnedtoadisastrousmortalitycrisescanbestudied.Itisevidentthatalmosteveryonecaughtafaminediseaseandtheincreasednumberofdeathcaseswasmainlyaconsequenceoffamine related diseases. The individual recovery was depending on the patient’s generalcondition, medication and nursing, including nutrition. There is no doubt that these factorsvariedconsiderablybythearea,gender,ageandsocialclass.Theresultwasdifferentdependingonthesocialstructureofthecommunityandonthetraditionallyusedsocialsecurityhabitsandmeans,plustheadoptedlocalcentralizedordecentralizedreliefsystem.

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PoliticalAspectsoftheFinnishFamine1867–1868inComparativePerspective

AappoKähönenThe starting point for this paper is the changing role of the state towards famines. Thestrengthening of state infrastructure, especially on 20th century, but already from the 19thcenturyonwards,enabled,firstly,todiminishdependenceonenvironmentalfactors.Secondly,itenabledmoredestructiveagriculturalpoliciesinrelationtothepopulation(Devereux2009).TheemancipationofserfsinRussiain1861didnotoriginallycreateproductiveagriculture,butfoodshortagesandfaminesemergedrepeatedlybetween1860and1890,before independentpeasantrywasallowedtoemergegradually.

From this bases it becomes interesting to study thepolitical and social aspects of theFinnish famine of 1867–1868, as a challenge and crisis in state building, both from imperialRussian and local Finnish perspectives, through following questions: How did the Russianadministrationevaluatefoodshortagesandfamines in1860–1890ingeneralandespecially inFinland and the Baltic Provinces?What qualified as ‘food shortage’ or ‘famine’ at the time?Were threats to the social order perceived, and if, what was the role of control and armedforce?

Regarding Finland, what was the attitude of the political elite to potential imperialinterventionduringfoodshortagesorthefamine?CouldthecohesionoftheFinnisheliteandcollegialdecision-makinghaveinfluencedonthelaterevaluationofthe1867–1868famine?

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2-1.MediatedGreen:modernenvironmentalism,politicsandmedia

Childrenofthesilentrevolution–Finnishgreenroadfromprotesttopragmatism

JenniKarimäki

OnanAprilSaturdayin1979environmentalactivistsgatheredatLakeKoijärviinSouthernpartsof Finland.Theiraimwas to conserveawell-knownbird lake thatwasbeingdrainedby locallandowners.Environmentalactivismwasn’tanovelphenomenoninFinlandbutthistimeitwaswell covered by the media as the protesters built a dam to stop the draining and chainedthemselvestotractorsandfrontloaderspreventingtheirusage.TheformativeexperienceandthepoliticisationoftheFinnishenvironmentalmovementis,thus,commonlyplacedatKoijärvi.The actual conservation of a small Southern-Finnish lakewas probably not the key issue formostjoiningthedemonstration.Theywererathermoreinterestedintheexperienceitself,andwhatitsignified.

Itwasastartingpointandan initiationtest tonewmovement-basedpolitics inFinland,thatmeantanemotionaldetachmentfromthestagnationand‘partitocracy’ofthepassingera.Byand large thismeantanambition to revolutionizeandreformtheoldpartysystemandtoenhanceopen, transparent, anddecentralist patterns of intraparty decision-makingover top-downpartyorganization.Regardingthebroaderpoliticalsystem,theaspirationwastodispersetheoldpartystate,andopenpolicymakingtonewpluralismofinterests,displacethehegemonyof the labour interest groups, and increase opportunities for plebiscitarian decision making.Duringthenexttwentyyears,whatstartedasaformativeexperienceformanyenvironmental,post-modernactivistsendedwithoneof theKoijärviveterans,OsmoSoininvaara,becomingacabinetminister.

Thisarticlefocusesonhowthishasunfolded.HowtheFinnishgreenparty,GreenLeague,hasadaptedtotheexternalpressuresoftheFinnishpartysystemandpoliticalculture,andwhatkindofinternalstruggles,ifany,hasthiscausedwithintheparty?

The Green challenge to established party politics and party systems Europe-wide hasattracted a lot of scholarly interest. Numerous politological studies have been conductedexaminingstructuralandinstitutionalprocesses,identifyingdistinctivegreenpartyfeaturesandanalysingconflictsandchangeswithinthegreenpartyfamily.Eventhoughtheseanalyseshavebeensuccessfulatidentifyingfeaturesthatexplaintheformationofthegreenpartiesandsomedecisions made for example regarding government participation, they lack the ambition tounderstandthecontextandtheeffectsthatthesurroundingpoliticalcultureandtheexternalpressures have had on the development of the green parties. Thus, this paper analyses theGreenLeaguedevelopmentinthecontextofFinnishpoliticalcultureandinrelationtoresearchdoneregardingthegreenpartyfamilyatlarge.Topresentacomprehensivepicture,theanalysisisbasedonvastresearchliterature,archiveandnewspapermaterials,andinterviews.

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The(hyper-)mediatizationofanenvironmentalconflict:CasestudyofHaaberstiwhitewillow

LonaPäll

Ourpresentationexplainshowanenvironmentalconflictunfoldsin(social)media.Ouraimistodescribe various interpretations, relatedwithHaaberstiwhitewillowand toexplain themainnarratives and meaning-making strategies that started to frame the public discourse of thisenvironmental conflict.We provide possible explanations why some seeminglymarginal andrandomaspectsreceivedanexplosivemediacoverageand influencedthegeneralmeaningofthisstruggle.

ThecasestudyfocusesonthemediacoverageoftheenvironmentalconflictofHaaberstiwhitewillow.ItbrokeoutinJune2017whenactivistsstartedtoprotestagainstthecuttingofawhite willow that was impeding the construction work of a new intersection in Tallinn,Haaberstidistrict.Theprotectionofthewhitewillowtreeturnedintoamediaspectacle:morethan120articles,dozensofvideoclipsandthousandsofphotosandsocialmediapostingswerepublished about this topic. Also, various grassroots-movements, several politicians andadministrativedepartments related thewhitewillowwith theiragendas.This case is relevantbecause it illustrates the controversies and conflictsof Estonianenvironmental discourseandhighlightstheroleofmediatization.

Our presentation synthesizes the conceptual frameworks of ecosemiotics, mediasemiotics and environmental communication studies. We find this approach fruitful for ananalysis of environmental discourse because it enables to understand the specifics ofcontemporarymediarepresentations(e.g.aspectofhyper-mediatization,affectivepublics)andtocomprehendthemaincommunicationstrategies.TheoriesofenvironmentalcommunicationallowustoexplicatetherelationsbetweenthemediacoverageofHaaberstiwhitewillowandprevious heated debates about environmental issues. Ecosemiotics provides us tools foropeningthelevelofparticularinterpretationsofenvironmentandhelpsustoexplainhowtheprocessof(hyper-)mediatizationinfluencedenvironmentaldiscourseandtheenvironmentitself.

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DisposabilityofplasticsthroughtheperspectiveofZeroWastelifestyle

LīnaOrste

Media coverage on environmental pollution has affected household consumptionpractices. There are various options for how people can reduce their effect on theenvironment starting with solar panels and ecological building materials to moreresponsible and thought-out grocery shopping. One of the responsible consumerismpracticesisthezerowastelifestyle.Itsgoalistoreduceone’sconsumptionandreducetheamount of household waste, especially concerning plastics, without tampering with thestandardof living.Makinga choice in thiswide varietyofproducts createsdilemmasandasksforspecificknowledgetobesurethattheconsumerisshoppingaccordingtoone’sownmoral principles. On the internet and in public discussions people are asked to avoiddisposable coffee cups,plastic straws,plasticbags,plasticbottlesand areencouraged touse theirowncontainersandbags instead.Howdoes theuseofplasticsbecomeamoralprobleminthezerowastelifestyle?

Having conducted an anthropological study by using in-depth interviews with themembers of ZeroWaste Latvija discussion group on Facebook, the results revieled theirviewsonglobalecologicalproblemsandthewastemanagementsysteminLatvia.Moreover,it showed themeaningof the lifestylein theirown livesand itsdesirableeffectsonwidereconomic,socialandpoliticalprocesses.Attentionisalsodirectedtowardsthepropertiesofplastics and their disposability. More precisely, what happens to plastics after their use,whether it is possible to dispose of them and how and how they affect humans andenvironmentingeneral.

Followingthetrends inanthropology,thisresearchgivesan insight intothecomplexrelationshipshumanshavewithmaterials,plasticsespecially. It contributes to thealreadygrowingamountofliteratureconcerningthistopic.Thisresearchalsoshowswhateffecttheissues raisedbyenvironmentalprotectionorganizationshaveon individualsandhowtheytrytofollowthesesuggestionsandprinciplesintheirdailylives.Ituncoveredtheproblemsand dilemmas the people practicing a zero waste lifestyle deal with because of theinfrastructure available to them.This research along with other similar ones is useful forgaininganunderstandingofandsolvingtheseinfrastructuralissues.

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2-2.Balticregioninthelong-term

PeopleofMesolithic-NeolithicandtheBalticSea:Relictcoastsandsettlementsunderwaterandonthecoast

VladasŽulkus,AlgirdasGirininkas,LinasDaugnora,MiglėStančikaitė,JolitaPetkuvienė,

MindaugasŽilius,TomasRimkus,NikitaDobrotin

The project “People ofMesolithic-Neolithic and the Baltic Sea: relict coasts and settlementsunderwaterandonthecoast ReCoasts&People (09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0171)aimedtoexplorethe habitats of the Early Mesolithic-Early Neolithic and reconstruct the natural-culturallandscapesoftheEarlyHoloceneinthepresentandfloodedBalticSeacoastlines.Thefloodedlandscapesof relicts, theperiodofclimatechangeandthedevelopmentofvegetationwillbeidentifiedintheresearch.Moreover,withinprojectthemigrationofanimalsandpeopletothecurrent territory of Lithuania coastlandwill be specified. In the present day and sea-floodedBaltic coastlines the settlements of Early Mesolithic-Early Neolithic communities will beexploredandreconstructedthenatural-culturallandscapesofEarlyHolocene.

TheReCoasts&Peopleprojectseekstocreateanoriginalresearchmethodologytoidentifypeople'shabitationsitesontheseabed,thepeculiaritiesoftheclimaticvegetationandfaunaofthe exploredperiod in searchof traces of humanactivities at the seabed. Theprojectwouldspecifyareaswithsurviving relictsandcultural landscapesandarchaeologicalheritageon thecoast and under water. This is essential not only for the planning of scientific and appliedresearchbutalsoforthedevelopmentandimplementationofprojectsforthesustainableuseandsustainabledevelopmentintegratingintowesternandnorthernEuropeanprojectsaroundBalticSeaandcoasts.

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Neolithisationallergy?Comparativeperspectivesonhunter-gathererarchaeologyoftheBalticandNortheastAsianregions

JunzoUchiyama

WhileNortheastAsiaaroundtheJapanSeasharesmanygeographicsimilaritieswiththeBalticregion, e.g. complex and productive coastal areas, inland and northern seas, the culturalhistories are quite different, including very early pottery since the late Pleistocene and long-term sedentism. Even so, recent archaeological studies have suggested that, from the mid-Holocene onwards, both areas evolved on more or less parallel courses of the historicfluctuationsofpopulation:rapidgrowthanddroparound4,000-2,000calBCE, justbeforethespread of agriculture-based economy. What factors created such a phenomenon, was itenvironmentalor socio-cultural, or a sortof combinationof these?Thispaperwill assess thequestionfromcomparativeperspectivesofsocio-economicandenvironmentalbackgroundsofboth areas, and consider towhat extent theprocessofNeolithisation remain a general-scalephenomenononthenortherncoastalareasofeastandwestendsofthecontinent.

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Archaeologicalresearchasamethodofobtaininghistoricalandenvironmentalinformation(ontheexampleofmedievalPskovstudy)

ElenaSalmina,SergeySalmin

Duringthelong-termarchaeologicalstudyofculturalstratificationsinPskovanditsenvirons,asignificantamountof informationabout theMedievalRussiancityecosystemfunctioningwasobtained. The studied area included territories of administrative and residential quarters,commercialspaces,monasteryandChurchyards.Alongsidewiththeclassicalstudyofbuildingconstructions and things collections formation results, the data on the hydraulic systemsfunctioning, the terrain of the inhabited territory changing, the residential developmentformationandnon-residentialareasinclusionprincipleswasobtained.

The human impact on the ecosystem around residential settlements, the principles oftransportrouteschoiceandenvironmentalmanagementingeneral(fishing,hunting,agriculture,useofforests)wastraced.

Theratioofthearchaeologicaldatawiththeinformationfromnarrativesources,allowingthenaturalfactorsimpactuponthepoliticalandsocialpracticesoftheterritoriesunderstudyevaluationappearedtobeextremelyimportantforourstudy.

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2-3.EngineeringwaterattheBalticSea

TheBalticSeaintheenvironmental,technologicalandculturalhistoryofSt.Petersburg

AlexeyKraykovskiy,JuliaLajusWe will discuss the process of mutual transformation of the city of St. Petersburg and theadjacent area of the Baltic Sea in the 18th and 19th centuries. We argue that the marineenvironmenttoagreatextentshapedthelifeoftheurbandwellersonavarietyoflevelsfromeverydaypracticesofconsumptionandpastimetothedescriptionandconceptualizationofthecity in literature and arts. In turn the city shaped the sea through political, economic andtechnologicalinstrumentsandtheproblemofaborderandextentofthisspatialcontrolseemstobeoneofthemostimportantfortheunderstandingofthisstory.InourpresentationwewilldemonstratethedevelopmentofthesystemsofmanagementoftheBalticSeaconductedfromthe capital of the Russian Empire from the “Window to Europe” to the regulated andpredictableareaoftheinnerseaofSt.Petersburg.Eventuallywewillanalyzethecomparativeperspective for this situation in order to consider the phenomenon of St. PetersburgmultifacetedinteractionwiththeBalticaspartoftheglobalhistoricreality.

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Waterfalls:Hydropowerandthemodernideaofhistory

MichaelZiserMycurrentresearchandbookprojectgoesinsearchofthedeepconceptualunderpinningsofasharedEuro-Americanmodernenergyculture. While thenineteenth-century riseof coaland(eventually)oilisthemostobviousinnovationoftheperiod—andthemostfatefulforourowncontemporaryenvironmentalproblems—what is truly remarkable inmodernity is thebreadthandintensityoftheattentionpaidtoenergyofallkinds—fossilfuels,yes,butalsowater,wind,animals,andhumanbodies,oftensimultaneously.Theculturalrecordfromtheperiodrevealsofnotjustatransitionfromoneprimemovertoanotherbutaprofoundre-figurationofenergyin general as an environmental concept. My book project moves past recent work on thehistoryandrepresentationofparticular fossil fuelstoshed lightonthiswidertransformation,trackingchangesthroughAnglophoneliteratureandthenon-Anglophoneinfluencesuponit.Itistakingontheformofatranslatioenergeia(ifyou’llforgivetheGreco-Romanadmixture)fromchanging Continental discourses around energy to their appearance in English philosophy,literature,and thearts, and finallyon to themostenergy-intensive society theworldhasyetseen, theUnitedStates. Twochaptersof thisprojectarealreadycomplete:oneon theearlyScottish-American energy refugee and ornithologist AlexanderWilson, and the other on theengagementofHenryThoreau(andotherAmericanTranscendentlists)withthehydropoweredmill-works of their time and region. As I look to complete an earlier chapter, on earlycoalminesandtheircanalsystemsinGermanyandEngland,IamparticularlykeentolearnwhatI can of European (mainly German but also French) research methods and findings in theenvironmental and energy humanities. The particular paper I would like to present at theconferenceisbothhistoricistandtheoretical:itconsiderswhatitmightmeanforliterarystudiesifHegelandotherphilosopherswereregardedasanexpositoroftheenergyshiftsunderwayinthe19thcentury.ForBALTEHUMS,IwouldliketotrytotakemymoregeneralargumentsaboutthehydrologyofcentralEuropetothespecificwatershedsoftheBaltic,perhapsexploringtheenvironmentalimpressionleftonKantbythePregelriverandtheearlyPrussiantextileindustryalongtheDaugava.

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3-1.Workshop.Engagingwithdigitalresearchinfrastructures:OpeningdoorsforGeohumanities

Convenors:VickyGarnett,PirayeHacigüzeller,ElizaPapakiDiscussants:VickyGarnett,PirayeHacigüzeller,ElizaPapaki,LindaKaljundi,AndaBaklaneThelinksbetweenEnvironmentalHumanitiesandDigitalHumanitiesaremanifold,particularlyin the light of GIS technologies and potentials for working with Linked Open Data. Anyresearcherworkingwithspatialdata,be theyhistorians, linguists, literaryscholarsor, indeed,geographerswouldfindbenefitsindigitalmethodologiestosupporttheirwork.Supportingsuchcommunitiesofresearchers,however,canalsoofferupamultitudeofpotentialsilosforbothdata, and research. Research Infrastructures open up these silos and allow for greaternetworking opportunities, as well as sharing of data, tools and services. DARIAH1 is a pan-europeanresearchinfrastructureforArtsandHumanitiesscholarsworkingwithcomputationalmethods. It supports digital research as well as the teaching of digital research methods.FunctioningasawideEuropeannetwork,DARIAHprovidesdigitaltoolsandsharesdataaswellastrainingandlearningopportunitiesfordigitalresearchmethodsandeducationalmaterialsforDigital Humanities. Within DARIAH, working groups based around thematic areas, build andshareknowledgeforusewithinthewiderDARIAHandEuropeancommunity.

Working incollaboration,theDARIAHCommunityEngagementWorkingGroup2andtheDARIAHGeo-HumanitiesWorkingGroup3willpresentthis90-minuteroundtablesession,whichwilldemonstratehowdigitalresearchinfrastructurescanoffercollaboration,sharedresources,networking, tools, services and training within digital humanities to the EnvironmentalHumanitiesresearchthemes,whilealsodiscussinganddocumentingtheresearchpracticesandneedsofthisparticularresearchcommunityintheBalticRegion.

This contribution aims to follow a workshop format with brief presentations andopportunities for interaction in which all participants will partake in a lively discussion forunderstandingandquestioningthepotentialsofengagingwith(Digital)ResearchInfrastructuresandalreadyestablisheddigitalresearchnetworks.

1https://www.dariah.eu2https://dariahre.hypotheses.org3https://www.dariah.eu/activities/working-groups/geohumanities/

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3-2.EcocriticismandtheimaginedworldsRomanticizingtheUntamed:MedievalismandtheRelationshipBetweenHumansandWild

EnvironmentsintheChildBallads

MadeleineIdaHarkeWhenAmerican scholar and folklorist Francis JamesChild collectedhis famed305 traditionalballads from England and Scotland in the second half of the nineteenth century, the term“medieval”hadalreadysheditstemporalcategoryandbecameageneraltermthatbothstoodinopposition and cooperatedwith thepopularityof romanticism. The fearof aCatholic pastwas no longer a legitimate threat with the power of the British Empire, and reshaping amedievalhistoryfitcomfortablywiththeriseofthedisciplinesofarcheologyandfolklore.Theballads helped shape an official culture of the British Empire, but with the popularity ofmedievalism also came the revival of an anxiety turned to admiration. The dualism betweenman and beast, the rational and the irrational, and the civil and the untamed are popularthemes among the ballads. These manifest in the forms of animal transformation, sexualrelationships with anthropomorphic animals, and conflicts with fairies far from the realm ofhuman safety and security. In this study, I examine the anxieties and admiration for theuntamedworldsofspaceandtimeinEnglandandScotlandthroughtheChildBallads,focusingonenvironmentsuncontrolledbyhumansandthemythicalconstructionofadistantpast.

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BirdsandplantsinthepoetryofMarieUnder

Elle-MariTalivee,MarianneLindIfacertainbirdoraplantismentionedinapoem,whatdoweexpectasreaders?Probablywewouldliketoknowwhythisspecieshasbeendescribedorifitisahiddenallusionbasedonitsappearance or sound? Or, in some cases, does it offer a possibility to get to know theenvironment that surrounded the author and the kind of knowledge the poet hadof his/hersurroundings?Thefollowingisanattempt1)tomaptherepresentationofnatureinthepoetryofMarieUnder,comparingtheresultwithherrealenvironment;2) to explore how her poetic landscape changes throughout herworks, from onomatopoeticimitationsofbirdsongtocomplexsymbolicimagery.MarieUnder (1883–1980) isconsideredtobeonethegreatestandmostbelovedpoetsofthe20th century in the Estonian language. She has been nominated for the Nobel Prize forLiteratureeighttimes.ShewasbornandraisedinthesuburbsofTallinnbutisstillwidelyknownapoetwithaverygoodknowledgeofnature.ShediedinexileinSwedenin1980.

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EcocriticisminEstonia:ashortintroduction

KadriTüürInthisshortpresentation, Iwillgiveanoverviewoftheecocriticalworkdone inEstoniasince1990s, as well as the cooperation that has (sporadically) taken place with the scholars fromother Baltic countries. I will map both activities (such as seminars, university courses) andwritten works (such as BA and MA works, PhD dissertations, scholarly articles) by Estonianresearchersand/orinEstoniaduringthisperiod.Itwill hopefully serve as an inspiration for further co-operation aswell as spark a discussionabout joint research in literatures thatdonotsharethesame language. Is itpossible tocarryoutsuccessfulecocriticalanalysisonthebasisoftranslations?

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3-3.Post-nuclearlivesandnarratives

‘Nuclear’urbanismre-scaled:Aknowledgeinfrastructurelens

SiarheiLiubimauThis paper builds up on and critically reconsiders existing conceptual takes on urbanity andpopulationofVisaginas,atownbuiltinEasternLithuaniain1970-sand1980-stoserveaSovietIgnalinaNuclearPowerPlant.TheINPPwasdecommissionedandnowisintheprocessofbeingdismantledasoneofthemaintargetsforamovementtore-gainLithuanianstatesovereigntyanddis-integratefromSoviettechno-politicalregime.SinceLithuanianindependenceandinthecourse of country’s integration to the EU, urbanity and population of Visaginas weresystematically discussed in literature as the showcase of de-industrialization, defined by theruptureof theUSSR collapse. Expected contributionof thispaper toexisting research field isplacementofthiscaseinthecontextofargumentson‘planetaryurbanization’(Brenner2014)andofapproachestourbanizationasnotonlyconcentrated,butalsoextendedanddifferentialprocess (Brenner and Schmid 2015). Thus the argument of this paper entails questioninghegemonic heritage centered narratives of de-industrialization and post-industrialism. Inparticular,itsintentionistoshowanddiscussapeculiarroleoftheSoviet‘nuclear’MinistryoftheMediumMachine Building (MMMB, Sredmash) in creating isomorphism between town’snuclear power, welfare, and knowledge infrastructures in the broader network of multipleSoviet ‘nuclear’ sites. And, further, to mobilize recent approaches to and discussions of theconceptofinfrastructure(GrahamandMcFarlane2015,Larkin2013,Simone2004)inordertoidentifyempiricalregistersandformatsofthisisomorphismafterthe‘rupture’.

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Whatcanwecallnature?Theroleofhumanitiesinnewapproachestowardenvironment

AleksandraBrylska

TheanthropogenicchangeofEarth’sconditionsareundeniable.Theongoingdiscussionontheterm Anthropocene and its connection to global warming is showing how layered andcomplicated is human contemporary relation to the environment. In the shadow of drasticclimate change, the positivist system of separating sciences from humanities is no longerlegitimate. InmypresentationIwouldliketoaskabouthowthehumanities,inhandwithsciences,canhelptoworkoutthenewapproachestowardtheenvironment.Iproposetolookintothecultural perception of novel ecosystems of post nuclear sites. As they are difficult to beincorporatedinaculturalnarrativeofunspoiltnaturetheyhavelargelybeenneglectedbythenonhumanturnso far.However, theymaybeoneof theprimeexamplesofhownon-humanworld thrives in the absence of human activity, despite high toxicity rates. This gives themparadoxicalpositionofboth'degraded'and'pristine'.Theirunclearbiologicalandculturalstatusallowedreflectingonthetermsofwhat isnature,valuableenvironmentandwhatwethink iscrucialtoprotect.Inmyopinionthisreflectionismuch-neededtoelaboratethenewmodelsofhuman-naturecoexistence.

Inmypresentation Iwill focusonthezone inChernobyl inUkraine.Byexamininghowthis space have developed and how its fauna and flora is perceived nowadays in media,humanities' discoursebut also analysing thebiological andecological research I reflect on itspoliticalandculturalstatus.Iarguethatnuclearcontaminationandunwantedtoxiclifemaybeseenasaparadoxicalhope for the future,making space for rethinkingdichotomies rooted inthediscourse(eg.nature/culture,pristine/degenerated,clear/polluted,wild/novelecosystem).

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Whatisnewinnewnuclearcriticism?Post-Chernobylperspective

InnaSukhenko

Researching the literary dimension of the “nuclear” narrative in Eastern-European and NorthAmericanwritingpracticesgivesanopportunitytodistinguishnotonlythelocal/globalfeaturesofthenuclear“Other” implementationinthecontextofresearchingecologicalmemoryandnuclearidentityformationinthepost-Cold-Warsocietiesbutalsothenewconcepts,methodsforanalysisandforms,launchedbythenew“nuclear”age.

The“original”nuclearcriticism(postedbyDerrida“NoApocalypse,NotNow:SevenMissilesandSevenMissives,1984)seemedtobefading(duetothefactthattheColdWarwasconsideredtobeover)andresultedinecocriticalmovement.Nevertheless,Chernobylaswellasother“nuclearenergy”events,andnuclearenergyingeneral,changedthewaywethinkaboutnuclearcriticism,whichhasprovedthelaunchofnewnuclearcriticismwithitsmethodologiesofliteraryanalysis

My presentationwill demonstrate the transformations of “nuclear energy” concept - from“thepoliticizedChernobyl”(regardedasatomboftheSovietregime,the“alternativehistory”,theSoviet self-destroying science, as a peace of propaganda policy, a factor of national identityformation) to “slow violence of the nuclear”(“Atom for Peace”, “Sarcophagus”, “the ExclusionZone”,“cancerdeath”,“Zoneculture”)- inwritingpracticesabout“Chernobyl”withinthe last30years(actuallycoveredbythepost-Chernobylexperience).

Basingon“hyberobjectframe”(T.Morton),“intergenerationalmemory”studies(S.Lindsay),“collectivenarrative”(N.Bekhta)andthroughthepsychoanalyticallens,suchapproachto“nuclear”subject formation and nuclear phobia as key concepts in the contermporary nuclear narrativesencourages to discuss what a new nuclear criticism might look like today and reframe the“provincialized”nuclearnarratives.

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4-1.Ecologicalawarenessinteachingandresearch

Ecotopianismasaconnectingidea:Embeddingethicsintheenvironmentalhumanities

PhilippP.ThapaTheaimofthispaper istore-connectenvironmentalethicswith itsutopianrootsthroughmymethodicalconceptionofecotopianism.Accordingtothisconception,ecotopianismisutopianthinking with regard to the relationship between human societies and their physicalenvironment. In otherwords, ecotopian thinking imagines alternative social ecologies, and itoftendoessousinginspirationfromtheartsortheenvironmentalhumanities.Ecotopiasinanemphaticsensearethosethataremeantas,orperceivedas,positivesocio-ecologicalvisions.The connection from utopianism to environmental ethics is achieved, inter alia, through thedesignperspective:Oneofthecentralfactorsthatshapetheecologicalinteractionsofasocietyis its value system. Therefore, to imagine a full-fledged ecological utopia, or ecotopia, in theemphatic sense, one also needs to develop a functionally adequate value system for thealternative social order – an (ecological) ethic. This train of thought, though not necessarilyexpressedinutopianlanguage,iscommonlypresupposedbyearlytextsofenvironmentalethicsfrom the 1960s and 70s, embedding the budding philosophical subdiscipline in a largerprogrammeofdeepsocialreform.Subsequentprofessionalisationofthefield,however,shiftedthe focus to theoretical issues inmoral philosophy. To re-connect fromenvironmental ethicsback to utopianism, I exploit the utopian element in pragmatic ethics and the recent rise ofpragmatism in environmental ethics. My resulting conception of pragmatic ecotopianismaccesses value-based utopian thinking as a method in environmental ethics, offering analternativemodeofphilosophicalengagementwithenvironmentalissues.Italsomakesvisiblehowutopianthinking,thoughlargelyunrecognised,pervadesthecontemporaryenvironmentaldiscourse.

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Anecologicaltheoryoflearning:Thesemioticcontributiontoecology

AlinOlteanu

I problematize learning and education in perspective of the semiotic theory of ecology, termed ecosemiotics. I argue that the added value to environmental research that ecosemiotics offers consists in its reflection on how representations impact on the represented, in view of semiotics as a general theory of modelling. In contrast, starting with modern educational philosophy, human modes of knowing have been construed as passive observership, implying that the activity of learning does not impact on the subject being learned. This modern construal of learning disregards the ecological and environmental dimension of learning, resulting in a dissociation between epistemology and ecology. Through its construal of knowledge as semiotic scaffolding (meaning as support for further meaning), ecosemiotics aligns (natural) adaptation and (cultural) learning as coextensive phenomena, dismissing (post-)Cartesian dualist clauses of modern educational theory and philosophy. In this view, learning is neither individual or collective, but environmental and suprasubjective. Ecosemiotics has been initially conceptualised as a branch of biosemiotics and consequent theoretical research revealed that, implicitly, it must also be regarded as a branch of cultural semiotics, as it regards cultural mappings of the environment. The particularity of ecosemiotics in regard to other ecological philosophies stands not only in approaching interrelations between organisms and environments as relations of signification, but also in considering the mutual causality of such relations. This is particularly observed in the recent joint interest of nature writing, ecocriticism and ecosemiotics. By studying the impact that representation has on the represented, a causality overlooked in modern philosophy, ecosemiotics supposes that the way in which humans (or any species) construe learning correspondingly impacts on their habitat. To learn, in this perspective, is to develop semiotic scaffoldings by use of semiotic resources. I explore this hypothesis in contrast to modern educational philosophy and propose some curricular uses of ecosemiotics.

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Paradoxofecologicalawareness

ArtisSveceHistoryofenvironmentalhumanitiesiscloselylinkedtothehistoryofenvironmentalmovementandecologicalawareness.Althoughinmanyareastheinitialemphasisoncommitmenttosomeideological project has been replaced with more reflective attitude towards human-naturerelationship,environmentalhumanitiesarestilldrivenbyadesiretoenrichourunderstandingofthewayhumansinteractwiththeirenvironmentandultimatelytochangethewaywethinkaboutenvironment,ecology,nature,animalsandhumanity.So,onecouldthinkthatemergenceofenvironmentalhumanitiesmarksalsosomefundamentalshiftinhumantreatmentofnature,orbeginsaneraofecologicalthinking.Infact,ecologicalandenvironmentalawarenesscoexistswith unprecedented depletion of natural environment. It is not a paradox in the technicalmeaningoftheword,butstill, I think it is importantforenvironmentalhumanitiestoaddressthis discrepancy. Probably, the paradox of ecological awareness must be studied jointly byenvironmentalhumanitiesandenvironmentalsocialsciences.Still, themethodsofhumanitiesallow them to address systematically questions about the long-term vs. short-term thinking,compartmentalization of ecological awareness, or inconsistency of discourses of nature – tonamejustafewissuesthatcouldberelevantforunderstandingofthisparadox.

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4-2.PlantsandPeople

Urbantreesassocialdisruptors:ThecaseoftheGinkgobilobaspecimeninEstonia

RiinMagnus,HeldurSanderInthepastdecades,treesandtheirrelationswithhumanshavereceivedheightenedattentionfrom different fields of humanities (e.g. anthropology Rival 2012, Cloke, Jones 2012;environmentalhistoryRutkow2012).At the same time,urbanecologyhas joined forceswithurban studies to (re-)establish the status of city trees in the maintenance of any urbanenvironmentasecologicallyfunctional(Morgenrothetal.2016;Bowleretal.2010).InEstonia,research of urban trees covers a century, with a focus lying on taxonomic studies, historicalaccountsandconservationaspects(foranoverviewseeSander1998).

In our presentation,wewill focus on the incorporation of trees to social and politicalprocesses by focusing on the role of trees and their ecological relations in shaping humanrelations.Wewillrelyonanecosemiotictheoreticalplatformtoanalysethemutualshapingofmeaningsbyhumansandotherspecies(Maran,Kull2014)andonanenvironmentalhistoricalplatform to detect changes in the ways these relations between humans and trees havedeveloped.Moreover,wewill analyse howother living beings canbecome inducers of socialchangeandshapersofculturalmemory.Inordertoillustratesuchentanglementsofhumanandnon-humanprocesses,wewillmainly focusonthesocialupheavaland itsaftermaththatwasrelatedtoaspecimenofGinkgobilobainthe1980sTallinn.

References

Bowler,D.E.,Buyung-Ali,L.,Knight,T.M.,Pullin,A.S.,2010.Urbangreeningtocooltownsandcities:Asystematicreviewoftheempiricalevidence.LandscapeandUrbanPlanning97:147-155.

Cloke,Paul;Jones,Owain2002.TreeCultures:ThePlaceofTreesandTreesinTheirPlace.NewYork,NY:Berg.

Maran, Timo; Kull, Kalevi (2014). Ecosemiotics: main principles and current developments.GeografiskaAnnalerSeriesB-HumanGeography96(1),41−50.

Morgenroth J.,OstbergC.,KonijnendijkvandenBoschA.B.,NielsenR.,HauerH., SjömanW.,ChenM. Jansson2016.UrbanTreeDiversity–TakingStockandLookingAhead.UrbanForestryandUrbanGreening15:1-5.

Rival,Laura(ed.)1998.TheSocialLifeofTrees:AnthropologicalPerspectivesonTreeSymbolism(MaterializingCulture).Oxford:Berg.

Rutkow, Eric 2012. American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and theMaking of aNation.New York:Scribner.

Sander,Heldur1998.Researchonurban forestsandurban trees inEstonia—historical reviewandpresentsituation.In:Randrup,Thomas;Sander,Heldur(eds.)UrbanForestryintheNordicandBalticCountries,Tartu:EestiPõllumajandusinstituut

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Herbaria3.0:ACitizenHumanitiesProjectatthePlant-HumanInterface

LaurenElizabethLaFauciThispresentationwill introduceBALTEHUMSaudiencestoHerbaria3.0,acollaborative,citizenhumanities project that I have led (with a team) over the past year. This project unitesenvironmental humanities (EH), experiential learning, andpublic engagement to explore howthestorieswetellaboutplantsilluminatetheintertwinednatureofplantsandpeople.Simplyput,wehavecreatedawebsiteforthecollectionandsharingofstoriesabouttheinteractionsofplantsandpeople.Usingthequestion,“Wherecanaplanttakeyou?”weinviteanyonewhohasastorytotellaboutaplanttosubmit it forpublicationonoursite.Weeditandcuratethesestories,addinghistoricalherbariumimagestoanypersonalphotosthewritermaysubmit.

Webelievethatstorytellingfostersinvestedengagementwiththegreenworldandactsasacountertotheproblemof“plantblindness,”orthe inabilitytoseeandrecognizetheplantssurroundingus.Withoutseeingtheplants inoureverydayworlds,wecannot learntocareforthem—nortocareforbiologicaldiversityatlarge.Thus,Herbaria3.0helpsmitigatethelossofspecies by providing a space to share and remember the stories of plants that may bedisappearing or changing in response to our anthropogenic climate crises. It also provides aspaceforhumanstomourntheselossesandpreventfurtherones.

Why “herbaria”?Andwhy “3.0”?Herbaria are collectionsofdriedplant specimens thatoriginated in Renaissance Italy to document medicinal plants; these constitute the “1.0” wereferto.Anherbariumsheetpreservesanindividualplant’sroots,leaves,andflowers.Theword“herbaria”alsoreferstotheplaces—libraries—wherethesespecimensarekept;thesearethe“2.0”ofourproject.Togetherboththespecimensandthearchivingofthemareavisual,tactile,and material repository of plant-human interactions. The “3.0” of our project signals aconnectiontothepastandarebootingofherbariaforthefuture:tocollect,share,andarchivemodernhuman-plantencountersthatreflecttheglobalmovementsofplantsandpeople.

Herbaria 3.0makes important interventions in “citizen humanities”: the participation ofthe public in academic domains and the participation of academics in public ones. It alsocontributes to digital humanities by developing the potential of web-based platforms forfosteringanethicsofcare—bothfornonhumansubjectsandtheenvironmentatlarge—andforprovidingspacetocelebrateindividualplantswhilewealsocollectivelymournthelossesoftheAnthropocene. Finally, it advances the field of EH, particularly its critical plant studies andhistoryofsciencestrands,inordertohelpuscopewith,adaptto,andmitigateclimatechange.

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Urbanlandscapes—anoasisforbees

LiisaPuuseppA single honeybee visits around 7000 flowers a day, and it takes fourmillion flower visits toproduceakilogramofhoney.Thehoneyisnottheonly“service”thatbeesofferforusandforthe whole ecosystem – they are pollinators, enhancing biodiversity, are part of economy, asourceofinspirationetc.Theseservicesarecommonlyassociatedwithruralareas.Butcontraryto popular opinion, bees can do greatly well in an urban environmentwhere there is a richdiversityofplants, flowersand trees inourgardens,parks, railwaysidings, roadsanddisusedpieces of land. These small, often fragmented, areas are important oases for bees in cityenvironments. Therefore,more andmore cities are picking up beekeeping to contribute cityenvironment, to combat declining bee populations that has happened during the last thirtyyears, tohelpboost localagricultureandbusinessandtobringtogethercommunities–tobemore sustainable. It is important to demonstrate that urban environment does not restrictbeekeeping as such andhoneycollected from urban areas can be equally healthy and richashoneycollectedfromruralandwildareas.Therefore,therearebeehivesontheterracesoftheOpéraBastille inParis,onarooftopof luxuryhotels inNewYorkandalsoonarooftopatTallinnUniversity.

Thepresentationisgivinganoverviewofbeesincities,theirimportance,theimportanceof small green areas andbiodiversity in the cities and additionally, basedonpollen analyses,describingbee-plantsandthesourceofhoneyincitiesallovertheworld.DuringthelastyearswehavealsoanalysedpollenandchemicalcontentofhoneyfromTallinn.Theresultsshowthatthehoneycollectedfromcities(includingfromTallinn)fulfillingallrequirementstobehealthyand quality food. Results of pollen analysis indicate thathoneyfrom urban hives has beengatheredfromanumberofdifferentplantspeciesanditshowsthattheurbanenvironmentisvery diverse containing private gardenswithmany species, parks, forested areas and ruderalareas.Therefore,takingcareofcityenvironment,plantingflowerpatchesinurbangardensandgreenspaceswetakecareofbees–themostessentialpollinators.

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4-3.Transnationalandglobalformationoflandscapes

Landscapesofwar:GlobalenvironmentalimpactsoftheSecondWorldWar

SimoLaakkonen

ItisachallengingtasktoattempttocompileanoverallaccountoftheenviromentalimpactsoftheSecondWorldWarbecauseamajorcharacteristicofthiswasitsfragmentednature.WorldWar II was amacroscale war, yet its history ismade ofmicro-histories. This war began andendedindifferenttimesandwaysandindifferentplaces.Itwastrulyaglobalwar,withsixty-onecountriesbecomingengulfedinit.Inallthesecountries,memoriesandstudiesarebasicallydependent on national, regional, local, or individual accounts of war. Furthermore, theenvironmental consequences and legacies of modern wars are only beginning to be studiedsystematically. Nevertheless, the proposed paper will argue that nearly the whole of theearth—bothsocietiesandnature—wastosomeextentmilitarizedduringandafterWorldWarII.WelivetodayinaworldthatistoagreatextentmadebyWorldWarII.

The proposed paper aims to define somemajor global environmental impacts ofWWIIincluding reformulation of our concept of environmental history, expansion of infrastructure,exploitation of natural resources, emergence of global waste problem, the development ofnatureconservationmovementandmakingofmodernenvironmentalpolicy.Thepaperarguesthat the deep structural changes brought about by World War II naturally caused severeenvironmental problems, but these changes also made industrial societies structurally morereceptive to environmental ideas and activities, and enabled public power to carry outnecessaryreforms.ThusWorldWarIIexplainstoagreatextenttheemergenceofinstitutionalchangesthatwereprerequisitesfortheadvanceofenvironmentalawakening intheColdWarperiod.

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ColdWarcoasts:Thetransnationalco-productionofmilitarizedlandscapes

PerHögselius,KatiLindströmColdWarCoastsisanewresearchprojectthatisnowbeingstartedupatKTHRoyalInstituteofTechnologyinStockholm.ItexploresthepervasiveroleofthemilitaryinshapingtheBalticSea’scoastallandscapessince1945–andthepracticalchallengesthatthelegaciesfromtheColdWarperiodgiverise to today.Ourpointofdeparture isadissatisfactionwith the“methodologicalnationalism” that so far characterizes nearly all research in the intersectionbetweenmilitaryandenvironmentalhistory.Wecounterthisbydevelopingagenuinelytransnationalapproach,scrutinizinghowcoastallandscapesonoppositeshoreshavebeen–andcontinuetobe–“co-produced”.TheprojecttargetsthreebroadlydefinedregionsinSwedenandtheformerSovietUnion:StockholmarchipelagoplusGotland;northeasternEstonia’sarchipelagoandcoasts;andsouthern Latvia’smilitarized coastscapes.Usingadiverse rangeof sources, fromofficial stateand military documents and environmental reports to literary narratives and own on-siteobservations, the project will produce not only standard academic output such as journalarticles,butalsoatravellingexhibition,whichwillbedisplayedatthreesites–oneineachofthethreecountriesstudied.Theprojectseekstopushtheinternationalresearchfrontierintheenvironmental-militaryhistorynexus,butalsotostimulateavividdebateatlocal,nationalandinternational levels about ColdWar legacies in an era of escalating EU-Russian tensions andgrowing fearsofbothenvironmental devastationand renewedmilitarization in Europe. Sincethe project is still in its initial stage, we will be introducing the general principles and thebackgroundoftheprojectratherthanfinalizedresults.

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“Sowingtheoil”—Ruralspace,(human)resourcesandnationalwealthinVenezuela

MartinSchröderSowing(crude)oil–itsoundslikeanefficientwayofcontaminatingfarmland.Asametaphor,itdesignates an old and long-lasting concept of economic growth and social development inVenezuela (andelsewhere).After theoil extraction startedona large scale in the1920s, theVenezuelan society was overwhelmed by fundamental changes in the economic system,touchingalmosteverysphereofpoliticalandsociallifeofbothurbanandruralinhabitants:thenation state became an important economic player, while the importance of the traditionalruralwaysofgainingprofitandorganizingruraleconomyandsocial lifedeclineddrastically.Amassivemigration of workforce and capital from the haciendas towards the new centres ofcapitalistappropriationemptiedthealreadysparselypopulatedruralhinterland.Fearingthesocalled»DutchDisease« (the insolubledependenceofnationalwealthandpolitical stabilityontheearnings fromonlyonemainresourceorproduct)anewidearoseupamongVenezuelanpoliticiansandintellectualsalreadyinthe1930s–andneverdisappeareduntiltoday:usingthegainsoftheoilexportationtodiversifytheeconomicsourcesofnational(andprivate,ofcourse)prosperity and wealth, especially by establishing a more productive, intensive and capitalistagriculture. In fact, thedifferentVenezuelanpolitical regimesof the last eightdecadesneversucceededinitentirely.

But,ontheonehand,theagrarianreformswhichresultedfromtheideaof»sowingtheoil« had a drastic long-term effect on the traditional system of land distribution byimplementing state-controlled mechanisms of commercializing farmland, a likewise state-controlledagrariancreditsystemandacorresponding, immenseextensionofstatesponsoredinfrastructure.On theotherhand, thewayof thinkingabout the long ignored rural spacesofVenezuelachangedevenmorefundamentally:imaginedbeforeasanemptyspaceoraspaceofuseless savages, the perception of the rural outskirts and their (usually non-white, partlyindigenous)inhabitantsturnedintoamorepositivebutnotmorecompleximage:aspacefullofnaturalandhumanresourceswhichcouldandshouldbeusedtoachieveeconomicgrowthandnational wealth. Extracting the resources of the ›nature‹ and intensifying the capitalistdevelopmentofruralhumanenvironmentbecamethechosenmedicinetocuretheeconomicproblemsonlycausedbyextractingoneoftheseresources,theoil.

Not incidentally, this change in seeing ›nature‹ and rural space contributed to astrengtheningofnationalidentityandabroadaffirmationofwhatistheproclaimed›sense‹of›nature‹,spaceandhumanresources–tobecomeproductivepartsofthenationalwealth.

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Birdsintrenches:Thegreeningofmilitarizationandmilitarizinghabitatsforlandscapeconservation

KristīneKrumberga

Environmentalism since its rise in 1970s as a protest to various market and military driventechnologieshasnowbecomeaninfluentialforceinshapingtheworldwelivein.Inthisregard,the recent development of integrated military-environmental land management approachintendedtoimproveexistingenvironmentalpoliciesandprotectglobalbiodiversityshowsthatrelationsbetweenthemilitaryandenvironmentalismhavebecomemoreintertwined.Aimingtounderstandthisshift,thepaperexplorescontemporarylandscapeconservationpracticeinthebiggestmilitary trainingareaof theBaltic states -Ādaži through the implementationof LIFE+project“Birds inĀdaži”. Thestudyuncovershowsymbioticportrayalsofmilitaryactivityandbiodiversity are created by bringing birds to the front of the scene and joint discourse of“mutualbenefits”developedtojustifyactionscarriedout.Atthesametime,itisobservedthatlandscape conservation activities resemble those of the military in terms of the allowablehumanpresenceandactivitywithintheterritory.

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5-1.Roundtable.Fromdropstoasea:Individuals,communities,protectionpoliciesandenvironmentalcrises.

Convenorandmoderator:KatiLindströmDiscussants:AetAnnist,ElgarsFelcis,SaraJones,KatieRitson

Howdo individualsandcommunities connect toprotectionpoliciesandenvironmental issuesandhowdotheynavigatebetweentheglobalscaleoftheissuesandtheirlocalplaces,scientificexpertdiscourseandtheirlivedmultisensorialexperiences,andwhataretheforcesthatmakeapersonorcommunitytomobiliseandtakeaction?Isclassicalsciencecommunicationenoughtoeffectchange,providedthatitrephrasesexperttruthtonon-expertpublicinordertoconvincethem of certain scientific facts? Does this kind of top-down or perhaps even paternalisticsciencecommunication incite individualsandcommunities to takeaction?Orare thereotherwaysofcommunicationandengagementwithpersonalandlocalknowledgeofplacethatwouldbringforwardnecessarybehaviouralchangeandmobilisation?Isthereapossibilityforanotherkind of research that mobilises communities even before the final research results can becommunicatedtothem?

TheroundtableincludesscholarswhohaveworkedwithdifferentculturalcontextsandmediafromKiribatiandMarshallIslandstoNorthSea,Wales,Japan,EstoniaandLatvia.Wealsoaddress the questionwhether there are cultural differences in how scientific communicationandmobilisation relate to eachother andwould a post-totalitarian/post-dictatorship societyreactdifferentlyfromanolddemocracy?

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5-2.AdvancingBalticclimatehistory:CreatinganewmoduleinEuro-ClimhistPanelconvenor:UlrikePlath

Euro-ClimhistandhowtocreateaBalticModule

UlrikePlath,HeliHuhtamaaEuro-Climhist is the largest database on European climate history. It starts withmodules onSwissandMedievalClimateinEurope,butisextandingtointegratealsootherregions.Inaco-operationprojectbetweentheuniversitiesofBern,TallinnandHeidelbergweareworkingoncreatingaBalticmodulethatcoverstheterritoriumofFinlandandthethreeBalticstates.Inthepresentationwewillshow1)howEuro-Climhistworks,2)speakabouttheprojectbetweenouruniversities,3)showindetailhowtocreateanewregioninthedatabaseand4)trytofindco-operationpartners intheBalticregionwhocanhelpus infindingandaddingnewdatatotheBalticmodule.

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Wastheweatherimportant?Theperceptionoftheenvironmentofthe18thcenturyinLivonia

PriitRaudkivi

Churcharchivesoffergreatopportunityilluminatingtheenvironmentalperceptionofthe18thcentury Estonian and Latvian society. The archives contain a variety of information that iswrittenbypastors.Atleastasapremise,thelocalpastorsstoodclosesttotheordinarypeopleboth in life and death. In this sense, materials from church archives should be a source ofenvironmental history. The Swedish church law established here in 1687 called for churchofficialstoaddressthemostimportanteventsthatinfluencedthelifeoftheparishcongregationand the unusual natural phenomena. Section 7 of the Church Law Specification states thatextraordinary events need to be addressed in the letter. The Swedish Church Law wasmaintainedaftertheintroductionoftheTsar'sauthority,andatleastintheorytheparishclergyhad to register extraordinary events. From the environmental humanities perspective churcharchivesoffer at least twoopportunities: first, theyprovide informationaboutenvironmentalconditions, and on the other hand, give an opportunity of understanding the pattern ofindividual perceptionof environment of local pastors. Thirdly, a promising outcome could bealsothepossibilitytoexaminewhetherthehigh-profileenvironmentalphenomenadetectedbypresent-dayhistoricalclimatologistarereflectedinlocalmaterial.

Unfortunately, the situation is that the preservation of church archives has beenextremely uneven in the province of Livonia under the authority of the tsarist regime. Fromwhat was preserved has been published during the first period of the independence of theRepublicofLatviabyLaumaSloka.Thevolumesprovideuswithextremelyvaluableinformation.The following is a summary of the environmental perception of two Livonian pastors PhilippWilhelm Haase parish Ledurga-Turaida (Loddiger-Treiden) and Johann Heinrich Guleke parishBurtnieki.TheHaase´saccount inanarrative formcovers theperiod1728-1739andGuleke´s1769-1816. Itgoeswithoutsayingthat it isnotpossibletogo intodetails inthepresentation,whichremainsthetaskofanacademicarticle.

ThatiswhyIwoulddrawjustafewconclusionshere.1.BothofthepastorscametotheprovinceofLivoniafromPrussia.Theyhadnoconnectionstothelocalagrariansocietybefore.HaasecamefromSchwedtbytheriverOderandGulekefromKönigsberg. Forbothpastors,on thebasisof the survivingnarrative, it canbeargued that inbothcasastheenvironmentwasabsenceofanoticeforseveralyearsaftertheirappointment.ForHaase it takes six years and forGuleke evenmore for 13 years before the first notes onenvironment can be traced in their narrative. There is no answer to the question why thepastorsdidnotstartimmediatelypayingattentiontheenvironmentalconditionssovitalfortheruralmembersofthecongregation.InthecaseofGuleke,itisclearthatatBurtniekithepastorwas forced to focus on securing his own the economic situation because on his arrival thefoundations of the parish were practically in ruins. Unfortunately there is no explanatoryreasonsinthecaseofHaase.2.Howisthenarrativethatcontainsenvironmentaldatacompiledinbothcases?InthecaseofGuleke, it is clearly seen that the chronological principle has been in use and that summarycompiled for every year are based on the notes. In this sense, his narrative is similar to a

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chronicle or even annals.However, it is difficult to assume something about the narrative ofHaase. It carries the title "Einige anmerckungen, was sich seit 1729 bisz 1738 inclusivesonderbares an jahreswitterungen zugetragen u. was solches für würckungen bey feld undgartenfrüchtengehabt".Consequently,ithastobeaconcisetextthathasbeendraftedinonego.However,Haasemuststillrelyonpersonalpastnotes.It'shardtobelievethatattimesverydetaileddescriptionscanbemadebasedonmemory.Boththetextscontaindetailswhicharesettothedate'saccuracy.3.Whatcategoriesdopastorsusetodescribetheenvironment?Theyusemostlymeteorologicaltermsthathaveadirectrelationshipwithagriculturesuchasrainfall,drought,night-frost,etc.4.Havethetwopastorsreferredtoweatherasacauseofmajorcopingdifficulties faced primarily by the peasant? This has come about repeatedly. But Haas forexamplehasneverusedthetermhunger.However,onseveraloccasions,hehasbeentalkingaboutthefactthatpeasantswereintroublebecauseofcropfailure.NordoesGulekementiondirectlyhungeror famine inhis textof the18th century.But inhisnarrative, thenotion “theemergencysituation”hasbeen inuseonseveraloccasions.5.Bothpastorsspeakofdiseases.Haasesaysthatin1730,theconsumptionofpoorqualitygrainledtoillnessamonghumansandanimals.Healsospeaksoftheoutbreakofsmallpoxin1739,whichalsospreadtohighersocialstrata.

Undoubtedly, the recordings of Livonian pastors present the perception ofenvironmental conditions from the point of view of one social stratum. The environmentalperceptionsofthosewhocouldnotmakenotesandcompilenarratives–theirenvironmentalperceptionremains latent.Nodoubt itwasquitedifferentfromthatofthepastors.However,the overall picture of the impact of the environment on society can be promoted throughdemographicindicators.Inthe18thcenturybirthsanddeathsweredirectlyrelatedtoprocessesin the physical environment. Unfortunately, neither theHaase norGuleke's time provides uswith data, which could give light to the demographic processes in critical environmentalmoments described by the pastors. I am giving an example from the territory of Livoniainhabited by the Estonians, which could confirm that the pastor's perception of physicalenvironmentmayhavebeenselective.Guleke'ssystematicrecordingsdatebackto1783,whenEuropewas suffering from themortal “gaze attack”providedby volcano Laki in Iceland. Thisevent caused extraordinary high summer death toll throughout Europe. The unprecedenteddeathcurvesofFranceandEnglandprovideclearevidenceofthis.Inthecountrieswithhighlydeveloped literary culture (France, Italy, Germany, Sweden) the media devoted a lot ofattentionontheunusualsituationalmostdaily.However,thepresenceoftoxicvolcanicgaseson theeasternshoreof theBalticSea is reflectedonly inonedescription,andeven thatwasretrospectivedating1791. InthenarrativesofthepastorsofLivoniaGuleke incl., theevent isnot echoed. One might conclude that Guleke´s congregation escaped great mortality. Butdemographic indicators north from Burtnieki give us quite another picture. Mortality wasexceptionallyhigh inmanyparishes in theprovinceof Livonia inhabitedby theEstoniansandthedistancefromBurtniekiwaslessthanahundredkilometresaway.Infact,alltheparishesoncurrentterritoryofEstoniawereinvolvedinhighsummerdeathtoll.ItishighlyunlikelythattheLakitoxicgasesdidnotreachparishesinhabitedbytheLatvians.Soonceagain:theperceptionoftheenvironmentofthe18thcenturyclergycanbehighlyselectivebutthatdoesnotdiminishthevalueoftheinformationthathasbeenwrittendownintheiraccounts.

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StormsaroundRigainthemidofthe19thcentury

KaarelVanamölder,KristerKruusmaaInourpresentation,weconcentrateontheweatherconditions–mainlystorms–aroundtheGulfofRiga in themid-19thcentury,usingnavigational reports fromthepressofRiga,mostlyfromthenewspaperRigascheZeitung.Thesourcesarequitespecificintheirnature:reportsonthecurrentweatherconditionsinBolderajainthemouthofriverDaugavaanddescriptionsoftheweatherexperiencedonthejourneysofarrivingsteamships.Afurtheraccentisprovidedbynewsaboutnavigationrestrictionsandshipwrecks,whichprovidecluesaboutdifferentweatherextremities.Although thesources inquestionarespecificallygathered for theEUROCLIMHISTdatabase, they comprise the possibility of making wider conclusions about the climateconditionsoftheperiod.

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5-3.Representedenvironments

ForestinEstoniannationalnarrativeandidentitypolitics

TõnnoJonuks,AtkoRemmelOneof thekeyelementsof theEstonian identityduringthe lastdecadeshasbeenforestandnature, with its most popular meme of Estonians as a ‘forest nation’. This meme appearsstrikinglyinthecurrentdebateovertheconservationandforestmanagementpolicybutalsoingeneral ecological discussions. Just like in case of other elements of national narratives, thisimage is supposed to reflect reality but also reachback in history into the time immemorial.Thus,webecameinterestedwhenandinwhatconditionsEstoniansbecamethe“forestnation”andhowtheconcepthasdeveloped?

Based on Estonian-language texts, we are sketching a preliminary outline of thedevelopmentofconceptof“Estonians,theforestnation”sincethe19thcenturyandindicatethechangesintheattitudetowardtheforest.SimultaneouslywepointoutsomeotherelementsofEstonian national narrative and try to figure out, why some elements in national narrativesbecomedominantwhiletheothersjustfadeaway.

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MultispeciescityinSovietEstonianpoetry

Ene-ReetSoovik

The occupied Estonia experienced intensive urbanisation afterWorldWar II, to a significantdegree spurred on by the Soviet industrial programmes. Between 1939-1989, the country’surbanpopulationdoubled.Atthesametime,altogether56.2%ofthecities’ inhabitablespacehadbeen lost to thewar,with largercitiesTallinn,TartuandNarvahavingsuffered themost(Sild 17). This created an urgent need for urban reconstruction, the first stage of whichmaterialised in the shape of standardised Stalinist housing. Thiswas followed by a yetmoremassivebuildingofresidentialclustersoftheso-calledKhrushchevhousesonthebasisofanall-Soviet-UnionmodelofsectionblocksbelongingtoSeries1-317(Laigu2005).Themostextensiveexpansion of Soviet-time housing projects was realised starting from the 1960s and saw theestablishingoftheMustamäeresidentialdistrictinTallinn,followedbyÕismäeandLasnamäe,as well as Tartu’s Anne district. The building of these large-scale projects was facilitated bylocally produced pre-fabricated concrete panel elements. Urban planning of the time wasinfluencedbymodernistprinciples:whileinsolationwasconsideredimportantandgreenspacesforpublicuseweredesignedbetweenthebuildings,theradicalmodernistic ideasputintolifetendedtoresultindormitoryneighbourhoodsdevoidofurbandiversity(ibid.).

Whileurbanplanningwasdominatedbytheideaofcreatingextensiveutopianprojectsofcommunalliving,supposedlyservingasanembodimentoftheSovietideologicalvalues,theinstitutionsofEstoniannatureconservationwereresurrectedduringthesameperiod.Startingfrom the mid-1950s, after the Stalinist period of ideological subjugation of nature, theCommissionforNatureConservationoftheEstonianAcademyofScienceswasfoundthatwastodirectthefollowingconservationistactivies.ThefollowingyearssawadoptingoftheNatureConservationAct,creatingnaturereserves,launchingthejournalEestiLoodus[EstonianNature]and founding public environmental organisations such as the Tartu Students’ NatureConservation Circle and the Estonian Society for Nature Conservation (Sepp 1996). Theconservationactivistsalsoconfrontedearlierpracticesofnatureexploitation,e.g., intheanti-meliorationmovementknownastheWaroftheMiresthatresultedinthecreationof30mirereservesin1981.

Thepresentationwill lookatwhether,andhow,thecombinationofrapidexpansionofthe new urban fabric of pre-fabricated high-rise buildings and increasing awareness ofenvironmentalissuesandsensitivitytowardsnaturethatgainedremarkablegroundinsocietyisreflected in Estonianpoetry of urban space from the so-called Era of Stagnation that startedwith LeonidBrezhnev’s rise to power in 1964 and lasted tillMikhailGorbachev’sperestroika.Special attention will be paid to the city as a multispecies environment, particularly thepresence of plants and birds in the city space, reading the texts against the period’s valuecoordinatesofurbanisationandenvironmentalism.ReferencesLaigu,Tõnu2005.EstonianMegastructureReuse.306090:AutonomousUrbanism8:51-53.Sild,Marju2014.Modernistlikudlinnaplaanidjanendetähendustäna-paneelelamurajoonide

planeerimineNõukogudeperioodilLasnamäejaAnnelinnanäitel.Magistritöö.TartuÜlikool.Sepp,Kalev1996.LooduskaitseEestis.Tallinn:Huma.

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Visualrepresentationofcities:RigaandBangkokinmoviesunderthemilitaryregime

JanisMatvejs

Visual representation of a city creates unique perspectives that allow to interpret the urbanenvironment and enable to understand a space that is culturally created and territoriallyorganized. Residential complexes are an essential part of cities and cinema is a specificrepresentation form of these areas. However, there has been very little research done onexploringhowtheseareasaredepictedinthemovies.Itisworthtakingintoconsiderationthatresidential areas vary not only in their structure, building materials, form of governance ordwellers, but also on distinctive socio-spatial characteristics. Although these aspects largelydepend on their region of origin, residential structures are less contrasting in terms ofcinematographic representation. Significantly, urban representation under the militarydictatorshipislessregion-restrictedandrathercontainsvariouscommonfeatures.

TheaimofthispresentationistointerpretthediscourseofresidentialareasofRigaandBangkokthroughthefilmsofthemostcontroversialstagesinthehistoryofbothcountries–theSoviet period and military dictatorship of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, and to determineessential and prevailing cinematographic practices that are used for representation ofresidential areas. 214movie review resultswill be comparedwith the changes in residentialdevelopment.Thispresentationwill improvethatresidentialareasarefrequentlyportrayedinthecinemaundermilitarydictatorshipandtheyformanintegralpartoftheurbanperception.

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5-4.Shapingandenlighteningthelandscapesbefore20thcentury

PopularenlightenmentandenvironmentalhistoryinLivoniaandCourlandPaulsDaija

The paper proposes to explore the environmental issues of the early Latvian printed literarycultureoverthesecondpartofthe18thcenturyandthebeginningofthe19thcenturywhenfirstsecular writings appeared. Inspired by the movement of German popular enlightenment(Volksaufklärung), but adapted to local Baltic conditions, these texts werewrittenmostly byBaltic German pastors and addressed to Latvian peasants. Along with first Latvian works ofpoetry, prose fiction and drama, instructions in everyday-life topics were published such asmanualsinagriculture,gardening,cattle-andbee-keeping,cooking,medicine,etc.Instructionswerepublishedeitherasseparatebooksandleaflets,orincalendarsandperiodicals.Theycoverwiderangeofsubjectsandcanbeusedasavaluablesourceofenvironmentalhistory,astheyincludenotonlyadvices,butalsoreflectionsonnatureandnaturalresources.Inthepaper,theanalysis of the most significant topics will be provided along with the insight into therelationshipbetweenenvironmentalhistoryandliteraryhistory.

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Nothinghappensonitsown:GardenerAdamAugustHeinrichDietrich–anenvironmentdesignerandnatureexplorer

HeldurSander

TheprovincesofEstoniaandLivonia,beingpartoftheGermanculturalsphere,aswellasRussiaproper became a favourite destination for people in Germany who had horticultural andsilviculturaleducationandwerelookingforemploymentandnewchallenges.HavingarrivedtoworkinEstonia,theyscoredabulkofachievementsandaccomplishments,anditwasherethatthey enjoyed the most productive years of their lives. Of the newcomers from GermanyemployedasgardenersinEstonia,twomenhave,apartfromtheirregularwork,contributedtothe localhorticulture in itsbroader sense.TheseareAdamAugustHeinrich (HeinrichAugust)Dietrich (1820-1897) andFriedrichWinkler (1854-1925).Dietrichwasborn in a small townofZwenkaunearLeipzig(knownsinceAD974)andmovedovertoEstoniaattheageof28toworkasagardeneratHaimreManorownedbytheUexkülls.Hewaskintooneofthemostfamousandlong-standinglineageofgardenersinGermany.HisarrivalwasalsoassociatedwiththeriseofTallinntorivalTartu inthenumberofeducatedpeopleand inthefoundingofsocieties (in1842 – The Estonian Literary Society), as well as with the intensification of horticulturalinterchangebetweenmanors,theemergenceofnewmanorparks inNorthEstonia(Keila-Joa)and theestablishmentofgreenzonesaroundbastions inTallinn.Dietrichwas involved in theestablishmentofanalleywayof larchesatHaimre,theresearchofthefloraallacrossEstonia,thefirstreviewsofalientreesandbushes,theriseofthelocalmycologyandmycologiststotheglobal forefrontand the foundingofa largenursery inTallinn.Heparticipated in theworkofsocietiesandthepreparationofanintroductoryreportonEstonia(NaturbilderausEstland:einam 24. Nov. 1861 im Hörsaal des Gymnasiums zu Reval gehaltener Vortrag). The author’spresentation covers all the aforesaid and shows how a person with as yet unidentifiededucationwasabletoaccomplishsomuchinthethencircumstancesofNorthEstoniabyvirtueofhisenthusiasm,vocationandgiftedness.

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StudiesintothepastandmoderncultureofLithuania:thecaseofsacredsprings

VykintasVaitkeviciusExact number of sacred springs in Lithuania is not estimated so far, though more than 100sacred springs are already discovered; historians, ethnologists and hydrologists started theirthoroughexamination.

Sacred springs are shallow pools, usually 0.5–1 m in diameter, sometimes having alsosome artificial design features (for instance channels or stone pavements). They are calledšaltinis – itmeans ‘coldwater’,verdenė ‘boilingwater’oršulinėlis ‘the littlewell’; thenamesŠventasvanduo‘Holywater’,ŠventoJonošaltinis‘St.John’swell’,andMarijosašaros‘TearsofVirginMary’arepresentedtoo.

HeritageoftheBalticorigininLithuaniaisapartoftheChristiancultureforsomethreeorfour centuries already. However, phenomenon of sacred springs is an excellent example ofsymbiosis/ interactionbetweenBalticandChristianreligionaswellasperceptionofnatureinthepastandnowadays.Theseandsomeotherissueswillbediscussedinthepresentation.

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E-1.Postersandprovocations

Poster:Foraneco-anthropologicalapproachtochangesaffectingfishingcommunitiesintheeasternBaltic

AnatoleDanto

Coastal communities in the eastern Baltic Sea have been affected by environmental, socio-economicandpoliticalchangesfordecades.Ethnicminorities,especiallyFinno-Ugric,andislandsocieties are even more exposed. The poster proposes to expose and analyze what are thechangesthataffectpreciselythesecommunities,andhowthepopulationsdealwiththem.Theposterapproachisbasedonaconceptualframeworkofeco-anthropology,disciplinarysubfieldsrelevant to study the evolution of human-nature relationships in this spatial and temporalcontext. The posterwill be based on important fieldmaterials collected during ethnographicsurveys.

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Poster:Habitatalterationasoneofthedriversofthechangeinwildplantuses

BaibaPrūse4,AndraSimanova,RaivoKalle,IevaMežaka,AgrisBrauns,DainisJakovels,JevgenijsFilipovs,IngaHolsta,SigneKrūzkopa,RenataSõukand

Ecosystem services provided by wildlife habitats create several benefits to human well-being including but not limited to food security, natural remedies and recreational aspects. More specifically, wild plants are part of the natural environment which is a source of various human uses (e.g. medicinal remedies, spiritual use) serving as part of local cultural identity (e.g. local names, beliefs, traditional food).

During summer 2017 an ethnobotany expeditions took place across Kuldīgas municipality (Latvia) in order to document wild plant uses in the region of interest. Interviews were held in semi-structured manner and the total number of interviewees reached 34. Interviews included questions about present and past wild plant uses as part of food, medicine, cosmetics, ethnoveterinary and rituals. Additionally, historical satellite (Landsat) data were observed in order to identify changes in size and distribution of different habitats.

Besides the various uses of wild plants, attitude towards environment and habitat alteration as well as reasons behind the changes of plant uses were spontaneously expressed by interviewees. Narrated evidence was documented regarding decrease (e.g. forest berries) and loss of certain plant species (e.g. cumin) nearby their usual collection sites. Author's attention was caught by the stories regarding the change of natural surrounding and thus the change of the habit of wild plant collection. Furthermore, authors noticed how respondents’ individualized landscapes they used for their needs. Within approximately the last 50 years Latvian territory has experienced multiple changes (e.g. political, social and economic shifts, transformation of agricultural practices (kolhoz systems, industrialisation), intensive forest management as well as forestation in some areas) influencing natural habitats and user rights. The authors stress that sustainable land management is of high importance holding a link not only to direct benefits to human well-being but also to local traditions and cultural aspects.

4 E-mail addresses of corresponding authors: baiba.pruse@videsinstituts.lv (B. Prūse), andra.simanova@inbox.lv (A. Simanova)

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Provocation:Shortprovocationwithanexhibition:Eutrophication,algaeblooms,anddeadzonesintheBalticSea

JessePeterson

Iaminterestedindoingapossibleprovocationforsomeworkinprogressthatwillberelatedtomy research topics: eutrophication, algae blooms, and dead zones in the Baltic Sea. I amembarkingondoingsomefieldworkoverthesummerthatwillcollectaudio-visualmaterialsofareasaffectedbythesephenomenaforautoethnographicpurposesaswellaspossibleartisticoutputs.IproposetodisplaymaterialsfromanexhibitionthatImustpresentattheDeutschesMuseumlaterinthesamemonth.Duetotimeconstraints,Iimaginetheprovocationcouldtakemany forms,but likely itwillbea short introduction toavideo inspiredbyethnographicandnarrative filmmaking techniques and methods. Hopefully, displaying/showing some of thismaterialattheconferencecouldgeneratediscussionandencourageanyinterestedindividualstoprovidefeedbackonthework.Ifthissoundsofinterest,pleaseletmeknowasIwouldlovetobeapartoftheconference.

I think this work could resonate with the conference themes and fit in well with its aims.Moreover, this conference provides a unique opportunity to see how I can better aid indevelopingenvironmentalhumanitiesresearchinthisregion.

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Standup.Toouglyfortheark:Theroleofaestheticperceptioninanimalconservation

JasonMarioDydynskiWith the increasing rate at which animals are becoming endangered, zoological gardens arebeginningtofunctionasnewage“Noah'sArks”.Thispaperaimstoanalyzemoderndayanimalconservationeffortsandtherolethataestheticsplays intheselectivedistributionofresearchand funds. The role of aesthetics often out ways biological and ecological value whendeterminingthefocusofconservation.Variousfactorsyieldthisaestheticbias.Thispaperwilllook at animal aesthetics in general, before focusing on the concepts of umwelt andanthropomorphism. The concept of cuteness: how it functions as an aesthetic value and theimportant role it plays in the preservation of specific animals, will be the central focus ofdiscussion. The paperwill conclude by looking atways inwhich the cute animal bias can bepreventedthroughmarketingandothermeans.

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6-1.Roundtable.TheValueofInterdisciplinaryinEnvironmentalResearchConvenor:AistėBalžekienėDiscussants:AistėBalžekienė,AlinOlteanu,FlorianRabitz,AudroneTelesiene,MihkelKangurRoundtablediscussionorganizedbyResearchGroup“CivilSocietyandSustainability”,KaunasUniversityofTechnologyInterdisciplinarity having become a buzzword in environmental research suggests that a one-sided approach is undescriptive for this area. Funding agencies and science organizationsincreasinglyuseinterdisciplinarityasayardstickformeasuringthequalityofgrantapplicationsand scientific output. The complex interdependencies in the Earth system and their cross-cutting implications across all scales of human societies result in a functional pressure forscientists to adopt comprehensive approaches that go beyond the confines of individualscientific disciplines. At the same time, experience with interdisciplinarity “on the ground”frequently shows that thoseaspirationsare,atbest,difficult toput intopractice: researchersfind it difficult to communicate across boundaries and professional incentives are biasedtowardspublicationsindisciplinaryjournals.

The roundtable will take a critical look at the challenges and opportunities ofinterdisciplinary environmental research. Specifically, we will focus on two broad sets ofquestions.First,whatarethetrade-offsandsynergiesininterdisciplinaryresearch?Whatisitsadded value compared to disciplinary research? Second, what are the practical barriers tointerdisciplinaryresearchandhowmighttheybeovercome?Arethereexamplesthatillustratehowbarriersmightbebrokendown?Conversely,arethereexamplesthatshowhowaspirationstointerdisciplinarityhavefailedinpractice?Byengagingwiththoseissues,wehopetodevelopinsights on the current state of the art in environmental research and reveal potentialmethodologicaldangersandopportunitiesinthisarea.

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6-2.Animalencounters

Humanvs.Mosquito:Anenvironmentalperiodizationofthe20thcentury

DanTamir

Periodisationisoneofthekeytoolsusedbyhistorians,whichmightactuallybeconsideredtobea precondition for any historical analysis. Common peridisations of the 20th century used bysocialandpoliticalhistoriansofthemoderneratendtofollowglobalwars:theFirstWorldWarandtheSecondWorldWar,togetherwiththeColdWaranditsendingbeingthemostcommonbenchmarks. This choice of meaningful events is not without reason, as these events markeitherglobalpoliticalturningpointsoreventsofmassdestruction.

Allthatinmind,therewasanotherwarconductedbyhumanitycontinuouslyduringthe20thcentury,whichsocialandpoliticalhistorianstendtooverlook:thewaragainstmosquitoes,those carriers of a plethora of deadly diseases. This paper, therefore, first suggests a newperiodisation of global 20th century political history, based on the human war againstmosquitoes – a war which had both incentives and consequences in the political and socialrealms.Afterexplainingindetailthereasonbehindthisspecificperiodisaiton,itrevealssomeofthewaysinwhichthatenvironmentalwarinfluencedandwasinfluencedbypoliticalandsocialfactors and events, calling for deeper consideration of environmental factors in themethodologicalstructuresusedinpoliticalandsocialhistory.

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Beastlyencounters:Bison'sreturntotheLatvianethnoscape

AnitaZariņa,DārtaTreija&IvoVinogradovsIn thispaperwewilldiscuss thenewwilderness idea in Latvia that stems fromWWF-Latvia’sinitiatives in the late 1990s aimed at restoring the pre-agricultural landscapewith its shiftingmosaicofopenlandandforests,continuouslyreshapedthroughthenaturaldisturbancesoffire,wind, grazing and predation. Thiswildernesswas establishedwithin the “Pape”Nature Park,comprisingthe landscapesofwetlandsandmigratingbirds,naturalmeadowsgrazedbyKonichorses and auroxen, and European bison that also inhabited the park’s forests. However,acceptanceoftheideaprovedtobecontroversialhere.Inthefocusofourstoryarebisonthatlefttheirgrazingareaandintervenedintheprivatelivesoflocals.Wewillunravelhuman-bisonencountersfromtheperspectiveofPape’sbisonbecomingwildanimals.

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SacredRelationship:InteractionbetweenHumansandWildAnimalsinaTraditionalLithuanianFarmstead

DaivaVaitkevičienė

A traditional farmstead is a shelter not only for livestock but also for various species ofwildanimals. Some of them deserve a special respect in culture, namely grass snakes, storks,swallows,weasels.Lithuanianfolkloreandhistoricalsourcesrevealthattheseanimalsandbirdsareomens,bringgoodluckinagricultureorprotecthomeandpeopleagainstharming.

Grass snakes played an important role in the Lithuanian indigenous religion; peoplereckonedgrasssnakestobeanincarnationofthehousedeity.Aspecialplaceinalivinghouseequippedwith a pot of soil used to be installed for grass snakes and dedicated for religiousofferings. After conversion to Christianity in 1387 the cult of grass snakes was banned inLithuania. But in the countryside it remained and sacred grass snakes living in peasant’sfarmsteadswerewitnessedbyJesuitsintheirreportseveninthe18century.S torks,anotherspeciesofwildanimalsinhomestead,arerespectableanddesirablebirdseventoday.Thedensityofstorks’nestsinLithuaniaisthehighestinEurope.Storksarebelievedtohavepowertoprotecthomefromlighteningandfire.Thesamemythicalfunctionhavebarnswallows(Hirundarustica).Incontrarytostorks,apopulationofbarnswallowsisdeclining.

Aweasel, other than birds, is not a conspicuous being in a farmstead. Nonetheless itplaysasignificantroleinbreedingofdomesticanimals.Aweaselisbelievedtobeanomen:thecolouroftheanimalthatislivinginafarmsteadisadivinesignwhatcolouroflivestockafarmermustchooseinordertohaveasuccessinfarming.

There is a long history of interactions between people and wild animals. Agriculturalactivity influenced the survival and distribution opportunities of animals. Humans, althoughgainednodirectphysicalbenefitfromwildanimals,estimatedandprotectedthembecauseoftheirreligioussignificance.Reciprocalrelationshipsbetweenhumansandanimalspermittedtocreateasustainableecologicalsysteminatraditionalfarmstead.Apreconditionforbuildingthissystemwasreligiousvalues.

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6-3.Transforming,identifyingofandidentifyingwithlandscapes

Progressornature?DilemmasaroundtheplannedameliorationofPolesiemarshesinPoland’sSecondRepublic

SławomirŁotysz

Anambitionplantodrain1.5millionhectaresofswamps,contemplatedininterwarPoland,wasseen as having potentially tremendous impact on the country’s future. Completion of theprojectwouldhavemeantincorporatingthispreviouslyidleregionintothecountry’seconomicmechanism, as well as solving a number of urgent social problems interwar Poland hadstruggledwith,suchasthehungerforlandandconsequentmassemigrationtoforeignlands.ItwasalsoseenasacivilizationalmissionthePoles(whohavealwaysconsideredthemselvesasapartofWesternculture)havehadinthebroadlydefined“East”.Besides,forPoland,developingeconomicallyitsEasternBorderlandshadastrongpoliticalsignificance–inthiswaythecountrymanifesteditsrighttopossestheterritoryitfoughtforinthe1920waragainsttheSovietUnion.Thepro-natureactivistsquiterightfullypredictedthatsuchenormousengineeringundertakingwouldhaveseriouslyendangeredenvironment in thewetlands, still largelyun-besmirchedbyhuman activity, but they have been fiercely attacked for their allegedly anti-civic views. Theopponents accused them forbeingagainstprogress, and concluded that a call toprotect thenatural beauty of that landwas in thematter of fact a call for preserving the poverty of itspeople.Thedisputewasnotlimitedtothepress.Inearly1929,thescholarsinlifesciencesandmembersofpro-natureandtouristassociations,clashedwiththegovernmentalinstitutionoverthequestiononhowthedrainingprocessshouldbecarriedout.InthispaperIwillanalyzetheargumentsofdifferentsidesinvolvedinthediscourseandIwillplaceitinabroadercontextofsocial,economical,andpoliticalconstrainsof theera,particularly in theviewofauthoritarianpractices of Polish governments after the 1926 coup d'état. I will argue, that in practice themainstreamattitudeinPolandconsideredthe,socalled,Borderlandslikeaninternalcolony.

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Prichudye–howidentityisexpressedinlandscape

AnuPrintsmannPeople influence landscape and landscape influences people. With time, this reciprocaldynamics has created the cultural landscapeswe know and love. Distinguishing them is easybasedonwhateyecandetect, tounderstandtheir intricacies, toreadhowtheywork,a littlehelp from insiders is needed. Here is an attempt to unravel the landscape of Prichudye inEstonia.

Prichudye(Причудье inRussian)isanendonymofRussianOldBelieversfortheirsettledarea on the rim of Lake Peipus, meaning literally ‘by the Lake Peipus’. Three Old Believers’villagesalongsidetwoothersconstitutedthemunicipalityofPeipsiääre–meaningthesame,–after2017administrativereformthenumberofvillageshasgrownto89.

Regardless of the administrative extent, Russian Old Believers’ villages are easilydiscerniblebyvision.Theirlife-worldrestsonthreepillars:lakeandfishingformen,gardenandonion-growing for women, and faith, overarching all, binding it together for a meaningfulcommunal village life landscape unit. Oral history interviews reveal its inner workings andintricatehistorywherethetiniest landscapefeaturefalls into itsplacethroughtherelationoffishing, gardening and religious practices. A landscape reader can spot typical signs ofabandonmentandmarginalisationfollowingthecollapseofthesovietsystemandtransitiontomarket-economy. Old Believers have endured changes in political, economic and socialenvironment affecting landscapes before but post-productivistway of life rips themoff fromtheir landscape-related identity, where their worldview is manifested and reflected inmateriality. Is the recent awareness concerning this unique landscape enough to sustain itscharacter?

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LivingNexttothePort:Eco-narratives,localhistoriesandenvironmentalactivismintheDaugavadelta

DaceBula

Thepaperisbasedonthestudyofaformerfishingcommunitylocatedonasuburbanpeninsula.It addresses the centrality of water to the meaning of the place: in the past, it was anoccupationalmilieuofparents,playgroundforchildren,borderofthelocalityand,atthesametime, linkwith the outerworld. Itmeant intimate everyday relationshipswith nature and itsresources.Thus, identityandeverydayexperiencesof the localpeopleweremoredefinedbywaterthanland.Thepaperfocusesonpeople'smemoriesandnarrativeattemptstodealwithrestrictedaccesstothewateraccompanyingrecenteconomicandenvironmentalchange.

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6-4.Roundtable.PotatoandtheEnvironment:Agrariansocietiessearchingforsurvivalstrategies

ConvenorandChair:TimoMyllyntausDiscussants:PiotrMiodunka,PaulsDaija,AnttiHäkkinen,JanKunnas,TimoMyllyntausBefore the 20th century, agrarian societies around the Baltic Sea time to time had to face food shortages due to the harvest failures. At the time, weather conditions were more severe than later, while agriculture was more vulnerable to weather extremes as well. The variety of produced foodstuffs was then much more limited than the present one.

Growing potato for human nourishment probably started almost 11,000 years ago on the American continent. Spanish colonialists brought potato from South America to Europe in the early 16th century. However, it did not gain any substantial popularity until in the mid-18th century, the King of Prussia Fredrick II commanded by his Potato Edict of 1756 his subjects to grow potato. In the late 18th and 19th

century, potato was regarded as the most promising new plant to improve the food security. Nevertheless, for many reasons it was not easy to grow potato annually in sufficient quantities, and therefore the start and expansion of potato cultivation differed considerably in the Baltic Sea Rim.

In this roundtable session, we will explore incentives and obstacles for the introduction of potato as a fodder to cattle and food for humans around the Baltic Sea. The task of invited discussants is to discuss the potato cultivation in their research areas in the 18th and 19th century. In addition, they have been asked to explain differences between these countries and put forward arguments or hypotheses related to the role and significance of the potato cultivation in the region. Especially, we are interested whether and where local or national potato cultivation could help to improving and diversify the general diet during the food crises and famines this region. In addition, the topics under discussion includes how decisive the environmental circumstances have been for potato cultivation.

Discussants are experienced historians from Finland, Latvia and Poland.

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7-1.Ethicsofcareandcommemoration

Environment,emotionsandembodiedcare:Twistingtheconceptofenvironmentalcitizenship

AisteBartkiene,RenataBikauskaitė,DianaMincytė

Ourproject“ThePracticeofEnvironmentalCareinLithuania”examinesenvironmentalcareasakeyelementincontemporarywelfaresocietybydevelopingatheorythatlinkstheethicsofcarewithenvironmentalconcernsandstudyingspecificmanifestationsofsuchcareinLithuania.Weexplore the concept of environmental care while taking in consideration the controversybetween rationalistic discourse ethics and affectivemoral tradition and highlight the role ofparticular values in shaping eco-friendly practices and environmental movements.While theconcept of the ethics of care has been embraced in various disciplinary fields and populardebates (Robinson 2011, Hamington, Sander-Staudt 2011, Tronto 2013, Engster, Hamington2015), littlehasbeendoneto integrate it inenvironmentaldiscourse. Inthefewcaseswherethecontributionoftheethicsofcarewasseriouslyconsideredbysocialtheorists,itsnormativecontentwasreducedtoreflectingonindividualvirtues(Dobson2003)oritwasinterpretedasaversionofecofeminism(Shiva1989,Merchant1995,Salleh1997)whereitwascriticizedasanessentialist, apolitical, neoconservative, or even oppressive concept (Sandilands 1999,MacGegor 2006). Given these popular assumptions, the ethics of care has even beencaricatured as an expression of “motherhood environmentalism” or “ecomaternalism.” Theethicsofcareemphasizestheroleofemotionsandembodimentincaringpractices,whichareunderappreciated in the discourse of environmental citizenship. We show how affect-basedengagementwith thenon-humanenvironment leads to crossing theboundariesbetween theclassicalconceptofprivateandpublic.WhileNussbaum(2015)arguesthatemotionsshouldbeincorporated into political philosophy of liberalism and shows how that could be done, weadvancehertheoreticalargumentsbuildingonrelationalecologicalethicsandtheethicsofcareand argue that the civic practice of caring for environment cannot be reduced tomainly torational factors as Dobson and others would like to believe, but functions as embodied,habituatedandemotionallyloadedwayofacting.

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Environmentasspiritualcapital.AnargumentforrestoringVilnius'soldestJewishcemetery

AndriusKulikauskas

We develop a concept of "spiritual capital" which has suggested itself in the public debateregarding the futureof theVilniusSportsPalace,a large forumwhich theSovietsbuilt in the1960sona Jewishcemeterywhich is theoldest inVilniusandperhapsallof theBalticstates.This concept of spiritual capital is relevant for analyzing cultural surroundings but could alsoperhapsgroundahealthyhumanrelationshipwithnaturalsurroundings.TheSportsPalaceisnolongersafe foruse,andso there isanopportunity todismantle it,and restore thecemetery,perhapsasa symbolofempathy for the loss to theHolocaustof Lithuania'sworld renownedLitvakcommunity. Instead, thecity ispreparingtouseEuropeanUnionfundstorenovatetheSportsPalaceforuseasaconventioncenter.Thecity issatisfiedtohavewontheapprovaloftheofficialLithuanianJewishcommunity,andisnotconcernedbythedisrespectfeltbymanyLitvaksinLithuaniaandaroundtheworld.

The actions of the city and economic developers are understandable from the point ofviewoftypicaleconomicthinking.Inordertoexplainthevalueofrestoringthecemetery,thereisaneedtoappealtotherealityofadditionaldimensions.AnexampleinLithuaniaistheHillofCrosses,whichtheSovietskeptbulldozingbutLithuanianskeptrestoring.ItisaholysitewhichPopeJohnPaulIIvisitedin1993.Nowconsiderthevalueofsuchasite.Itisarealchallengetointentionally create such a site. And it typically takes decades or centuries. But it can offerlongstandingbenefitsasareferencepointthathasarichmeaningforawidevarietyofpeople.Wesensethattangibly-wemaysaythatithasaverystrongaura,Italsooffersvastpotentialfor leveraging itsmeaning in developing ever new symbols. For all of these reasonswemaythinkof itas"spiritualcapital"thatwemight invest intodevelopandexploit.Suchaconceptmakes clear that dismantling the Sports Palace can, from the point of view of "spiritualeconomics",yieldahugereward ifLithuaniacanunderstand itselfasacountrywhichmournsJews,lovesJewsandwelcomesJews.Alternatively,LithuaniacouldclaimtheSovietatrocityasitsown,andidentifyitselfwithSovietheritageratherthanJewishheritage.

We develop these notions of "spiritual capital" and "spiritual economics" from aconceptualandevenmetaphysicalpointofview.Thehumanmindmaybedescribedintermsofinteractionsbetweentheunconscious(whichtellsuswhatweknow)andtheconscious(whichtells uswhatwe don't know). Experimental psychologists Kahneman and Tversky referred totheseasSystem1andSystem2.Weconsideramodelwhereone'sconsciousmind invests inone'sunconsciousmind,whichthenlatersupportsone'sconsciousmind.Wemaythinkofourunconsciousmindsas interlinked inavastnetworkwhichourconsciousmindsworktoshapebutmustalsoworktoresist.Wecanthenthinkof"spiritualcapital"asourinvestmentinthatculturalnetworkand"spiritualeconomics"asdescribingourinteractionswiththatnetwork.Inthisway,we can consider our relationshipwith our cultural surroundings.We then considerwhatthismeansforournaturalsurroundings.Inwhatsensedoesnaturehavespiritualcapital?Howdoweinteractwiththatandfosterthat?

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Pastorasasocialentrepreneur–Enteringthebridgebuildingprocessbetweenpastorsbehavioralandgeographicalenvironment

AllanKährik

1. Pastorsgeographicalandbehavioralenvironment

Pastor’s geographical environment (his/her parish, local community) necessarily includesseveral entrepreneurial tasks like administering and managing, leadership tasks, fundraising,diaconal,educational,culturalaspectsofservicebutalsoaccounting,financingandlastbutnotleast strategicalplanning.Allthatneedstobetakencareoftoempowerone’sparishtofulfilhervocationinthecommunity.

Pastor’s behavioral environment on the other side includes some aspects that seemirrelevant to the rest of the congregation (like deep theological considerations, advancedspirituality).Pastorcarriesseveralrolemodelsthatdeterminehis/herperformance.Pastorhasbeenpreparedfortheologicalandpastoraltasks(worshipadministering,teachingandpastoralcare)meanwhile“earthlier”administeringtaskshe/sheusuallyisnotwellpreparedfor.2. Preliminaryfindingsduringclergy’scompetencemodeldraftingandresearch

During2016-2017thefirstphaseofcreatingclergy’scompetencymodelforEstonianEvangelicalLutheranChurchwasaccomplishedinEstonia.Researchintorelevantliteratureandfocusgroupresearchfindingsweretakenasagrounduponwhichthefirstdraftof themodelwasdrawn.During interviews a grounded theory proposal emerged that several problems and tasks apastor ordinarily and continuously encounters could be explained as aspects of socialentrepreneurship.Asentrepreneurshipisnotcountedasanythingsuitableandspiritualenoughforclergymen(aneverydayopinion)ahypothesiswassetup.Socialentrepreneurshipfunctionsasa thresholdconcept thatshouldbe taken into theconsiderationasan importantaspectofpastortraining.Socialentrepreneurshipasathresholdconceptincorporatescertainaspectsofgeographical environment into pastor’s behavioral environment. To effectively serve hisparishioners in their social and geographical environment a pastor should act also as anentrepreneurtoaccomplishseveraltasksputinfrontofhim.3. Entrepreneurship as a threshold concept and a possible bridge between pastor’s

geographicalandbehavioralenvironment

Entrepreneurshipasatroublesomephenomenonincorporatesseveralthresholdconcepts(Hatt,L. 2017). They include self-efficacy, opportunity, risk, focus, impact that all contribute toeffectiveservice.Socialentrepreneurshipisthusawayandaphenomenonthatwhengrasped,opens up a new and fruitful way to understand and take action in order to better serveparishioners,localcommunityandworldwidechurch.

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Ecologicalartinpost-genocidalspaces.Seekinganewformofcommemoration

AleksandraUbertowska

Themainthrustofmypresentationwillbetoexaminethepossibilityofestablishingnewformsof commemoration using the natural elements such as water, plants, the ground, climaticphenomena. The examples which will comprise the case studies in my research are twoartistic/intellectualworksrelatedto the post-genocidalspaces located inPoland: the formerWarsaw ghetto where, during the WWII, 300 000 European Jews were gathered and thenmurdered,andtheAuschwitz/Birkenauconcentration/deathcamp. Oneoftheworks iscalledthe„Oxygenator”byJoannaRajkowska(2007)-anartificialpondsurroundedbyplantslocatedinthemiddleofthepre-warJewishdistrictinWarsawthatdoesn’t exist anymore. The second is the small essay „Birchbark”by FrenchphilosopherGeorgesDidi-Huberman.Bothworksoperates in the„memoryscape”, the symbolicarchiveofcollectivememorywhich shapes the national/transnational (European) identity. They explorethefeelingsofloss,absenceandlackofmourningritualsregardingtheexterminationofJewsincontemporaryEuropeandsimultaneouslythestrongneedtofacethisemptinessviacompletelynew means taken from the world of „non-humans”. But while Didi-Huberman uses the„birchbark”foundneartheBirkenaumuseumasthemostprimordial,true,transparentwitnessto the genocidal past, Rajkowska initiates a postmodern play which exposes nature asessentially “denaturalized”: a nature that is irrevocably artificial and fabricated. Rather thandependingonamimeticreproductionofnature,theorganizingprincipleofRajkowska’sprojectistheconceptofdecontextualizationandviolentintrusionintopublicspace. Both authors treat their ecological forms of commemoration as a promising counter-narrativecompetingwiththeofficial, institutionalised politicsofcollectivememorywhichareveryoftenmisusedbytheneoliberalgovernmentsandpoliticians.

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7-2.Entanglements,sustainabilityanddegrowth

Encounteringofdegrowthandassociatedpublics

TarmoPiknerUrbanisationandmodernityislargelybasedonvariousdimensionsofgrowthandaccumulation.Planetary urbanisation perspective indicates that cities modify environments and social lifeacrosswider regions along resource extractions and land-usedynamics. Thus,many localitiesandcommunitieshavetodealwithtendenciesofshrinkinganddegrowth,whichposepressuresto negotiate (heritage) values and practices associated to build infrastructure. Degrowthperspectivecanalsoindicateconsciouschoicesopposingcommodificationofsharedresources.The current study valorises the contested values and governance processes related to the(infra)structuresandsitesestablishedbyandfortheformerSoviet/industrialregimeinEstonia.Thispaperdrawsonpreliminaryanalysisof thethresholdsandconcernsrelatedtothepublicuseofthecurrentruinousspaces inNorth-easternandSouthernregions inEstonia,anddrawsomeparallelstowiderinternationaltendencies.Myfocusisalsoonactualandfuturerelatedtensionsthatengagecurrentenclosuresalongmultipledimensionsofpublicgood.

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Bridgingtraditionalknowledgeandnoveltiesforsustainabilitytransformationsthroughpermaculture

ElgarsFelcis

“The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather thanagainst,nature”(Mollison1988:ix)

Whilescientistsareproducingincreasinglydisturbing‘warningstohumanity’(Rippleet.al.2017)about the Anthropocene (Crutzen 2002, Steffen et.al. 2015b), transgressed planetaryboundaries (Steffen et.al. 2015a) and other side-effects of our development (Beck 2009),Central and Eastern European countries have much less expressed public sense of urgencyaboutsustainabilityproblems.Scientificliteratureonsustainabilityisdominatedbytheauthorsfromtherichestworldcountries,butthishasnotreversedunsustainabletrendsandscientistsin2018 are calling for “nothing less than a radical shift towards large-scale expansion ofmoreaction-orientedknowledgeproduction”(Fazeyet.al.2018:56).Oneoftheworldwideresponsestosuchdilemmasisphilosophicalandpracticalpermaculturemovementframework(Mollison&Holmgren1978) that is little covered in scientific literature (Ferguson&Lovell2014),but thispaper demonstrates that it ismatching closely the CEE realitieswhere traditional knowledgeandnoveltybridgingcanprovidevaluablesustainability,regenerationandresiliencepotential.ThereforethispaperexploresthedevelopmentofpermaculturemovementinLatviaandhowitrelates to regenerative places and practices that differ from initiatives in Western Europe.Pursuitof ‘sustainability’ in Latvia isoften technocratically top-down imposed from theEU inallocationofCohesionPolicy funds,but thereare relatively fewpublic institutions,NGOsandthink tanks engaged in advancing sustainability beyond fitting the existing frameworks. Thiscausesanobviousobstacleforasustainabilityscientistintermsoftransformativematerialtoberesearched and this led to my in-depth involvement and co-creation of sustainabilitytransformations in Latvia. In contrast, local ‘how to’ knowledge and practices have a diverseresilience potential that has been strengthened using permaculture framework to focus onecologicalliving,growing,building,networkingandaccessibleskillssharing.ReferencesBeck,U.2009.WorldatRisk.Cambridge:PolityPress.Crutzen,P.J.2002.Geologyofmankind.Nature,415(23).Fazey et.al. 2018. Ten essentials for action-oriented and second order energy transitions,

transformationsandclimatechangeresearch.EnergyResearch&SocialScience,40:54-70.Ferguson,S.R.andS.T.Lovell2014.Permacultureforagroecology:design,movement,practice,

andworldview.Areview.AgronomyforSustainableDevelopment,34:251-274.Mollison, B. and D. Holmgren 1978. Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human

Settlements.Melbourne,Australia:TransworldPublishers.Ripple,W.J.et.al. (>15,000signatoriesfrom184countries)2017.WorldScientists’Warningto

Humanity: A Second Notice. BioScience, 67(12): 1026-1028. Available online:

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https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/67/12/1026/4605229 [Last accessed on08.04.2018]

Steffen, W., et.al. 2015a. Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changingplanet.Science,342(6223).

Steffen,W.,Broadgate,W.,Deutsch,L.,Gaffney,O.andLudwig,C.2015b.ThetrajectoryoftheAnthropocene:TheGreatAcceleration.AnthropoceneReview,2(1):81-98.

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Networkingdiversities:Makingmosaiclandscapesandorganicsovereigntiesinpost-socialistLatvia

GuntraAistara

Latvianorganicfarmerstransformmeadowsandgrasslandsintomosaiclandscapesthroughthegrazingofwildhorses and cattle and the collectionofmedicinal herbs for the reinventionoftraditionalsaunatechniques.Thesepracticescreatereciprocalsocialandecologicalconnectionswith other living beings, contributing to biological diversity, diversification of livelihoodstrategies,andstrengtheningofsocialrelations.Thesefarmersthusnotonlymanagebutcreatemultiple intermeshed diversities, drawing upon their histories and cultural memories of thelandscape, cooperatingwithother species, and reckoningwithecologicalprocessesandever-changingsocio-economicpressures.Thesediversitiesareproductsoftherelationshipsorganicfarmers build across time and space, with other living species and other farmers at thelandscapelevelinwhatIcall“networkeddiversities.”Thenetworkeddiversitiesarelayeredsetsofmemories,processes,and relationships thatemergealmost inadvertently (organically,as itwere)throughthepracticesoftheorganicfarmers.Togethertheyformintricateentanglementsthatarepartofacontinuousadaptationtonewcircumstances,constitutingthemakingandre-makingofpost-socialistplacesandorganicsovereignties.Extrapolatingfromtheliteraturethatviewslandscapeasaprocess(Hirsch1995;Ingold2000)andplaceasanevent(Massey2005),itispossible to thinkaboutdiversityasaprocessaswell.Wemust reconceptualizediversityasintermeshedandrelationalprocessesofbecoming(Haraway2008),ratherthanagrowinglistofspeciesintheprocessofextinction-orun-becoming-inordertoconservebothbiologicalandculturaldiversityinthelongterm.

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Theepistemologyofenvironmentalstudies.Thereflexiveturninenvironmentalresearch

FlorianRabitz,AlinOlteanuWemap semanticnetworkswithinenvironmental researchbyapplyingnetworkanalysis toadata set consistingof 180.000 journal abstracts. The growingawarenessof the complexityofenvironmentalinterdependenciescausedarequirementforinterdisciplinaryapproachesaimedatmappingtheenvironment.Inthecontextofthereflexiveturninsocialresearch,weconsiderthatmapping environmental research reveals both (1) how research can bias environmentalpolicy and (2) rather accurate environment mappings. By deriving a set of key conceptsassociatedwith planetary boundaries, identifying instances inwhich those concepts co-occuracross the data in a semantic network consisting of concepts as nodes, and instances of co-occurrenceasedges,we identifythestructuraldynamics inenvironmentalresearch.Thus,wetestthreehypotheses:(1)thatenvironmentalsciencesarebiasedbya“climatization”tendency,reflectingitselfintheincreasingcentralityofclimatechange-relatedconcepts;(2)thatscientificnicheselectioncorrespondstotheemergenceandproliferationofsemanticcommunitiesovertime;and(3)thatsuchsemanticcommunitiesarereflectedinhumanenvironmentalmodelling.Preliminary results suggest that climatization is present in the network, implying patterns ofconceptualco-occurrencethatdonotreflecttheobjectiverelationshipsbetweenenvironmentalchallenges.Assuch,thefunctionalinterdependencieswithintheEarthsystemareonlypartiallyreflected in the cognitive maps of the scientific community. In a semiotic perspective, weexplain that this biased scientific attitude results in misconceived representations of humanenvironments,withdamagingimplicationsfortheglobalenvironment.

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7-3.Historicalperspectivesonsustainabilityandenvironmentalism

‘Useful,harmfulandneutral’:TheperceptionofwildlifeandtheriseoftheconservationmovementininterwarLithuania

LoretaZydeliene

Thepurposeof thispresentation is todiscuss thestateofhumanandwildlife relationships ininterwar Lithuania and to highlight factors that shaped the strategies of the conservationmovement. These questions tie into the broader framework of international research,whichhighlightedmanysidedandcomplexissuesonthepathofnaturepreservation.ThestudyfoundthattheinterwarLithuanianrelationshipwithandperceptionofwildlife,justasiseverywhereelse,wasshapedbythepeople’swayoflife,localknowledge,andtheobjectivesofinterestgroups.Peopleassumedtheroleofthearbiterofrelationshipsamongspecies,andbetweenspeciesandpeople.ThestudyalsofoundthatinLithuania’scase,closefamiliaritywithrurallifeandspecificissuesintherelationshipwithwildlifehelpednaturaliststodrafteffectivestrategiesthatguidedeffortstoprotectnatureandpromoteenvironmentalawareness.Bytakingintoaccounttheinterestsofforesters,hunters,andfarmers,naturalistswereabletoconstructpersuasiveargumentsexplainingthebenefitsofwildlifeprotectiontoeachof thosegroups:fromwhat,forwhom,orforwhatpurpose.Yet itwasalsobecauseofthededication,commitmentandenthusiasmthatthenaturalistswereabletocreate-whatJaneFoster(1998)called “an internal network of consensus”. Not only did they transform advocacy into activegovernmentalpolicyandlegislation,buttheyalsoengagedthelocalpopulation.

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Environmentalistinform,nationalistincontent?NatureandnationalisminlateSovietEstonianculture

LindaKaljundi

ThesignificantroleofenvironmentalmovementsinthedemocratisationoftheEasternBlocandthe collapse of the Soviet Union is widely known and recognised, yet not thoroughlyinvestigated, especially concerning the complicated relations between nature,environmentalismandnationalism.The threeBaltic republicsoffer stimulatingand significantmaterialforexploringtheseissues.

The major environmental campaigns of the 1980s were preceded by the increasingvisibilityofnatureandnatureconservationissuesinpublicandacademicdiscourse,aswellasculture.Especiallyfromthe1970sonwards,environmentaltopicsalsospreadwidelyinvariousculturalmediaacrossEasternEurope,involvingvisualandperformativeart,music,documentaryandfictivefilmsandliterature,etc.Duetothecloselinksbetweenthelaterenvironmentalandpoliticalactivism,yet,alsotheseearlierrepresentationsofnatureandenvironmenthavebeenconceptualisedinanationalframework.

This paper aims to look at the treatment of environment and nature in late SovietEstonianculturefromamoretransnationalperspective,comparingtheseworksandtextswiththedevelopments in global, aswell aswith Soviet environmentalism. Inparticular, thepaperexamines the practices of the Estonian Society for Nature Conservation to engage artists,writers, composers, etc., as well as the events and artefacts related to the so-called Tallinndeclaration(1983)aboutharmonyofnatureandartadoptedby IUCN internationaleducationforum.

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Econationalism,environmentaljusticeororientalism:ChallengesincontextualisinglateSovietenvironmentalisminEstonia

KatiLindström

Morethan25yearshavepassedsincethefalloftheSovietorder inEasternEurope, inwhichenvironmentalistmovementsanddiscussionsplayedamajorrole.Nevertheless,thediscussiononenvironmentalismhaslargelybeenside-linedintheinterpretationsoftheEasternEuropeanrevolutionof1989-1991.GeneralsentimenthasbeenthattheEasternEuropeanenvironmentalmovementsthattookthefirststepstowardsdemocratization,civilsocietyandpubliccalls forself-determination,havedisappearedafterachievingindependence.Thereasonsforthiswouldbe thatenvironmental concernswere in fact secondary tonational sentimentsanddesire forindependence.

Yet,itishighlyunlikelythattransnationalmovementofthescaleof1989and1991greenrevolutions would simply be a surrogate for coincidental ethnic independence movements,completely independent from the contemporary global environmentalism and civil societystruggles. The present paper aims at unpacking some of the complicated issues aroundEstonian’s environmental quests in their longer historical context and the lacunae in thescientificframeworksthathavehithertobeenusedforitsanalysis.Someissuestobediscussedinclude the ad hoc quality of the movement, the role of scientists and the cultural elite,transnationalityandlinkstoglobalenvironmentalistsandtheeffectsoftightcouplingofnationandnatureforlaterenvironmentalism.

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Organisers:Dr.KatiLindström,ESEHRegionalRepresentativefortheBalticStates,KTHRoyalInstituteofTechnologyDr.AnitaZariņa&Dr.KristīneAbolina,UniversityofLatviaDr.KadriTüür,Prof.UlrikePlath&LindaKaljundi,TallinnUniversityDr.AndaBaklāne,LatvianLibraryWearethankfulforsupport:UniversityofLatviaLatvianCouncilofScience,projectlzp-2018/1-0446InstituteofLiterature,FolkloreandArtoftheUniversityofLatviaEstonianCentreforEnvironmentalHistory(KAJAK),TallinnUniversityEuropeanSocietyforEnvironmentalHistory(ESEH)KTHRoyalInstituteofTechnologyNationalLibraryofLatviaRachelCarsonCentre(RCC)UnderandTuglasLiteratureCentreoftheEstonianAcademyofSciences

ISBN:CoverPhoto:HaraSubmarineBase,LahemaaNationalPark,Estonia.Author:KatiLindström