Speculative futures of forest-dependent livelihoods: Exploring alternatives to economic growth in Finnish forests

Abstract

This thesis explores alternatives to economic growth in the forest-dependent region of Kainuu, Finland through the lens of speculative design futures. Resource extraction through forestry and forest ownership have been crucial to Kainuu’s development, but the region is undergoing shifts and challenges in being economically productive amidst uncertainty in commodity markets, climate change, biodiversity loss, an aging population and urbanization. The conversations around these challenges tend to prioritize economic justifications for increasing resource extraction in forests design socio-ecological impacts. Furthermore, polarization of forest discourses has made it difficult to move towards action due to conflicting perspectives, politics and value systems related to forests and their usage.

The thesis unpacks how the prioritization of economic growth creates unsustainable and disconnected material cultures as sites of resource extraction, flow/trade, and consumption are so globalized. This raises questions about what sort of livelihoods, forest-human connections and possibilities for reconnections between rural/urban material cultures are possible and desirable. As a designer, I wanted to explore how speculative approaches might expand possibilities and increase openness to multiple alternative values and place-based approaches. I propose that exploring alternative models of living and working can open up more possibilities for forest ecosystems and the communities that depend on them to thrive and adapt to a rapidly shifting world. In considering how such transitions will have to confront and likely co-exist with hegemonic systems of capitalism and economic growth imperatives, my goal was to enable multiple ways of knowing, being in, with and for forests.

To achieve this, speculative scenarios were developed through a process of expert interviews, analysis and development. This resulted in the creation of three scenarios of speculative futures detailing possible forest-human connections and livelihoods in Kainuu. These scenarios were then presented and discussed in an online open workshop with participants residing in Kainuu and/or are connected to the forest sector. Workshop and post-workshop outcomes indicate that although the speculative scenarios were successful in engaging participants in discussions of alternative forest futures and livelihoods, speculation alone was not sufficient to noticeably shift perceptions of Kainuu’s forests and economic growth.

Overall, decommodifying forests and the diversification of forest-based livelihoods were very compelling concepts when expressed through visual speculative futures. They generated interest in discussion about forest-human connections in relation to technology and provoked thoughtful insights about diversifying forest ownership and management in the region. However, it is not clear whether this will make space for more kinds of these discussions or increase openness to collaboration amongst diverse forest sector actors in Kainuu. As a result, two main future directions for design practitioners and researchers are discussed regarding enabling sustainable forest transformations: 1) Speculative/Transition design supporting forest discussions and 2) Speculative/Transition design guiding experiments.