Ihmistieteelliset näkökulmat ja rinnakkaiset tulevaisuuspolut : katsaus metsäsuhdetutkimuksen kenttään

Abstract

Ihmistieteelliset näkökulmat ovat lisääntyneet metsäsuhteiden tutkimuksessa viime vuosina. Tässä katsausartikkelissa esittelemme lyhyesti yhteiskuntatieteellisten, kulttuurintutkimuksellisten ja muiden ihmistieteellisten lähestymistapojen teoreettisia, käsitteellisiä ja empiirisiä sovelluksia. Ihmistieteelliset lähestymistavat tarjoavat metsiin ja tulevaisuuksiin liittyen näköaloja kestävyyssiirtymään ja tuovat esiin rinnakkaisten tulevaisuuspolkujen kirjon.

The article introduces various theoretical, conceptual, and empirical approaches to human-forest relationship (HFR) research, a relatively new and broad field of multidisciplinary approaches to study the interactions and interfaces between humans and forests. Article is based on a questionnaire and call for authors circulated in recently established HFR research network and the HFR Research Club of the Finnish Society of Forest Science. In the article, authors with various disciplinary backgrounds reflect the diversity of HFR research, combining social sciences, humanities, and cultural research. Further, they focus on diverse interactions and interfaces between individuals, communities, and forests, and their cultural, societal and historical meanings. The article has two aims. First, to provide an overview on the various approaches within HFR research field in Finland. Second, to explore how the scientific knowledge provided by HFR research can contribute to an understanding about future challenges and need for change, and further adjust these changes and identify alternative future pathways. As a result, we argue that the multidisciplinary approaches in HFR research enable both to analyse existing HFRs in a more multivocal ways and to acknowledge the diversity of meanings that individuals and communities associate to forests. We have also identified four future challenges and changes in HFR research: 1) sustainability transitions in forestry and forest use, 2) changing the roles of forest actors and institutions, 3) changing views on human–forest relationships and 4) experiential and bodily turn in studying human–forest relationships. These aspects should be taken into account when anticipating the future prospects and potential of the Finnish forest sector and forests. For example, HFR research may highlight cultural and societal structures and processes, producing and maintaining the current ways of forest-related decision and policy making, and their way of framing forests-as-resources. Simultaneously, these frames neglect the multiplicity of other dimensions. The HFR research offers, parallel to more mainstream forest science research, several approaches that stem from different traditions of the research and alternative ways of knowledge production, and furthermore create new scientific knowledge to forest research and pave the way for alternative future pathways.