The research Colloquium of the Geography is open forum for the Doctoral students and the researchers of Geography to meet, discuss, present and develop common interests in research. The schedule of the meetings of Colloquium is informed in this page.

Meetings are on Thursdays, in the seminar room MN210, 14:15-16:00.

Thu 12.9.2013
Oliver Belcher
University of British Columbia/BIO Project, Arktikum

The Afterlives of Counterinsurgency: Postcolonialism, Military Social Science, and Afghanistan 2006-2012

Abstract: This seminar is unconventional, insofar as it is a presentation of my dissertation research in  preparation for my upcoming defense. In my dissertation, I examined the U.S. military's counterinsurgency campaign from 2006-2012.

Primarily what interested me was emergence of so-called "cultural intelligence" as a form of knowledge to survey and interpret the occupied population of Afghanistan. Cultural intelligence has been developed in order to refine policing and security techniques within the U.S. military apparatus. I make three central arguments:

(1) US counterinsurgencies in practice have a tendency to produce to two particular outcomes: massive population displacement, and the arming of local defense forces;

(2) "cultural intelligence" has been utilized to produce a narrative that Pashtuns in southern Afghanistan are inclined towards local tribal structures as the "natural" mode of political order and legitimacy. Whether or not this is true, the U.S. military has used this Orientalist narrative of the "local" to set up tribal strongmen and warlords as a counter to what is perceived as a transnational, networked, and thus locally "inauthentic" insurgency." I call this the "weaponization of scale," and I elaborate on its detrimental effects on the Afghan social fabric.

(3) I examine the U.S. military's worldview which tends to read populations as "networks." Indeed, to see like a twenty-first century military is to see a world of networks. I argue that this "world of networks" is a secular cosmological mode of intelligibility derivative of the very human-machine assemblages through which U.S. military personnel and institutions operate.

Unlike most inquiries into contemporary methods in geography, I analyse how social scientific methods like "social network analysis" and "big data" mining have roots in colonial policing practices.

Wed 9.10.2013
Monica Tennberg
Arctic Centre, University of Lapland

Barents Chimera: Economic development, local communities and neoliberal governance

Abstract: In the Barents Region, there are currently high hopes for economic growth, employment and well-being connected to development of energy industry, tourism and mining.  The presentation discusses this recent development from local communities' perspective in five locations across the region. The communities are remote, relatively small, multicultural, and resource-dependent. The question is how local economic development, ideas of sustainability and neoliberal practices of governance meet.

The idea about "sustainable communities" is central. Sustainable development emphasises community values, such as local participation, empowerment and capacity-building. However, the focus on communities can be interpreted also as a neoliberal governmental technique to advance local and individual responsibility to embrace economic development and individual responsibility to adapt to constantly changing conditions. Especially, neoliberal governance practices raise concerns over social aspect of sustainable development. The apparently rich Barents region presents itself to local communities and peoples as a region of scarce resources and constant competition, thus making them into "adaptive opportunists".

The presentation is based on a Nordic-Russian research collaboration funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers' Arctic cooperation program (2012).

Key words: Neoliberalism, governance, sustainable development, Barents Region, local communities. social dimension

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Sessions on sprring 2013:

Thu 21.2.2013
Janne Alahuhta
University of Oulu:
"Ecosystem Services: New research Agenda Linking Physical and Human Geography?"

Thu 28.2.2013
Anna Secor
University of Kentucky) & Lauren Martin (University of Oulu:
"A Novel Twist or Familiar Return: Topological Thinking in Geography"

Thu 21.3.2013
Sue Roberts
University of Kentucky:
"Geography and the New Political Economy of US Intelligence"

Thu 18.4.2013
Tuuli Toivonen
University of Helsinki, Department of Geosciences and Geography:
"Quantitative spatial tools for land use and urban planning: Experiences from accessibility studies and conservation planning research at the University of Helsinki."

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Sessions on autumn 2012:

Thu 20.9.2012
Professor Tuomo Uotila
Lahti School of Innovation (LUT), Lappeenranta University of Technology

Thu 22.11.2012
Lesley Kadish
Fulbright Scholar in residence at Espoo City Museum/Curator of GIS and Digital Maps, Minnesota Historical Society:
"Story Teller or Archivist? Maps and 3D Modeling in Public History Museums."

Thu 29.11.2012
Dr. Nina Kivinen
Department of Business Studies, Åbo Akademi:
“Among gossip girls, hungergames and puberty - Spatiality of media work in a magazine for girls”.

Thu 13.12.2012
Dr. Kirsi Laurén
Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland

(Other Colloquium meetings are announced in this page. More information from Prof. Anssi Paasi.)