In my research, I challenge the binary between extractive industries and other forms of human–landscape interaction by viewing resource extraction as part of a broader, cyclical process. Rather than reducing mining, hydropower, or wind energy sites to “scarred” environments, I examine them as places of memory, resilience, and complex entanglements between human and more-than-human communities.
These themes shaped the conversations I had during a two-week research visit to the Center for Contemporary Challenges at the University of Pécs in Hungary. The city of Pécs has a layered industrial past. In the 19th century, it was home to renowned porcelain factories owned by the Zsolnay family. Under socialism, Pécs experienced a wave of rapid industrialization, including uranium mining, which reshaped its community through population growth and the expansion of residential areas. Following political and economic transitions in the 1990s, the mines were closed, and Pécs became a post-industrial city. Today, the University of Pécs is one of its main employers.
There are inspiring examples of reimagining the post-industrial legacy in Pécs: the former porcelain factory buildings have been redeveloped as the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, now home to several diverse museums, concert stages, a theater, and a planetarium. And yet, as colleagues pointed out, the surrounding post-mining settlements still experience unemployment and depopulation. The trauma of losing a shared industrial identity is still present in these communities. This juxtaposition of cultural regeneration and social fragmentation in Pécs and its surroundings provided a rich ground for thinking about resilience not as a return to a former state, but as a process of reorientation, adaptation, and care.
My hosts, Professors Judit Farkas and Zoltán Nagy, have both conducted long-term ethnographic research exploring themes central to resilience: memory, community engagement, and human–environmental relations. I was inspired by Judit Farkas’s work on ecovillages in Hungary, framing resilience as a collective project rooted in ecological restoration and community governance. Ecovillages respond to the failures of modernization and industrialized development, building resilience through localized knowledge and cooperation. As I prepare to co-organize a panel on citizen science in energy transition during the 2026 European Citizen Science Association’s conference in Oulu, Judit’s work on community-driven research continues to inform my thinking.
There were also striking parallels between my research in the Finnish and Russian Arctic and the work of Zoltán Nagy with Indigenous Khanty communities in Western Siberia. His long-term fieldwork highlights how Khanty responses to oil and gas development cannot be reduced to a binary of conflict or compliance. These responses are embedded in a deeper web of historical, political, and cultural relations between Indigenous peoples and the Russian state. His nuanced perspective resonates with my own approach, which views energy development not as a single event or impact, but as part of a broader cycle of extraction, resistance, and resilience.
As part of my visit, I gave an open lecture within the Key Contemporary Challenges course, discussing how energy transitions affect human–landscape relations in the Arctic. Many students were unfamiliar with the Arctic context, so I focused on a key message: that so-called “green” or renewable energy, when imposed top-down, can perpetuate older histories of colonization and “resourcification,” when both land and people are treated as commodities for state or corporate interests. A just transition, therefore, should rely on equal participation of Indigenous and local communities in decision-making related to Arctic energy futures.
Two weeks was not nearly enough to fully explore the intellectual and cultural landscape of Pécs, but my visit sparked meaningful dialogue and reflection. The time spent in Hungary helped me think more deeply about post-industrial heritage, memory work, and the possibilities for community-driven resilience, both in the Arctic and in other geographical contexts. I look forward to continuing the conversations and collaborations started in Pécs, and to further exploring the many ways in which places carry their industrial histories forward.
Writer of this blog post is Dr. Anna Varfolomeeva, postdoctoral researcher from the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Oulu. She was granted the “Resilience Oulu Academy Mobility” (ROAM) funding for her research visit from FRONT research programme.
The Exploring resilience blog discusses the current themes of research, teaching and development of resilience, i.e., crisis resistance and deepens knowledge about the management of global change, and possible solutions to the wicked problems of sustainability. The authors are researchers and experts in the field, and members of the cooperation networks of the University of Oulu’s FRONT PROFI7 research programme.