By Judith Krauss, University of Sheffield
What has CONVIVA Finland been up to? In the , we catch up with , PhD researcher, and Prof , the Finnish team of the CONVIVA – convivial conservation research project funded by NORFACE/Belmont Forum.
Sanna and Anja, both from the University of Helsinki, describe their research and knowledge exchange efforts around human-wolf interactions in Lieksa in eastern Finland. Sanna explains their wolf conservation project to me like I am eight years old, gives us a glimpse of her in-depth fieldwork finding out more about the challenges of living with wolves, but also what potentials there may be for conviviality. Sanna equally explains her efforts at knowledge exchange, seeking to feed back to and get feedback from those who were part of her research.
Next, Anja and Sanna let us in on their current joint paper-writing project, conducted in a convivial spirit transcending the conventional supervisor-supervisee relationship: reflecting on Sanna’s fieldwork through an other-than-human lens, they call for a political ecology of responsibility. We hear about Sanna’s intentions of thinking through her case-study from the vantage points of what ‘nature’ is and how the ‘post-truth’ era as well as generational differences affect views and knowledges of human-wolf interactions.
Finally, we end on something hopeful, which in my view definitely includes Sanna’s project of bringing her research together with her third solo album! Please find Sanna’s music .
The full third episode of the convivial conservation podcast on wolf conservation in Finland is available , while a Twitter thread with some short audio clips can be found . Thanks very much for listening!