Let’s sit and talk in the scientific café! The “Coffee Talks HFR” sessions give room for open and relaxed discussions on current research subjects related to human and society relations to forests. It warmly welcomes all interested in forest-related research to join online sessions.
Each session lasts approximately 1,5 hours. It starts with a 30-minutes presentation of a guest speaker. After the presentation, with coffee or tea and cookies at hand, participants have plenty of room for an open discussion and exchange.
The “Coffee Talks HFR” takes place three to four times per term on Wednesday at 6am MST / 2pm CET / 3pm EET.
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Upcoming Coffee Talks
Wednesday 24.9.2025
6 am MST / 2pm CET / 3pm EEST (Finland)
Irene van Oorschot (Erasmus University Rotterdam): The More-than-human Biopolitics of Forest Resilience
Abstract:
What is the good of a resilient forest? As imaginaries of climate-adapted, future-proof forests circulate widely in transnational strategies and visions for a carbon-neutral Europe, the concept of resilience has taken on a central role. In this presentation, van Oorschot explores how forest resilience is enacted in practice. Drawing on fieldwork among practising Dutch foresters, she explores how the emphasis on resilience comes with new ways of knowing, harnessing, and intervening in the multispecies relations that characterize forests. In so doing she explores possible relevancies of more-than-human biopolitical approaches to conservation and human-animal relationships for the study of contemporary transformations in forests across Europe.
The speaker Irene van Oorschot is an assistant professor in sociology in the Public Issues and Imaginaries team at the Erasmus School for Social and Behavioral Research (ESSB), at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Wednesday 3.12.2025
6am MST / 2pm CEST / 3pm EEST (Finland)
Sabeth Häublein (University of Freiburg): Policy translation as a discursive practice. The ideational integration of forestry into the German national water strategy
To join the session, please contact tuulikki.halla(at)uef.fi or kristiina.koskinen@ulapland.fi to get the Zoom Link.
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Guest speakers wanted! If you are interested in contributing to the “Coffee Talks HFR”, please contact either jodie.asselin(at)uleth.ca or tuulikki.halla(at)uef.fi with info on your subject (title and short abstract) and a preferred date.
The interdisciplinary and international scientific “Coffee Talk HFR” has a long tradition. In 2021, a cooperation between the Finnish research project Human-Forest Relationships in Societal Change and the German research group Mentalities im Flux (flumen) launched and hosted the “Scientific Coffee Sessions HFR”. In 2024, the network broadened and the event got a new name: “Coffee Talks HFR”.
The “Scientific Coffee HFR” is organized by:
- Human-Forest Relationship Research Club of the Finnish Society of Forest Science
- Forest Anthropology Working Group on Europe and Beyond FORAGE
- Soz-Wald, a newly-established German speaking network of sociological research on forest relations. Info on the network’s first event; join our Email-list
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Past sessions
21.5.2025
Dr. Rebecca Banham (University of Tasmania, Australia): “Ontological security and forest experiences: ‘Giving language’ to human-forest connections in Tasmania, Australia”
2.4.2025
Dr. Sebastian Garbe (University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Germany): “This is Nature Protecting itself“: Forest Occupation Against Sand & Gravel Extraction in Germany
2.4.2025
Dr. Sebastian Garbe (University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Germany): “This is Nature Protecting itself“: Forest Occupation Against Sand & Gravel Extraction in Germany
26.2.2025
Léa Lacan (University of Cologne, Germany): “Forest Politics in Kenya’s Tugen Hills: Conservation Beyond Natural Resources in the Katimok Forest
22.1.2025
John Björkman (University of Turku, Finland): “The Black Man of Villavuori sits in that forest, guarding the village border.” Sacred forest sites of folk belief in Southwest Finnish village landscapes
13.11.2024
Agata Konczal (Wageningen University) & Jodie Asselin (University of Lethbridge): Exploring the Green Frontier: Patterns of Inequality in Europe’s Recent Forest Initiatives
9.10.2024
Kristina Wirth (Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg, FVA): Creating understanding through artful connections
27.-28.6.2024
Two on-site sessions at the IUFRO 2024 World Congress:
T4.17. Human-Forest Relationship I – Ambiguity in “taking care of the forest”
T4.33. Ways of knowing about multiverse of human-forest relationships: methodological approaches for sustainable futures for the forests
10.4.2024
Jana Holz (University of Jena) & Tuulikki Halla (University of Eastern Finland): Coffee Salon Human-Forest-Relationships (HFR), Interactive session at IFPM5 (on site)
7.2.2024
Ulla Taipale (Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki, Finland): Periferia – A Permanent Art Exhibition in the Midst of the Boreal Forest. The Connection of the Arts to the Landscape and the Research of the University Forest Station
22.11.2023
Mónica Hernández Morcillo (Eberswald University, Germany): A Regenerative Approach to Forestry: Insights from the Indigenous Culture Kogi
4.10.2023
Anna Ott (SYKE, Finnish Environment Institute): Sámi reindeer herders’ fight for preserving and renewing – An analysis of the conflict over forest in the Sámi homeland
19.4.2023
Maie Kiisel (University of Tartu, Estonia): The resonance of macro challenges in forestry debate of Estonia (multi-level perspective approach)
15.2.2023
Peeter Vihma (Estonian University of Life Sciences): Origins, peace negotiations and failures in Estonian “Forest War”
23.11.2022
Jenni Simkin (Natural Resource Institute Finland): Should you visit a managed or natural forest for the best of your well-being?
14.9.2022
Ronja Mikoleit (Institute for Environmental Social Sciences and Geography, University of Freiburg): Climate heroes in the forest – Heroic (self-)representations in forestry and their consequences
1.6.2022
Maija Halonen (University of Eastern Finland): Socio-economic forest relations in Northern peripheries
27.4.2022
“People and forests – Developing the concepts and methodologies for researching
human-forest-relationship and social relationships with nature” (panel with four presentations), special event as part of the 4th International Forest Policy Meeting
6.4.2022
Dominik Menton-Enderlin (Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg, FVA): “Basically this is all my forest” – qualitative and quantitative research results on psychological ownership among forest visitors in Germany
12.1.2022
Tuomo Takala (University of Eastern Finland): Critical discourse analysis as a method and a theory
17.11.2021
Lukas Fehr (Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen): Narratives and interpretations of forests in the forestry and timber sector between recreation and wood production
8.9.2021
Anne Matilainen (University of Helsinki): Feelings of psychological ownership towards forests