The workshop series
The overall theme of the workshop series is advancing strong sustainability in the Nordic SSH. The workshop series consists of digital and in-person sessions. For the in-person sessions, three workshops will take place in three different Nordic locations: Örebro, Trondheim, and Copenhagen. The digital sessions consist of a digital kick-off meeting, and a webinar series with high-profile keynote speakers. The webinars take place before each of the in-person workshop sessions to motivate and contextualise the topic of the workshops. The specific themes of each of the three two-day workshops are:
Workshop 1: Theorising sustainable food systems in the Nordic countries
(Örebro November 2023)
The first workshop of the series focuses on current research on food consumption and food systems at different levels and venues of daily life, and how their transformation can be advanced by approaching it from the perspective of strong sustainability. We will also delve into methods and ways to study and understand food systems and eating. One of the aims of the workshop is to understand the ways inter- and transdisciplinarity could be better utilised to advance knowledge about, and practicable solutions for the transformation of contemporary setups of how food is produced, provided, and consumed, aligned with the concept of strong sustainability. That is, food systems that concurrently enable eating patterns that are healthy, ecologically sustainable, and overall, more conducive towards greater societal well-being (both for consumers and for those working in production).
Workshop 2: Engaging with Nordic communities on sustainable energy
(Trondheim May 2024)
The second workshop is devoted to current research and societal developments in relation to energy consumption and production, highlighting challenges of reduced energy use in different everyday life and business-situations. As in workshop one, we will look at tools and methods to study and understand energy consumption and production from a strong sustainability lens, in particular mobilising concepts relating to ‘sufficiency’ and what energy is for. One aim is to delve into how SSH can become better at contributing to advances in policy making and in innovations that can help make daily energy consumption sustainable while enabling continued technological advance and improvement of societal well-being. A particular focus will be put on methodological opportunities and challenges in research, including collaboration across disciplinary boundaries (e.g., artificial intelligence, digitalisation, sustainability).
Workshop 3: Designing infrastructure policy for sustainable mobility in Nordic cities
(Copenhagen December 2024)
On the example of mobility, the last workshop of the series focuses on the question of how urban infrastructure can be fundamentally rethought and transformed to address this issue. We will discuss how we can make use of the concept of strong sustainability and contribute to the formulation of visions about potential urban futures, and to their translation into policy making. Recent ‘sustainable’ infrastructure projects around Copenhagen and the border region between Denmark and Sweden will be used as a concrete departure point for the discussion on sustainable mobility.