Location: Arctic Centre - Rovaniemi
Category: NRF Calendar

The 3rd Workshop of the University of the Arctic Institute for Applied Circumpolar Policy will be organized at the Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi, Finland in September 6th - 8th 2010. The theme of the conference is "Climate Change and Human Security".

The workshop will be organized by the University of Lapland, Dartmouth College, University of Alaska, Fairbanks and The Thematic Network (TN) on Geopolitics and Security, which is the first joint TN on relevant and comprehensive issues between the University of the Arctic (UArctic) and Northern Research Forum (NRF). It was established and approved in August 2009 by the Council of the UArctic and the Steering Committee of the NRF.

About the main theme, "Climate Change and Human Security"

Climate change has been portrayed as a new global phenomenon in the early-21st century, and indeed climate change is universal and significant environmental problem globally. However, climate change is no longer only based on scenarios, or a matter of numbers from computer models, it is a reality impacting traditional livelihoods and industry, new macro-scale livelihoods, and finally, other new knowledge- and ICT-based livelihoods. Climate change is both rapid and cumulative, and threatens peoples, societies and the environment. Impacting upon people(s) and societies and fostering a sense of insecurity through peoples' ‘everyday' security it has become a new kind of security factor, particularly meaning environmental and human points of view of security.

In the background there is the concept of comprehensive security of the twenty-first century based on the understanding that there are many ways to define and more human-oriented approach to interpret security as well as insecurity. Furthermore, that security is not objective but complex and relative, and that questions, such as "whose security are we talking about?" indicate that security can be interpreted to be socially constructed. A result of this change in interpretation is to see security as depending upon a particular context, and in a new comprehensive notion emphasizing both environmental / ecological aspects of security, and that of human security with a focus on human beings as individuals and their everyday's security.

Further information and registration

Further information and draft program

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