Bridging societal and environmental fractures: creating futures
October 8, 2026
Henna Longi & Minna Näsman
In a world facing growing social, political, and environmental challenges, including polarization, geopolitical tensions, climate change, and biodiversity loss, reimagining sustainable futures has never been more important. Strategic research programs' (STN) biennial conference titled “Bridging societal and environmental fractures: creating futures" was held 23-24.9 in Tampere bringing together researchers from strategic research programs and beyond to discuss research-based pathways toward more resilient, just, and sustainable societies.
The first keynote of the conference was given by Lasse Peltonen titled Cycles of conflict in the green/grim transition. In his widely appreciated speech, he started by stating that conflicts may derail transitions. Reflecting on how conflict resolution can help us navigate through conflicts towards sustainability, he presented two case studies of successful environmental conflict resolution. The first one was about the wind power sector coming to terms with reindeer herders, and the other one about negotiating a vast nature conservation area in the archipelago of Merenkurkku / Kvarken. One of the thought-provoking ideas he presented was the need to pay attention even to what we need to let go of as smaller and larger communities. He referred to it as “hospice-work” and gave peat and the related jobs as an example.
After the discussion of his keynote, Lasse said that understanding the “bucket of misery” in regions helps in conflict solving. For example, this is not the first energy transition happening in some regions, and we need to take into consideration that previous ones might have caused some environmental and social effects and personal regrets.
Security, trust and resilience: building sustainable societies
The session: Security, trust, and resilience: building sustainable societies (23.9.2026) included topics from Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), flexibility of the electricity markets, renewable energy and data centers and hydrogen.
Anna Claydon (2IMATCH-project) presented what kind of risks (physical, information-related, cognitive, social) and vulnerabilities pertain to SMRs and what means are proposed to address these.
Sami Repo (PHOENIX-project) focused on power system reliability, balancing electricity demand and supply, and the impacts of increasing renewable energy generation. He concluded with two remarks:
-
Politics: Do not touch the markets – let them realize balancing in short- and long-term
-
Strong transmission grid to neighboring areas is the backbone of reliability
Continuing from the two previous talks, Antonio Caló from our JustH2Transit project presented results Resilient infrastructure through integration SMRs, datacenters, and hydrogen in the energy–digital nexus. The presentation demonstrated how co‑locating low‑carbon supply with high‑intensity digital demand can strengthen resilience, reduce grid stress and support Finland’s decarbonization goals. This integrated approach can also free system resources and enable even the most ambitious national targets for renewable hydrogen and P2X products and services.
The topics clearly resonated with participants, as discussions on energy systems, data centres, renewable energy, and SMRs continued long after the session ended.
Trust is built through transparency and realistic expectations, not through optimism alone
The same session (24.9.2026) also featured a presentation from the JustH2Transit project titled Hydrogen narratives and the politics of trust: Regional discourses and resilience in Finland’s energy transition by Rudolf Reiman (presenter), Antonio Caló and Eva Pongrácz.
In their discourse analysis, they grouped the storylines - frequently used statements or narratives- into four categories: economical, social, technical and environmental. In the study, hydrogen-related articles in major daily newspapers were studied and discourses were compared North-South and East-West axes. Overall, hydrogen is predominantly framed through positive narratives, particularly as a climate solution and an economic opportunity. Regional differences included:
-
In Eastern Finland, the discourse started a bit later and is focused more on synthetic fuels
-
In Southern Finland, hydrogen discourse was initially positive, but has become slightly negative over time
-
In Northern and Western Finland, local projects have kept the topic relevant, and hydrogen is continued to be viewed positively
Why does it matter talking about the narratives? Narratives influence trust in technologies, institutions and project developers. Public trust influences how new energy projects are perceived and accepted. Understanding hydrogen discourse across regions helps identify emerging challenges and opportunities Their researchers’ key message was that Trust is built through transparency and realistic expectations, not through optimism alone.
Towards more meaningful and democratic participation in research
The second keynote speaker was Meri Kulmala, whose presentation, Many Voices, Better Knowledge? Power, Participation, and Knowledge Democracy in Research, explored how democracy in research is fundamentally connected to the distribution of power. She opened her talk by multiple important questions:
-
Who gets to define what counts as valid knowledge?
-
Who gets to produce knowledge about the world we live in?
-
Whose experiences are recognized as relevant evidence?
-
Whose perspectives remain at the margins?
These are questions that all research projects should consider. As Kulmala pointed out, the inclusion of many voices does not automatically lead to better knowledge. However, broader participation can reveal hidden biases, show disagreements, and create opportunities to address them.
