Reconceptualizing Boundaries Together Towards Resilient and Just Arctic Future(s) (REBOUND) is a six-year research consortium (2023–2029) examining the governance of the green transition in the Finnish Arctic. The project brings together researchers from the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), and the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). It is led by Tanja Joona at the University of Lapland and funded by the Finnish Strategic Research Council.
The Helsinki-based REBOUND research team is led by Dorothée Cambou (
REBOUND responds to a pressing challenge: while the green transition is widely framed as necessary and inherently just, its implementation in Northern Finland has already generated conflicts over land use, energy policy, livelihoods, and environmental protection. Climate change mitigation, biodiversity loss, mining, forestry, and wind energy projects are reshaping Arctic environments and communities. REBOUND asks: How is justice defined in these transitions—and whose voices count?
Our Approach: Rethinking Justice in the Green Transition
Rather than assuming that sustainability policies automatically produce just outcomes, REBOUND critically investigates how justice is defined, governed, and enacted in practice. The project explores:
We challenge dominant sustainability narratives that may mask structural inequalities or reproduce existing hierarchies. In doing so, we aim to broaden understandings of justice beyond narrow economic or technocratic framings.
Our research pays particular attention to groups and actors disproportionately affected by Arctic green transition projects:
Subprojects
This subproject examines tensions between the discourse of a “just transition” and Indigenous sustainable economic practices. Despite ambitions of transformation, green transition policies often operate within the existing logic of international economic law. Recent legal developments show how business activities framed as sustainable may conflict with long-standing Indigenous livelihoods. The project argues that achieving a genuinely just transition may require rethinking foundational principles of international economic law.
Focusing on forestry, mining, and wind energy, this research investigates whether the green transition is just for migrant and refugee workers. It studies how their rights are protected, how labor migration is regulated, and whether their voices are included in decision-making processes. The work combines legal analysis of EU and Finnish frameworks with interviews and collaborative workshops involving public authorities, companies, trade unions, NGOs, and migrant communities.
This subproject explores how the green transition affects non-human animals and questions whether existing rights frameworks are sufficient to secure justice in more-than-human worlds. It critically examines whether current extensionist approaches leave intact the structures that produce injustice, and considers the need for new conceptual frameworks better attuned to ecological interdependencies.
Methods
REBOUND employs interdisciplinary methods, including:
By combining legal scholarship with empirical research and community engagement, the project examines how claims to justice are shaped, constrained, or silenced within governance structures.
Potential Impact
REBOUND aims to make visible the injustices embedded in green transition governance. By critically examining sustainability narratives and institutional frameworks, the project reveals how certain perspectives are amplified while others are marginalized.
Through engagement with affected communities, policymakers, and the broader public, REBOUND contributes to reimagining green governance in the Finnish Arctic—seeking pathways toward transitions that are not only environmentally sustainable, but also socially just and democratically grounded.