Exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of Finnish mining projects : Assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland
Large-scale mining modifies the existing physical environment and has multiple long-term impacts on landscape but also on communities, and their cultural values. In Finland, social impact assessment has become a customary practice in assessing and estimating mining impacts that cause changes to the...
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Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för naturgeografi
2018
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ftstockholmuniv:oai:DiVA.org:su-162223 2023-05-15T17:05:06+02:00 Exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of Finnish mining projects : Assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland Knuuttila, Jussi 2018 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-162223 eng eng Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för naturgeografi http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-162223 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Environmental Impact Assessment Social Impact Assessment Ecosystem Services Cultural Ecosystem Services Sense of Place Physical Geography Naturgeografi Student thesis info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis text 2018 ftstockholmuniv 2023-02-23T21:39:52Z Large-scale mining modifies the existing physical environment and has multiple long-term impacts on landscape but also on communities, and their cultural values. In Finland, social impact assessment has become a customary practice in assessing and estimating mining impacts that cause changes to the well-being of individual people and their livelihoods. However, the assessment is often lacking notions of social dimensions of the environment, neglecting discussing aspects such as localities and subjective well-being. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of considering the cultural benefits of the environment to human well-being in environmental decision-making. The purpose of this study is to explore and illustrate how cultural ecosystem services could contribute to the current practice in social impact assessments in Finnish mining projects by highlighting the relation between local people and environment through the valuation of cultural services. The study used a conceptual framework approach of cultural ecosystem services and conducted eight qualitative semi-structured interviews in two villages in Finnish Fell Lapland. The aim was to explore how the local people themselves describe their non-material benefits from the environment. Six out of the eight interviews were conducted walking with the participants. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed for analysis against the conceptual cultural ecosystem services framework. The results show how the well-being of local people was strongly linked to cultural benefits such as sense of place, enabled by meaningful activities in places that were often happening in mundane everyday places. The study implies the importance of considering cultural ecosystem services such as sense of place in the current social impact assessment practice as they help unveiling connections between people, the natural environment and subjective well-being. Bachelor Thesis Kolari Lapland Stockholm University: Publications (DiVA) Kolari ENVELOPE(24.173,24.173,67.292,67.292) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Stockholm University: Publications (DiVA) |
op_collection_id |
ftstockholmuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental Impact Assessment Social Impact Assessment Ecosystem Services Cultural Ecosystem Services Sense of Place Physical Geography Naturgeografi |
spellingShingle |
Environmental Impact Assessment Social Impact Assessment Ecosystem Services Cultural Ecosystem Services Sense of Place Physical Geography Naturgeografi Knuuttila, Jussi Exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of Finnish mining projects : Assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland |
topic_facet |
Environmental Impact Assessment Social Impact Assessment Ecosystem Services Cultural Ecosystem Services Sense of Place Physical Geography Naturgeografi |
description |
Large-scale mining modifies the existing physical environment and has multiple long-term impacts on landscape but also on communities, and their cultural values. In Finland, social impact assessment has become a customary practice in assessing and estimating mining impacts that cause changes to the well-being of individual people and their livelihoods. However, the assessment is often lacking notions of social dimensions of the environment, neglecting discussing aspects such as localities and subjective well-being. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of considering the cultural benefits of the environment to human well-being in environmental decision-making. The purpose of this study is to explore and illustrate how cultural ecosystem services could contribute to the current practice in social impact assessments in Finnish mining projects by highlighting the relation between local people and environment through the valuation of cultural services. The study used a conceptual framework approach of cultural ecosystem services and conducted eight qualitative semi-structured interviews in two villages in Finnish Fell Lapland. The aim was to explore how the local people themselves describe their non-material benefits from the environment. Six out of the eight interviews were conducted walking with the participants. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed for analysis against the conceptual cultural ecosystem services framework. The results show how the well-being of local people was strongly linked to cultural benefits such as sense of place, enabled by meaningful activities in places that were often happening in mundane everyday places. The study implies the importance of considering cultural ecosystem services such as sense of place in the current social impact assessment practice as they help unveiling connections between people, the natural environment and subjective well-being. |
format |
Bachelor Thesis |
author |
Knuuttila, Jussi |
author_facet |
Knuuttila, Jussi |
author_sort |
Knuuttila, Jussi |
title |
Exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of Finnish mining projects : Assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland |
title_short |
Exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of Finnish mining projects : Assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland |
title_full |
Exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of Finnish mining projects : Assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland |
title_fullStr |
Exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of Finnish mining projects : Assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of Finnish mining projects : Assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland |
title_sort |
exploring the potential of cultural ecosystem services in social impact assessment of finnish mining projects : assessment of local cultural values in the municipality of kolari in finnish lapland |
publisher |
Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för naturgeografi |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-162223 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(24.173,24.173,67.292,67.292) |
geographic |
Kolari |
geographic_facet |
Kolari |
genre |
Kolari Lapland |
genre_facet |
Kolari Lapland |
op_relation |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-162223 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
_version_ |
1766059485412982784 |