Comparing insights from the Arctic and the Global South

In December, an international seminar as well as a PhD course, both organised by MSC Professor Karin Buhmann, brought attention to the challenges presented by the exploration and exploitation of natural resources across the world.
 

Seminar on Arctic and Global South experience

The seminar, Towards a research agenda for socially responsible green transitions, held on 5-7 December, zoomed in on topics such as meaningful stakeholder engagement, public participation and impact assessment of natural resource exploration and exploitation with a view to comparing Arctic and Global South experiences as well as identifying synergies for future research projects. The presenters, scholars and practitioners from the field, highlighted dilemmas and prospective research questions to be addressed in an Arctic/Global South joint or comparative

perspective. As an outcome of the seminar, an international research network (NESST – Research Network on Socially Sustainable Transitions) was created to advance research agendas and project collaboration in this field.
 

PhD course on Natural resources and human rights

In the week following the seminar, Karin Buhmann together with several seminar participants conducted a five-day PhD course discussing the ‘impacts, conflicts, benefits, stakeholders and governance’ related to natural resource exploitation, with an emphasis on organizational processes and human rights impact assessments and management of adverse as well as beneficial impacts, particularly for locally affected communities. The PhD course was well attended by students from several continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America) who contributed with their own academic experience. Students from a range of academic fields – law, political science, management and organizational studies, geology, biology, engineering and forest management – interacted with their peers and an equally diverse group of instructors from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greenland, Finland, France, Iceland and Mexico.  

Complementary research networks for a socially sustainable transition with respect for human rights

Professor Karin Buhmann, who is also the chairperson of the Business and Human Rights (BHRights) Initiative for interdisciplinary teaching and research in that field , has conducted research on business responsibilities for human rights for many years, including the evolution of the current normative regime on business and human rights. Most recently, she spent part of the autumn semester at Harvard University, visiting Professor John Ruggie and working on an academic publication on the relationship between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the business & human rights regime. Professor Buhmann is also the lead and leading co-funder of the Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility under the University of the Arctic (Uarctic), a circumpolar network that CBS joined in 2016. The research network resulting from the seminar in December will complement the BHRights Initiative as well as the Uarctic network.

The seminar at MSC was funded by project grants awarded to professor Buhmann by the Nordic Research Council (NOS-HS project on Best practice for Impact Assessment of infrastructure projects in the Nordic Arctic: Popular participation and local needs, concerns and benefits), the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education (DAFSHE) (international network project on Natural resources, risk-based due diligence, stakeholder engagement and public participation in decision-making: building comparative Arctic-Global South sustainability research), and a DAFSHE grant with the UArctic for the Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility. The PhD course was supported by UArctic in collaboration with DAFSHE.

For more information, please contact Karin Buhmann, kbu.msc@cbs.dk.