Forest Social: beyond feelings and logic in the forest debate

The Forests Social lecture series invites Klara Härgestam, Doctoral student in Rhetoric​, who will present her research project on people's relationships to the forest, and how it impacts the forest debate.

The polarised debate about our forests in media do not shed light upon deeper aspects of people's experiences. This study takes the relationship with the forest seriously and is therefore based on fieldwork among people connected to the forest in different ways: landowners, people working for the forest industry, and people engaged in protecting forests. Härgestam claims that the positions in the Swedish forest debate arise not from rational, distanced reasoning but also from people’s embodied relationship with the forest. So her main question is: How does people’s relationship with the forest in terms of identity, temporality and place impact their positions in the forest debate? 

Klara Härgestam is a Doctoral student in Rhetoric​ at Örebro University. Her research interest lies in studying polarization and how to find ways to move the dialogue to a more nuanced tone where the people involved feel validated, heard and understood.

Registration

A light lunch will be served for those who register. Register before 29 April.

Registration form

Forest Social

What does the forest mean to us, to society and to our culture? The forest is a part of society, but society is also a part of the forest. What questions do we need to ask to better understand this relationship? These are some areas that this lecture series will try to highlight.

Forest Social is Future Forests’ lecture series for all students from SLU and Umeå University. It aims to inspire interdisciplinary perspectives on the forest and explore the relationships between forests and society. Researchers from arts, humanities and social sciences present their research.
Read more about Forest Social