From Tar to Data: Resource Cycles of the Oulujoki River

My first publication in Finnish came out in November. This article is one of the outcomes of my Forming Resourcescape project, which was supported by an expenditure grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation in 2024. The edited volume is titled, in English, Turns and Twists – Cultural Environmental Transformations in the North.

In my article, I examine the resource cycles of the Oulujoki River in Finland, tracing transformations from the tar trade and hydropower development to contemporary wind energy debates and the current plans for the construction of a Google data centre.

Why is it useful to approach landscape transformations through the lens of cycles? The concept of a cycle draws attention to the repetitive nature of socio-environmental processes. When modes of extraction are understood as cyclical, they appear not as isolated episodes but as elements of broader patterns governed by similar logics and articulated through shared vocabularies. This perspective challenges linear interpretations of extractive histories, allowing us to see the cultural biographies of specific resources not as simple sequences, but as co-evolving and interconnected processes, despite their historical differences.

This publication is, I hope, a stepping stone toward my forthcoming research on resource cycles in the North. I am deeply grateful to the volume editors, Roger Norum, Veera Kinnunen, and Niina Hämäläinen, as well as to Reetta Ihalainen-Leiwo for the translation help.

The volume is available online fully open-access, with a foreword by Tim Ingold! https://oa.finlit.fi/books/e/10.21435/ksvk.104