NEWS There is an urgent need to find ways of abandoning fossil fuels and transitioning away from polluting energy sources to address the climate emergency. Yet, the pressing question is: what will this transition look like?
Participants in the Phd-course
In 2025, a unique doctoral course brought together students and leading scholars across various disciplines to explore this question. The aim of the course, jointly organized by Hanken School of Economics in Vaasa and Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics, was to critically examine the discourse of ‘green energy transitions’ that currently dominates the political and corporate response to the climate emergency – and to explore alternative and regenerative futures and practices.
Unlike traditional classroom courses, the program combined five webinars with an intensive in-person workshop across Vaasa and Umeå. The webinars laid a theoretical foundation covering a wide range of topics relating to climate politics, sustainability governance, and responsible management in international and historical contexts, including extractivism, colonialism, environmental justice, environmental conflicts, and alternative social-ecological transition pathways.
The in-person workshop brought these ideas to the ground and to local communities around Vaasa and Umeå to learn with local voices about the contested terrain of green energy transitions and alternatives aiming for regeneration. Students could visit and even work with their hands in community gardens in Korsholm, Finland, learning about grassroots initiatives like soil regeneration and small-scale food production. And later, on the island of Holmön, Sweden, they explored community-driven projects aimed at revitalizing rural life and fostering alternative economic models.
During the course, students also had the opportunity to do practical work, such as gardening.
Course instructors Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes and Maxim Vlasov emphasized the importance of blending theory with practice. “Our goal was to create a space where doctoral students could critically engage with sustainability challenges while learning from local communities”. The theoretical learnings and first-hand experiences from field visits were combined during a participatory workshop to draft a ‘manifesto’ for transformative academic work in the times of ecological crises.
One participant remarked: “This turned out to be one of the most unique and inspiring courses I have taken”. Another: “The field trip part was best. This is my first PhD course experience of this kind, where in-person workshop included not sitting in the class but traveling around, meeting people in the field, hiking, biking, harvesting, etc. I found it to be very inspiring, stimulating and eye-opening. This course showed me that not only research but also teaching can be done differently.”
Funded by the Nordic Academy of Management and UTRI, the course was organized as a spin-off from an earlier webinar series on the same topic, which too received a lot of positive response. With climate challenges intensifying, the success of this course underscores the growing demand for educational formats that go beyond conventional lectures, fostering collaboration between academia and society.
You can watch the episodes of the webinar series on UMU-play: UMU-play