Alternatives to Naive Optimism and Hopelessness 24.8.
Time:Mon, Aug. 24, 2026, 3:00–4:45 p.m.
Location:Puistokatu 4, Jumppasali (max. 40 people) + livestream
Language: The event includes program in Finnish and English
Registration
The world is on fire. Technological innovations, new energy sources, and a carbon-neutral industry are essential, but they raise difficult questions about environmental impacts and equity. Inaction is understandable, but just as taking action has consequences, so does inaction. What kinds of alternative courses of action exist between naive optimism and cynical nihilism?
The second afternoon session on environmental mediation will feature a discussion between two generations: Gen X’s Kaisa Kosonen and Lasse Peltonen studied environmental policy at the University of Tampere starting in the 1990s. Kaisa is a longtime climate activist and an impact specialist at the TAH Foundation, and Lasse is a professor of environmental conflict management at the University of Eastern Finland. Representing the Gen Z perspective are Akordi’s Essi Arminen and Taika Tikkanen, who both graduated this year with master’s degrees in environmental policy. Essi’s thesis examined collaboration between environmental organizations and forestry companies in restoration projects. In her thesis, Taika examined the mediation process in the Kvarken Nature Reserve. The panelists will discuss their own choices and what motivates them.
Following the panel, Kristen Wright from the United States will discuss her work at the National Policy Consensus Center. She will reflect on how models based on collaboration (environmental collaboration and conflict resolution) have influenced Oregon’s government and the daily lives of its citizens, and what challenges they face today.
You are warmly invited to join us to listen and discuss! Register here.
Program
15:00 Opening remarks
15:10 What alternative approaches exist between naive optimism and hopelessness? Panel discussion with Kaisa Kosonen, Taika Tikkanen, Essi Arminen, and Lasse Peltonen (in Finnish)
16:00 Kristen Wright: Experiences from Oregon (in English)
16:30 Discussion
16:45 Event concludes
Kristen Wright
National Policy Consensus Center, Oregon
Kristen is the Interim Director of Training and Academic Services and also serves as a project manager in the Oregon Solutions program. She has been with the Center since 2015 and has enjoyed having theopportunity to blend practice and education in her work.
Kristen shares, “I am drawn to the work of collaborative governance because I see its potential to bring our collective best thinking and contributions to the issues we are facing. I am also drawn to it with a hopefulness that it could also be a place to develop and sustain mutual and healthy relationships. Our lives are so interconnected, but the social systems that shape our lives have isolated and harmed us and ourability to sustain mutual, healthy relationships. For me, collaborative governance is a humbling and alive place.”
Prior to her work at NPCC, Kristen contributed to research on collaborative governance at PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, served as a mediator and facilitator for various communities, and was the founder and executive director of a nonprofit that supported the well-being of middle school youth. Kristen holds a masters in public administration with a focus on collaborative governance and natural resources and a bachelor’s in geography with a focus on cultural geography.
