Plastic patches floating in oceans, mountains of waste and accelerating climate change—the imbalanced co-existence of humans and nature has led to multiple resource crises. At their core, these crises stem from human activities that exceed planetary boundaries. If everyone on Earth consumed resources like an average Finn, we would need the natural resources of approximately four planets.
Uusikartano’s dissertation critically examines our current understanding of ‘resource’ and ‘resource management’, which fails to support the alignment of business practices with planetary boundaries. Typically, a resource is seen as a material extracted from nature and modified for human purposes. Similarly, capitalism builds on the continuous consumption of natural resources and the economic growth derived from it.
“This way of thinking is problematic because it treats humans and nature as separate entities, ignoring the complex and vital interdependencies between the two,” Uusikartano says.
In his dissertation, Uusikartano theorises industrial resource management in a way that acknowledges the interaction between humans and nature. He combines perspectives from industrial engineering and management, and industrial ecology with the sociological theories of actor-network theory and sociomateriality. The study explores resource management terminology through these theoretical lenses and case studies on, for instance, the recycled concrete aggregate, zero fiber and recycled nutrients.
The central claim of the dissertation is that a resource is not something given, but something that emerges.
“A resource manifests in a specific time and place, for example as raw materials needed for production, but it is not a property stored in materials. No material in itself is a resource. This means that resource management is fundamentally about the human capabilities to find meaningful interactions with materials and not about materials themselves,” Uusikartano summarises.
The theoretical examination of the concepts of resource and resource management has practical implications, as the language we use can have very concrete consequences. For example, ‘end-of-waste’ legislation—where something previously classified as waste is redefined as a resource—is only possible when we approach the concept of resource through interaction rather than material properties. Although this way of thinking has not been previously theorised, it is already applied in circular economy practices, where the goal is to turn one actor’s waste, surplus or by-product into another’s raw material. Uusikartano’s research offers scholars new conceptual tools to approach and solve today’s pressing resource crises.
Public defence on Wednesday, 29 October
M.Sc. (Tech.) Jarmo Uusikartano’s doctoral dissertation Metatheoretical Exploration of Resource Management Concept in Industrial Ecology in the field of industrial engineering and management will be publicly examined at Tampere University’s Faculty of Management and Business on Wednesday, 29 October. The opponents are Assistant Professor Samuli Patala from Aalto University and Postdoctoral Fellow Mathias Lindkvist from the University of Stavanger, Norway. The custos is Professor Leena Aarikka-Stenroos from Tampere University’s Faculty of Management and Business.