Proposed Sessions

The Arctic city is no longer a utopian projection of the future, but an accomplished fact. Today, the majority of the population of the Arctic territories lives in cities - both in Russia and abroad. The main feature of Arctic cities/towns is their exceptional variability, pulsation in time and space resulted from their remoteness. An ideal Arctic city (1) physically corresponds to the terrain, (2) has a clear visual image and (3) flexible spatial and temporal organization, and (4) helps to adapt and maintain the psychophysiological comfort of residents. While the first three points lie in the field of professional competence of a planner/architect/designer, equipped with modern technologies, then the fourth, i.e. the physical and mental well-being of the city's inhabitants cannot and should not be determined solely by a designer. The active participation of residents in the planning and subsequent development of the city is not just compliance with the global practice of participatory design and the alternative trend of grassroots urban planning, it is a necessity due to the extreme environment. In this session, we invite researchers and practitioners to discuss the existing Arctic settlements (from temporary FIFO camps to permanent towns), with the emphasis on the functional and aesthetic characteristics and their potential impact on the process of physical and psychological adaptation of inhabitants to the extreme environment. We also invite to present and discuss perspective design solutions that could strengthen the creative potential of Arctic residents and provide wider opportunities for its manifestation.

The Arctic is passing through the different economic and political development paradigms which usually result into the changing economic and social arrangements, institutions, as well as the footprint of human activity. These paradigms have shifted dramatically and triumphantly over time, and the evidences of such alterations can still be observed in the Arctic region through the abandoned areas, territories and infrastructures. In this sense Arctic abandonism takes various forms such as social – through the abandoned residential areas and social infrastructures – and economic – through the abandoned industrial and military territories and installations. Even though abandonism is a worldwide challenge, the Arctic syndrome is of particular interest due to the spatial, geopolitical and historic importance of the region highlighted by the rapid environmental and climatic changes. Being a circumarctic syndrome, abandonism is treated in different ways such as rare preservation, occasional redevelopment, massive demolition and reclamation of the abandoned (often contaminated) industrial areas. However, these processes are still slow, scarce (especially redevelopment and preservation) and require intensive investments. In this session we will discuss the role of abandonism in the Arctic regional development and explore the triumphant possibilities and examples of redevelopment, preservation and other ways of treating such areas.

This session aims to address sustainable usage of Arctic and sub-Arctic natural resources from a diversity of angles and time perspectives. Paper proposals are expected to address the core ICASS X question of how we can develop sustainable practices for the future by learning from the past and the present. While presentations are expected to deploy social science methods and theories, we also invite interdisciplinary presentations that engage with the natural, technical or humanistic sciences in recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary knowledge for sustainable natural resource usage. Issues addressed may include use and non-use of resources; traditional knowledge on natural resources; exploration; exploitation; positive and negative impacts; economic implications; labour implications; impact assessment; understandings of sustainability in regard to natural resource usage; formal and informal responsibilities for sustainable resource usage; relationship to the Sustainable Development Goals; public participation, engagement and contestation strategies; law, politics, management or interdisciplinary governance perspectives. The session is organised by the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility, but it is open to all regardless of affiliation with the Network or UArctic. Indicative session themes: 1: Sustainability; 2: Economy, labour and development in the Arctic

This session will present findings from the European Research Council funded project, ‘Arctic Cultures’, 2017-22, using a panel-based format and invited discussants. This project investigates the imaginative construction of the Arctic that emerged from the exploration of the region by Europeans and North Americans and their contacts with indigenous people from the middle of the sixteenth century. During the exploration and colonisation of the Arctic, particular texts, cartographic representations and objects were collected and returned to sites like London, Copenhagen, Berlin and Philadelphia. The construction of the Arctic thereby became entwined with the growth of colonial museum cultures and, indeed, western modernity. Research undertaken by the project team is delineating the networks and collecting practices involved in this ‘creation’ of Arctic Cultures, focusing on sites in the North American and North Atlantic Arctic. In doing so, ARCTIC CULT is providing revisionist understandings of the consequences of colonial representations and decolonial processes for debates about the Circumpolar Arctic today.

This session welcomes submissions exploring past-, present- and future-oriented activities in the field of Arctic Design. We invite scholars and practitioners from a broad range of disciplines including design, architecture, arts and crafts, engineering, museology, archaeology, anthropology, and others to discuss the potential of the Arctic design in addressing technological, environmental, and socio-cultural challenges of Arctic development.

We are interested in collecting and pooling case studies from different parts of the circumpolar world that illuminate various facets of the Arctic design approach. To open up the discussion, we propose the following understandings of the phenomenon:

1. Design for the Arctic: a distant process of ideation and development/manufacturing with the incorporation of local traits on-site but without changing the “non-Arctic” core of a product.
2. Design in the Arctic: a geographical equation between what the land can provide, and the user can utilize without giving anything in return.
3. Design with the Arctic: a mutually beneficial engagement with the land and the people, with emphasis on inclusive participation.
4. Design from the Arctic: technologies and know-how that the Arctic area can export into the rest of the world.

The idea of the session is to create comprehensive picture of the Arctic as anti-mainland in its regularities, dynamics, behavior of social and economic systems. Arctic exclusiveness will be proved on the numerous examples taken from the case studies and statistic data, comparative analysis of Arctic and non-Arctic regions on the spatial organizations of productive forces, cities, economy, entrepreneurship etc.

The scientific symposium "Arctic Medicine: environmental, fundamental and applied aspects" devoted to a wide range of research issues of the Arctic region. Scientists of NSMU will present the results of the Arctic health research. Key issues of the symposium:
• Medical issues of the development strategy of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (on the
example of NSMU);
• Development of medical research in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation;
• Health professional training to support the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation;
• Clinical and physiological issues of adaptation. A multidisciplinary approach to correcting impaired adaptation;
• Well-being of the population in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation - hygienic and epidemiological aspects;
• Biomedical problems of human life in the Arctic;
• Psychological aspects of work in the Arctic.