Proposed Sessions

Generations in the Russian Arctic: Values and social relations

Affiliation: Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov | Country: Russia | Organizer(s): Postnikova Margarita

The session is based on reports that will present the results of research carried out within the framework of the project supported by the Russian Foundation for basic research. The name of the Project is "Dynamics of generational values as a marker of transformation of social relations in Russian society" (project No. 18-013-00910 A). Project Manager is Postnikova M. I. The Study was conducted in 2018-2019. The study involved about 1000 respondents 16-81 aged living in different regions of Russia. Speakers will present the characteristics of relations between generations in the family, the characteristics of hardiness and values of different generations living in the Russian Arctic, in comparison with residents of other regions of Russia. 7 speakers have already registered for the session. We invite researchers to participate in the session if you have a scientific interest in the problem of generations and relations between them.

Geopolitics, security, and regime-building

Affiliation: UiT The Arctic University of Norway | Country: Norway | Organizer(s): Aileen A. Espiritu, Marc Lanteigne, Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv

Security in the Arctic is a combination of (a) multiple complex social, political, economic, environmental processes; and (b) power to determine which of these processes warrant prioritizing as security issues. Understanding security requires us to interrogate who the actors are (both the securitizer and the referent, and who has power and who does not), values being secured (what is prioritized and why), practices (how to secure these), ways in which these values are linked to the survival of one or more actors or referents (existential threat), and relevance of the threat over time (future) (Hoogensen Gjørv 2017).

There is a pressing need for an improved, more nuanced and complex, geopolitical and security understanding in the Arctic, including both state and non-state actors. The rhetoric about the Arctic has been captured by narrow security and geopolitical interpretations that look to Russia and China as new challenges. For example, the August 2019 controversy over the reporting that the US government was exploring the idea of negotiating with Denmark to purchase Greenland not only demonstrated a lack of knowledge in some Washington policymaking circles about Greenland’s legal status but also illustrated the stubborn canard that the Arctic exists outside of international laws and norms, and thus any actor with enough willpower and capital can simply take, or buy, what they wish. It is also is facing a much international pressure as not only Denmark, but also larger actors including the United States, the European Union and China, actively vie for diplomatic influence.

Greenland in Arctic security: Entangled (de)securitization dynamics under climatic thaw and geopolitical freeze

Affiliation: University of Cambridge | Country: United Kingdom | Organizer(s): Marc Jacobsen

This session explores how acts and dynamics of securitization and desecuritization unfold in and in relation to Greenland; a special case in the regional governance system which so far has been neglected by Arctic security research. We invite scholars with interest in analyzing discourses and dynamics pertaining to hard or soft security questions to present their research on how, for instance, Greenland could be seen as a scene for interstate rivalry and as a place of postcolonial state-making ambitions. Whereas Arctic security research usually focus on either external perspectives of great power competition or internal nation-building, this session seeks to bring together both approaches in analyses of hard and soft security politics as articulated in and about Greenland. Hence, the session altogether presents deepened and widened perspectives on security questions catalyzed by the effects of climate changes while providing a comprehensive and thorough overview of Greenland security politics.

Greenland in the new Arctic: Pathways and challenges for inclusive development

Affiliation: University of Greenland / Ilisimatusarfik | Country: Greenland | Organizer(s): Javier L. Arnaut (Ilisimatusarfik); Annemette Nyborg Lauritsen (Ilisimatusarfik); Mette Apollo Rasmussen (Roskilde University)

The term “new Arctic” has been used to describe the region's rapidly changing natural landscape. However, the social, cultural, economic, and political landscape of the arctic has also changed dramatically and Greenland is an illustration of this rapid evolution. The global transformation is challenging existing structures calling for new forms of cooperation across different geographic, political, and organizational contexts. The future of the arctic and Greenland in particular seems uncertain, thus further knowledge is required on how societal issues are about to emerge and, transform and challenge the Arctic as we know it.

The panel aims to bring new interdisciplinary perspectives addressing the changing role of Greenland in the new arctic. The panel emphasizes the importance of addressing Greenland’s challenges from an international and local perspective providing a new dimension of critical analysis related to issues of sustainable development, economic and political autonomy, institutional persistence, structural and organizational change, and local experiences of inclusive and/or exclusive development.

We invite papers in a range of formats, that may address the following questions:

  • What are the main drivers of political, economic, and social change (and persistence) in Greenland in the new Arctic?
  • How indigenous people's knowledge and decision-making are part (or not) of the new arctic?
  • How do changing perspectives in Greenland impact organizational development and practices?
  • How are sustainable activities emerging as an answer to environmental changes?

Hi-Tech Clusters in the North

Affiliation: Moscow State Insttute of International Relations (MGIMO University), Russia | Country: Russia | Organizer(s): Andrey Krivorotov, Sergey Smirnov

The concept of industrial clusters, launched originally by Prof. M. Porter, has developed into a key tool to enhance regional competitiveness, which is required for the Arctic areas to be resilient in the longer term and remain an attractive place to live for the new generations. It is especially relevant to discuss these issues in the Arctic Russia, which possesses of unique large scale clusters within shipbuilding, ice class navigation, oil&gas, non-ferrous metals, etc.

The session will among other address the following topics:

  • advantages, prospects and limitations of clustering in the Arctic;
  • the roles of national and regional governments, local (therein indigenous) communities and companies;
  • stimulating local spin-offs and commercializing the research of Arctic universities and R&D centers;
  • clustering effects of Arctic regional and inter-regional networking, financing tools, infrastructure development, and media;
  • best global practice in creating high-tech clusters and promoting innovation in the Arctic;
  • presentations on Arkhangelsk cluster experience in shipbuilding and petroleum equipment;
  • cooperation with non-Arctic clusters;
  • economic and social impacts of clustering, etc.

We invite researchers from both Arctic and non-Arctic nations to a broad discussion. The session will also assess how the ongoing global trends like digitization, low carbon transition, COVID-19 pandemic and reshaping the international trade may impact the Arctic clusters performance.

Historical and Anthropological Approaches to Arctic Environmental Knowledge

Affiliation: KTH Royal Institute of Technology | Country: Sweden | Organizer(s): Dmitry Arzyutov, Peder Roberts

This panel addresses the history and anthropology of Arctic environmental knowledge production during the twentieth century, with a particular focus on the Cold War, in order to illuminate processes of change in understanding and acting within Arctic environments. Our primary aim is to explore how Arctic landscapes and animals became understood through both Indigenous and non-Indigenous forms of knowledge, and to situate those processes within wider social and political contexts. State and transnational projects of environmental governance during the Cold War relied upon conceptions of Arctic environments that were at once scientific and geopolitical, as judgments about the kind of activity that was appropriate in a given space drew upon diverse interests and concerns. Most of these practices continue to have legacies today, either in the form of persistent conceptions of environments as in need of protection or development, or through the status of communities within larger political structures that help to determine future courses of action. Through examining Arctic environments as spaces that were constructed and known through historically and culturally specific knowledge regimes, we wish to reflect on the relational nature of ideologies and practices of Arctic environmental knowledge. We welcome applications from historians, anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and others with interest in these questions.

Homelessness in Arctic

Affiliation: Allorfik | Country: Greenland | Organizer(s): Birgit Niclasen

Homelessness seems to be increasing in Greenland and in other Arctic areas as well as in many western countries. Homelessness  impacts mortality and contributes to a disproportionately high burden of disease, and to the social exclusion that goes along with homelessness. It is, thus, important as a society to act on homelessness in a structured but still individualized way, to stop the chain of events often leading to homelessness.

IASSA-SDWG Collaboration: A Discussion of Opportunities to Work Together

Affiliation: Sustainable Development Working Group | Country: United States | Organizer(s): Jennifer Spence

The Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG - www.sdwg.org) undertakes diverse activities related to social, cultural, economic and human health issues in the Arctic. Over the years, IASSA has been an important partner in many of SDWG’s initatives and this important collaboration will continue.  Join us for a discussion about current IASSA-SDWG collaboration and explore opportunities for future collaboration.
 

Imagining Independence in the Arctic - Postcolonial Politics of Comparison

Affiliation: Danish Institute for International Studies | Country: Denmark | Organizer(s): Ulrik Pram Gad

Tiny population. Huge territory. Extreme conditions. It is far from obvious where to find inspiration when Greenland aims for independence. Hence, a wide variety of im- and explicit comparisons in political debate, public policy, and scholarly analysis shape how Greenland imagines independence. Particularly, both the relevance and legitimacy of models and scarecrows vary across sectors: When debating what kind of polity, Greenland should be, the Danish ideal of a culturally homogenous nation/welfare state looms large - but alternative inspiration is frequently sought with indigenous peoples and constitutionally creative island states. Topographical and climatic challenge makes it almost imperative to look for infrastructure solutions elsewhere than in a tiny, flat, North European country. Kick-starting economic development pits Greenland in radically different competitive conditions in global markets for fish, tourists and mining investments. However, earlier – colonial - models for how Greenland should and could be imagined to develop are sedimented in the types of knowledge deemed legitimate in various sectors, and materialized in the physical infrastructure shaping current societal flows. The panel presents the analyses of how application, rejection and forgetting of categories for comparison closes off some Greenlandic futures, making others self-evident. The panel presents the first analyses from a DFF Sapere Aude project studying how application, rejection and forgetting of categories for comparison closes off some futures, making others self-evident. The project aims to open up a new cross-disciplinary research agenda in nationalism studies on the politics of postcolonial comparison.

In or out of place? The territoriality of dogs and human-dog relations in contemporary Arctic communities

Affiliation: Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies ; Université de Lausanne ; Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue | Country: Germany | Organizer(s): Thora Herrmann, Laine Chanteloup, Francis Levesque

Dogs – whether sled or pack dogs, whether used for hunting or in camps – were a central actor of everyday life in Arctic communities, from the beginning of dog-sledding up long after Europeans arrived in the North. However, in the mid-20th century, the development of permanent settlements had drastic consequences on the places dogs occupy in Arctic communities and on how people relate to them. This session aims at drawing a portrait of the places dogs occupy in today’s Arctic communities, and provides insights into the multifarious ways humans and dogs relate to one another. We will consider the following questions:

  • What spaces are occupied by different dog breeds in contemporary Arctic villages and how are they used? How people perceive the territoriality of dogs?
  • How humans and dogs co-produce, share, and negotiate spaces: what are spaces of co-existence with humans, what are barriers that prevent dogs from or force them to occupy certain areas (e.g., bylaws, fences)?
  • What can we learn from the sites, spaces and places where interactions between humans and dogs are formed and occur to better understand human-dog relationships themselves?

Speakers in this session will discuss case studies from across the Circumpolar North in which the dog’s cultural, social, and geographical place in villages have contributed in shaping and transforming human-dog relationships. Speakers will thus demonstrate today's complex and manifold dynamics related to dogs in the Arctic. This session will finish with a roundtable that will concentrate on outstanding issues and paths forward.

Indigenizing and Decolonizing Environmental Science and Governance

Affiliation: University of Alaska Fairbanks | Country: United States | Organizer(s): Jessica Black, Brooke Woods, Jonathan Samuelson, Courtney Carothers

Indigenous Peoples and communities have stewarded the Arctic for thousands of years. Deep knowledge and reciprocal governance systems developed over millennia continue to guide respectful relationships and practices across Indigenous communities of the Arctic. And yet, western
science and management systems continue to exclude Indigenous Peoples and knowledge systems from management and decision-making that directly impacts them. As a result, Indigenous environmental systems are in peril and under great threat from dispossession and mismanagement. This session explores how Indigenous Peoples, values, and knowledge systems form the base for sustainable and equitable science and governance. We offer papers from Alaska that explore equity issues in fishery systems and feature the Kuskokwim and Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commissions as examples of  Indigenous institutions transforming the oppressive conditions in Alaska fisheries. We welcome papers that explore decolonization and Indigenous approaches in environmental sciences and management processes.

Indigenous entrepreneurship and different knowledge bases in indigenous tourism

Affiliation: Norce | Country: Norway | Organizer(s): Norce and Arctic University of Tromsø

Indigenous knowledge is vital for sustaining traditional livelihoods and to develop new businesses related to these skills. Indigenous entrepreneurship, particularly in tourism, is thought to be essential to strengthening indigenous value creation and supporting indigenous community development. In terms of addressing entrepreneurial growth in indigenous areas, research points to the importance of anchoring development processes in indigenous knowledge and practices. At present, this anchoring cannot always easily be accommodated by the growth oriented commercial logic that drives tourism development at different levels of the industry. It is essential to gain insight into how this situation might be remedied. This session aims to contribute to existing discussions of indigenous tourism entrepreneurship in terms of the above issues and invites researchers to contribute to the debate.

Examples of topics that can be addressed include:

  • Social and cultural barriers to indigenous entrepreneurship
  • The role of academic knowledge in tourism development and how this knowledge is made available to end users: where do we stand?
  • Frameworks for economic support of indigenous entrepreneurship in the Nordic context and in other parts of the world
  • Transforming passive knowledge in processes of knowledge integration
  • Methodologies, ethics and practicalities in indigenous entrepreneurship
  • Innovative techniques and ways of collaborating between academia, indigenous entrepreneurs, DMOs and the public sector.

Indigenous food and knowledge: Intersections with governance and health

Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder / University of Arizona | Country: United States | Organizer(s): Noor Johnson and Mary Beth Jager

Knowledge related to food gathering, harvesting, and sharing is a central part of Indigenous knowledge systems. Participation and transmission of food knowledge is critical to sustaining Indigenous cultures and to physical and mental health and wellbeing at the collective, household, and individual levels. Colonial governance practices and their legacies disrupt food systems in various ways, leading to challenges in sustaining environmental and social relationships as well as negatively affecting health. In this session, we invite presentations related to Indigenous food knowledge and its intersections with governance and/or health. Presentations may explore examples of resilience by Indigenous Peoples to continue to participate and transmit food knowledges through research.  In addition, we invite presentations that focus on the impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous food systems as well as the innovative ways that Indigenous communities and organizations have responded.

Indigenous health policy in Circumpolar Indigenous contexts: a cross-national analysis

Affiliation: University of Manitoba, Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Sámi Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Mental Health and Substance Use (SANKS), Finnmark Hospital Trust | Country: Canada | Organizer(s): Josée G. Lavoie, Jon Petter Stoor, Katie Cueva

This session is grounded in Indigenous peoples' right to access culturally appropriate and responsive healthcare, as articulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Our Circumpolar analysis shows that the United States has a system to provide access to health care for American Indian and Alaska Native people in exchange for the land that was taken from them. Other countries provide Indigenous citizens access to care in the same healthcare systems as other citizens. In this session, we will explore models of care throughout the circumpolar north. Intercultural models of care exist in Alaska, and to some extent across the Canadian territories. Aside from SANKS, in northern Norway, intercultural models are absent in Nordic countries and Russia. Greenlandic leaders have also highlighted the need to improve the cultural appropriateness of care. We conclude that Circumpolar nations should begin and/or expand commitments for culturally appropriate, self-determined, access to health care in Circumpolar contexts to reduce health inequities and adhere to obligations outlined in UNDRIP.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Knowledge Co-Production in the Arctic

Affiliation: IASSA | Country: USA | Organizer(s): Tatiana Degai

Arctic Indigenous Peoples have sustained their cultures and livelihoods for millennia, while being stewards of local ecosystems. Indigenous knowledge systems play central role in the well-being of the communities in the Arctic. Indigenous knowledge provides a foundation for individual and collective resilience of past, present, and future generations of Arctic Indigenous Peoples, and empowers communities to make self-determined choices and define their own paths to sustainable development. These knowledge systems hold inherent value and methodologies, functions and validation processes.  Indigenous Knowledge empowers communities throughout the circumpolar north to significantly advance our understanding, intellectual performance and management of the Arctic. To foster resilience in Arctic social-ecological systems we must attain equity and sustainability of the Indigenous knowledge systems as they engage with western science and policy.  This session will bring together Indigenous knowledge holders and scholars to discuss paths forward in elevating the role of Indigenous knowledge systems in pursuing co-production in the Arctic.