From demographics to diseases, economies to ecosystems, ships to species, the Arctic is on the move. The confluence of increased global economic connectivity, environmental variability, and natural hazards amplified by global climate change have catalyzed new mobilities in the region's dynamic littoral spaces. On land, migratory birds, mammals, and insects are temporally and spatially changing their movements as increasing surface temperatures result in the earlier onset of the growing season and the northward expansion of temperate coastal ecosystems. At sea, rising water temperatures and diminishing sea ice are causing simultaneous changes in the migration and range of marine mammals and fish. And humans, traversing both sea and land as fishermen, subsistence hunters, tourists, Coast Guardsmen, ship operators, and coastal residents at large, are responding to these ecological, geohazard, and climatic changes by redrawing their own mobilities.None of these littoral migrations exists in a vacuum. Rather, they are networked together through ecological, societal, and economic interdependencies and intersections. Immense headway has been made in understanding diverse aspects of human and ecosystem movement in the Arctic. However, to advance the scientific community's understanding of the complex interface of people, their built environments, and natural mobilities requires a cross disciplinary, diverse cohort of researchers capable of integrating science, traditional knowledge, and practitioner experiences to find common solutions. This session invites migration research to bring current research into dialogue with other scientific fields,jointly identify and prioritize research topics, and link isolated researchers into collaborative, integrative discussions to create new knowledge that brings together biological sciences, social sciences, engineering, security studies, economics, and cultural anthropology.
Climate Change; Migration; Coastal Ecosystems; Policy; Co-Production Knowledge
Dr. Victoria Herrmann | Georgetown University
Doris Friedrich | inst.
The issues of the traditional economy development are very relevant to the security of Arctic indigenous peoples. Modern trends of the Arctic development are characterized by climate change, industrial development and social environment transformation. All of these affect traditional lands and indigenous communities. There is a strong need to develop mechanisms and real forms to preserve a unique Arctic culture and lifestyles that have developed over the centuries. The problem-solving is connected with the implementation to traditional industries new technical, technological and organizational methods and tools as well as to adopt new legal and management practices. Traditional industries performed by reindeer herding, hunting, fishing, herbs and berries production are not used for all their potential to increase the quality of life in the Arctic. To achieve goals of the Arctic sustainable development it is necessary to research and to discuss the perspectives of the traditional economy in broader international context.
Arctic, traditional economy, indigenous peoples
Violetta Gassiy | Public administration department, Kuban State University, Russia, IASC postdoc fello
Natalia Loukacheva | Department of Political Science, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Ivan Potravny | Program and project department, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics
This interdisciplinary R&D session focuses on the importance of engineering research in the Arctic to enable a higher quality of life and sustainable, low impact development. This is especially important in the context of a changing climate, where impacts of changes should be examined in the context of environmental risks, their minimization, as well as any potential benefits. The session highlights research that examines infrastructure development in the Arctic, particularly, the intersection of climate and sea ice prediction models, sustainable development practices and indigenous community needs. As marine transportation is such a vital supply link for many Northern communities, combined with the impacts of shipping routes opening to increased fishing, tourism and cargo, research examining the associated risks and benefits will also be discussed. We cordially invite engineers, researchers, policy makers, business developers, and indigenous peoples' representatives.
interdisciplinary, Arctic infrastructures, civil engineering, environmental engineering assessment, indigenous communities & knowledge holders
Alevtina Evgrafova | Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Germany
Hajime Yamaguchi | University of Tokyo, Japan
Anne Barker | National Research Council Canada, Canada
This session will accept papers on two aspects of adapting to life in Arctic regions dealing with issues of both human and architectural living conditions:
Papers will be invited that cover:
- Thermo-physiological and behavioural adaptation to extremely cold climates
- Building design issues, challenges and lessons on the form, orientation and structures
- Building material challenges identified and mitigated against in extreme cold
- People, buildings and environment interfaces and impacts.
Building on current field work undertaken in extremely cold regions, this session is proposed to address the need for new and clearer understandings of the physical, behavioural and physiological means with which people can adapt themselves, and their environments, to occupy extremely cold regions with minimal impacts on their environments and themselves.
Physiology, Buildings, Behaviours, Materials, Adaptation.
Susan Roaf | Architectural Engineering, Heriot Watt University
Wouter van Market Lichtenbelt | Thermophysiology & Metabolism, Maastricht University
As the Circumpolar North comes into increasing global focus, new transportation projects are being imagined and built across the Arctic and Subarctic. Land-based transport and its related infrastructure cause tremendous changes in socio-ecological systems, including new forms of mobility and connectivity that affect the circulation of people, goods, resources and information. Transport infrastructure also affects the natural environment by altering landscape and ecological processes and expanding the human footprint into remote, formerly pristine ecosystems. Rapid climate change is bringing new challenges for construction and maintenance of transport systems, requiring new adaptive solutions. This session invites presentations that consider the complex entanglements between humans, environment and transportation infrastructure (roads, railways, pipelines and coastal facilities), including perspectives from the social and natural sciences, engineering and transportation studies.
Transport infrastructure, social and environmental effects.
Olga Povoroznyuk | Department for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria olga.povoroznyuk@univie.ac.at Yes Warwick F. Vincent Centre for Northern Studies (CEN) & Dépt de Biologie, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada
Warwick F. Vincent | Centre for Northern Studies (CEN) & Dépt de Biologie, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada
Fabrice Calmels | YukonU Research Centre, Yukon University Whitehorse, Canada
It is known that any changes or effects in the Arctic are not idiopathic. They have specific origins while having most of uncertainty in time and spatial scales. Global impacts spread through the national to regional levels having the reverse effect. While environmental changes are more explicit to global understanding, socio-economic changes usually have an implicit character concerning mostly regional and national levels, but may have the deferred effect to global arena, and is an important co-influence model especially within the concept of the Arctic sustainability. One of the examples of such model is the process of self-development of local communities within the existing programs of cross-border cooperation which involves the number of different nations and have a positive effect to local socio-economic processes with larger feedback to other levels including global. The other example refers to transport and digitally isolated communities that have various responses to the challenges of global trends. Often, mostly negative events, including natural disasters, the coronavirus pandemic, and global conflicts, spread to the North slowly but have a stronger impact. Uncertainty and vulnerability, due to lack of access to information and other resources, can be fatal. The search for sources and limits of sustainability of the northern communities, examples of successful socio-economic changes at the potential transition border of global processes to the local level is another discussion of the session. In this session we aim to track Arctic interdisciplinary cases which reflects multidirectional patterns of changes from global to regional and from regional to global levels.
socio-economic changes, sustainability, Northern communities, Arctic policy, cross-border cooperation
Yulia Zaika | Kola Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Tuyara Gavrilyeva | North-Eastern University, Yakutsk
The people who call the Arctic their home are diverse on many levels, from ethnicity, class, and gender, to sexual orientation. Many of these aspects are often overlooked or ignored, not only in everyday social life, but perhaps even more so in political decision-making. Discrimination is still an important issue. Women and LGBTQ+ are disadvantaged on various levels and there is little knowledge and mention of non-binary genders. Indigenous peoples still struggle to make their voices heard and have their rights respected. Intersectionality is concerned with the ways in which different forms of oppression interact and potentially reinforce each other. In a changing Arctic, distinct but associated forms of discrimination might further increase the negative impacts of climate change on particularly vulnerable groups. This session invites contributions that revolve around different aspects of intersectionality, discrimination, diversity, and inclusion. It will not only examine current challenges, but also look to possibilities for improvement. Our aim is to open up a space for discussions beyond theoretical research and for sharing perspectives. We particularly welcome contributions from early-career researchers and Traditional/Indigenous knowledge holders.
Intersectionality, discrimination, inclusion, Indigenous peoples, gender
Doris Friedrich | The Arctic Institute; University of Vienna
Dina Abdel-Fattah | International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Olivia Lee | International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Managing the consequences of a warming Arctic on the cryosphere, biodiversity and societies is a major challenge, requiring knowledge about how the social-ecological system operates currently and how it may operate in the future. Fjord systems and coasts directly influenced by fjords cover significant areas of Arctic coastlines, are home to a diversity of human populations, and are habitats of crucial importance to Arctic marine biodiversity and harvestable marine resources. By comparing Arctic fjord systems at different stage of cryosphere loss (retreat of sea ice and tidal glaciers) we aim to identify general patterns in biodiversity change and consequences to local communities, food production, livelihoods and other ecosystem services. £We, hence, invite contributions allowing for an integrative view on recent and future change in the Arctic cryosphere, biodiversity and coastal livelihoods.
cryosphere, biodiversity, fjords, livelihoods, sustainability
Kai Bischof | University of Bremen, Marine Botany, Germany
Grete Hovelsrud | Nordland Research Institute, Bodø, Norway
Catia Monteiro | University of Bremen, Marine Botany, Germany
The NordForsk session addresses the interlinked climate-change effects of health and environment that strike at the heart of Arctic communities, affecting all socio-economic and social-ecological aspects including different management regimes and traditions of adaptation. The co-production of knowledge with local communities is a prerequisite for a new understanding of resilience in the Arctic. A sound basis for new approaches is assessments that take into account the multiple pressures from climate change as well as societal activities, such as mining, energy production, fisheries, reindeer herding, forestry, and tourism, while encompassing contemporary issues as well as legacies from the past. The NordForsk session addresses strategies for sustainable development of the Arctic, by integrating views from indigenous traditions, natural and social sciences, health, and humanities within a globalisation and climate-change perspective. The session invites relevant scientific and indigenous contributions for the promotion of adaptive actions at local and regional levels of the Arctic.
Climate-change, globalisation, health, adaptation, livelihoods
Birgitta Evengard | Umea University, Sweden
Douglas Nord | Scientific Advisory Board, Arctic Programme, NordForsk
Niila Inga | Leavas cearru, Nordic Center of Excellence REXSAC
The recent halt in global tourism activities notwithstanding, cruise activities are increasing in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. The growth is caused by increased mobility, climate change and a growing international interest to experience the nature and societies of the Arctic. Arctic cruise tourism can provide business opportunities and additional income for coastal communities. However, sustainable development is necessary for the region to prevent negative impacts from a growing cruise tourism industry and to protect local natural, social and cultural resources. In this session we welcome researchers to present studies addressing the ecological, economical and societal aspects of cruise tourism in the Arctic. In search for an optimal balance for Arctic cruise activities, we would like to discuss what kinds of challenges and possibilities have been identified and how Arctic communities are defining, governing and implementing the principles of sustainability. Qualitative as well as quantitative studies are welcomed to this session.
Arctic tourism development; Cruise tourism; Sustainability; Arctic communities
Hin Hoarau Heemstra | Nord University
Carina Ren | Aalborg University
Albina Pashkevich | Dalarna University
This session invites humanities-based papers concerned with stories that places Arctic indigenous peoples and animals at the centre. The starting point for these stories is local places in the Western Arctic in the 19th and 20th centuries, a period when people and animals in this region experienced increased contact with and irrevocable influence from Europe and North America, through exploration, travel, settlement, missionizing, resource extraction and administration. While the dominant history of the Arctic in the 19th and 20th centuries concerns the accomplishments of white men, this session considers the perspectives, experiences and consequences for those who were on the receiving end of Euro-American imperialism. We find traces of these suppressed and forgotten stories in texts and images based on meetings between Arctic indigenous peoples and Europeans/Americans and between humans and Arctic animals. This material falls in 3 main categories 1) Western art and literature bearing traces, or the clear presence, of indigenous peoples; 2) Images and texts created Arctic individuals working in a colonial context; and, 3) Western and Arctic indigenous art and literature pointing to animal agency.
Art, literature, humanities, contact zone
Ingeborg Høvik | UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Marie-Theres Federhofer | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Sigfrid Kjeldaas | GenØk - Centre for Biosafety
A long-term, interdisciplinary perspective is needed to better understand past human responses to changing Arctic environments and present transformations and in turn strengthen the knowledge base for future sustainability strategies. The use of complimentary chronological perspectives (palaeo, contemporary and future) can provide mutually-reinforcing insights into factors that contribute to vulnerability and resilience within the closely interconnected social-ecological systems (SESs) of the Arctic. This session invited paper that examine long-term environmental and social changes, adaptation and transformations of Arctic SES, address issues of resilience and sustainability of these systems, emphasize interdisciplinary approaches and knowledge co-production.
long-term change, social-ecological systems, sustainability, environment, society
Andrey N Petrov | University of Northern Iowa
Stanislav Ksenofontov | University of Northern Iowa
The changing environment of the Arctic entails many challenges: from sea level rise to extreme weather events and the accompanying challenges to infrastructure, food security, health and many more. Local-global linkages and the complex nature of these changes require a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach, which bridges the gaps between various types of knowledge: between different disciplines from both natural and social sciences, and between scientific, local, and Indigenous knowledge and experience. The focus of this session is on multi-and interdisciplinary research, which sheds light on human-environment relations, interlinkages and environmental issues, as well as governance and policy considerations. What can we learn from the integration of natural and social sciences and other types of knowledge? A special emphasis will be placed on the experience of Indigenous communities. While climate change is of foremost importance, we welcome contributions on a broad range of topics with significant implications for a changing Arctic, which include, but are not limited to, loss of biodiversity, resource management, pollution, subsistence and food security, and wildlife-related conflicts.
Human-environment relations, climate change, sustainability, Indigenous knowledge, multi-disciplinary
Dina Abdel-Fattah | Arctic University of Norway
Doris Friedrich | The Arctic Institute; University of Vienna
Olivia Lee | International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Section A: We invite Arctic scholars from across the social and natural sciences to reflect on how notions of pasts, presents, and futures structure their research: How are current issues informed by past understandings; and how are projections of the future altered by the immediate present? Specifically, we ask how the current pandemic as well as the climate crisis could be informed by past experiences, and provide guidance for the ways in which we conceptualise Arctic futures. Section B: This session will gather contributions of a variety of impacts, challenges, and opportunities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the Arctic. The papers will describe and discuss experiences from diverse Arctic regions and communities, focusing on epidemiological, economic, social, political, health, cultural and other implications of COVID-19, both short-and long-term. We particularly invite presenters to reflect on how the digitisation of research and virtual academic work upend routines, rhythms, and what we consider to "count". With limited time and physical access to the "field", how do we continue to ensure that our research is respectful of and engaging with Arctic peoples? Alternatively, could restrictions on field-based research in the Arctic precipitate a radical re-alignment of the relationship between researchers and Indigenous and Northern communities? Abstracts will be assigned to sub-sections by the conveners upon review.
Ingrid A. Medby | Oxford Brookes University
Andrey N Petrov | University of Northern Iowa
Stanislav Ksenofontov | University of Northern Iowa
Klaus Dodds | Royal Holloway, University of London
Climate change will bring wide-ranging societal implications for the Arctic. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) has tracked climatic changes for more than two decades and is currently assessing the societal implications of a changing Arctic. Coincidently, climate justice has emerged as an important area of scholarship in Arctic governance and research as climate change increasingly and disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable communities in the region. This session invites papers from social science, humanities and multidisciplinary backgrounds exploring implications of climate change in the Arctic for human development, equity and justice, livelihoods, resilience and vulnerability, climate security, social-ecological systems, indigenous issues, and physical and mental health. Submissions which highlight knowledge gaps and bridge western science and indigenous/traditional knowledge are particularly encouraged. This session is chaired by members of the UArctic’s thematic network on Climate Justice, and co-chapter leads on the societal implications of climate change for AMAP’s 2023 report.
Climate justice, societal implications, human development, resilience, indigenous issues
Sennan D. Mattar | Glasgow Caledonian University
Vera Helene Hausner | UiT-the Arctic University of Norway
Sarah Trainor | UAF. Alaska Center for Climate Assessment & Policy
Tahseen Jafry | Glasgow Caledonian University
Closed on December 10, 2020