Text: Vesa Väätänen A word cloud generated from the titles and abstracts of the presentations in the first Critical Arctic Studies Symposium. The word cloud illustrates how the symposium acted as a gathering for not only researchers and artists, but also for words, concepts, theories and methods that were not taken at face value asContinueContinue reading “Reflections on the first Critical Arctic Studies Symposium”
Category Archives: Blog
Exploring Critical Arctic Approaches in Space Law Studies: A Reflective Journey
Text: Tom RoyerPhoto: Gerrit, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons A vast uninhabited area north of [Esrange] is used as an area where the sounding rockets can land. Spread throughout this area are small shelters, like the one shown in this picture. When a launch campaign is planned, people are asked to visit such sheltersContinueContinue reading “Exploring Critical Arctic Approaches in Space Law Studies: A Reflective Journey”
Structural Inequality and the Sámi: Challenging Equality in the Nordic Welfare States
Text: Assi HarkomaPhoto: Berit Siilasjoki Reindeer-husbandry legislation and regulations restrict the Sámi from practising traditional reindeer herding in Nordic states. Critical research is needed to explore and expose the structural inequality affecting the Sámi. The Nordic states have failed to examine historical and ongoing colonial processes’ impacts on the Sámi. As a result, colonial practicesContinueContinue reading “Structural Inequality and the Sámi: Challenging Equality in the Nordic Welfare States”
From the Covid-19 travel gridlock to a visitor record winter: Problematising the rebound of luxury tourism development in the Arctic from a moral economy perspective
Text and photo: Dorothee Bohn The sign in front of a luxury-branded hotel tells local people who ski or exercise on the public cross-country skiing/outdoor recreation trail, which is located beside the tourist facility, that “you will soon arrive at the Arctic Treehouse Hotel’s accommodation area. Please move silently so that our guests can enjoyContinueContinue reading “From the Covid-19 travel gridlock to a visitor record winter: Problematising the rebound of luxury tourism development in the Arctic from a moral economy perspective”
Challenging assumptions on rewilding the Nordic nature
Text: Monica Tennberg & Carina KeskitaloPhoto: Monica Tennberg The late French sociologist Bruno Latour challenged the separation of humans and nature typical in our modern thinking. In his view, we have never been modern; our relations to nature are multiple and entangled. Thus, Latour suggested that we should rethink our modernist distinctions to include theContinueContinue reading “Challenging assumptions on rewilding the Nordic nature“
Introducing Critical Arctic Studies at the Arctic Circle Assembly 2022
Text: Marjo Lindroth, Sanna Kopra & Rasmus Leander NielsenPhoto: Charlotte Gherke The thematic network on Critical Arctic Studies made its debut at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik this year. The Assembly is an event that gathers researchers, policy-makers and diplomats from all over the globe to discuss Arctic issues and developments. Participants numbered aroundContinueContinue reading “Introducing Critical Arctic Studies at the Arctic Circle Assembly 2022“
Lectio recut
Text and pictures: Joonas Vola In the blog, Joonas Vola presents a radical reworking of his Arctic research “Homunculus: Bearing Incorporeal Arcticulations” by cutting the introductory lecture, lectio praecursoria of his public defence into pieces and reconstructing a new whole from its fragments. Besides of linear reading, the text may form surprising and unexpected linksContinueContinue reading “Lectio recut”
A tale of an Arctic cod
Text: Sohvi Kangasluoma Photo: Juho Karhu As we enter a harbor on a calm winter night in northern Iceland, the distinct smell of fish welcomes us. The scent of a fish greets us in almost every harbor, as the small boat harbors are often surrounded by fiskkaup — fish plants where the fishermen bring theContinueContinue reading “A tale of an Arctic cod“
Arctic winescapes
Text: Iana Nesterova Winescape is a term used to describe the interplay of “vineyards; wineries and other physical structures; wines; natural landscape and setting; people; and heritage, town(s) and buildings and their architecture and artefacts within, and more.” (Johnson and Bruwer, 2007). The Arctic region is not the first region that comes to mind whenContinueContinue reading “Arctic winescapes”
Critical Arctic Studies – A short introduction to the idea and its background
Text: Monica Tennberg, Marjo Lindroth and Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen Photo: Arctic Centre/Risto Viitanen In the discussions in the early 2010s in the Northern political economy research group at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland, we identified with our colleagues a need for critical analysis in Arctic research. We found problematic the ways in which questions,ContinueContinue reading “Critical Arctic Studies – A short introduction to the idea and its background”
Thematic Network on Critical Arctic Studies 