May 29, 2024: InfraNorth at the Arctic Congress 2024 Bodø
Several InfraNorth team members will participate in the Arctic Congress Bodø 2024 (May 29 – June 3, 2024), which combines the International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS) XI, UArctic Congress 2024, and High North Dialogue 2024. Here is a summary of three sessions convened by team members as well as a number of InfraNorth-related paper presentations:
Session 5.15 (Part 1 and Part 2) | Arctic Futures: Local Visions and Global Projections, convened by Peter Schweitzer and Olga Povoroznyuk.
This session will take place on Thursday 30 May and is divided into two parts: the first at 09:00 – 10:30 and the second at 11:00 – 12:30 CEST. It will be held at the Ramsalt Hotel (Ramsalt 1 Room), and includes the following InfraNorth-related papers:
- Arctic futures between global challenges and local needs by Olga Povoroznyuk & Peter Schweitzer (Part I).
- Infrastructural futures in Northern Manitoba, Canada by Philipp Budka (Part II).
- The Mining, Supplying and Foraging Road: The Imagined Futures of the Decaying Infrastructure in the North-Western Chukotka by Elena Davydova (Part II).
Session 4.1.8 | Can Infrastructure Contribute to Sustainability? The Built Environment and Arctic Communities, convened by Ria-Maria Adams and Alexandra Meyer.
This session will be held on Thursday 30 May, 16:00 – 17:30 CEST, at the Ramsalt Hotel (Hundholme Room). It includes:
- High Arctic flyers, or how transport infrastructure shapes Nunavut’s communities by Katrin Schmid.
- Reconfiguring cross-border connectivity and transport infrastructure in a divided Arctic (the case of Kirkenes) by Olga Povoroznyuk.
- “An airport in the making.” The hopes, politics, and social dynamics around a new airport in East Greenland by Sophie Elixhauser.
Session 5.11 | Transport Infrastructure and Population in the Arctic, convened by Timothy Heleniak.
This session will be held on Saturday 1 June, 11:00 – 12:30 CEST, at the Fram Cinema (Hall 2). It includes:
- Talking about roads in Western Alaska: The Ambler road in historical perspective by Peter Schweitzer.
- Connecting the remote: The role of the Svalbard Airport for community development and transformations in Longyearbyen by Alexandra Meyer.
- Permafrost thaw and the perceptions of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway by Susanna Gartler.
- Turning the Faroes into One City. Demographic and Spatial Impacts of 60 Years of Transport Infrastructure Expansion by Timothy Heleniak and Alexis Sancho-Reinoso.
Other presentations and talks
On Thursday 30 May, 11:00 – 12:30 CEST, Ria-Maria Adams will present her paper Entanglements of Arctic Tourism Infrastructures: Imaginaries & Temporality as part of Session 3.1.7 – Part 2, at the Stormen Concert Hall (Main Hall). The next day, on Friday 31 May, 11:00 – 12:30, she will also present the paper Staying Put: Exploring Decision-Making Processes and Wellbeing Among Rural Youth in Northern Finland as part of Session 4.2.3 at the Thon Nordlys Hotel (Børvasstind Room).
Also on Friday 31 May, Peter Schweitzer will participate as a speaker in two roundtables: The first, IASSA Past Presidents Panel: Social Sciences in a Changing Arctic: Legacies, Visions and Opportunities (Session 4.0.23) will be held at 13:30 – 15:00 in the Thon Nordlys Hotel (Landego Room). The second, titled Contending with a ‘Fractured North’: Reflections on the Future of International Social Sciences Collaborations in the Russian North (Session 5.30) will take place at 15:30 – 17:00 in the Ramsalt Hotel (Hundholmen Room).
Two further paper presentations by Timothy Heleniak are planned on Friday 31 May: The first, Diversity explosion in the Nordic Arctic: Migration and integration in the Nordic Arctic, will be part of Session 4.0.15 at 11:00 – 12:30 in the Ramsalt Hotel (Ramsalt 2). The second, Iceland’s demographic transition: From turf houses to too many tourists, will be part of Session 4.0.10, at 13:30 – 15:00 in the same room.
