Call for Papers on “Whose Arctic Futures? Unsettling Northern Transport Infrastructures” for VANDA Conference 2027
We invite paper proposals for our panel “Whose Arctic Futures? Unsettling Northern Transport Infrastructures” at the Vienna Anthropology Days (VANDA) 2027, hosted by the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna, 16-19 February 2027.
The Arctic, which during the post-Cold War period at the turn of the last century seemed to promise pan-Arctic political stability and economic prosperity, has in recent years experienced a multitude of “unsettling” processes – driven by geopolitical tensions, ongoing climate change and demographic shifts.
Transport infrastructures are central elements shaping the present lives and future trajectories of Arctic communities. The panel engages with these Arctic realities through an ethnographic, locally grounded perspective. In doing so, we adopt a relational approach that focuses on three key dimensions:
– the affordances of transport infrastructures,
– the sovereignty claims surrounding them, and
– their temporal, political, and material conditions.
While “future” is typically the main time-category addressed through infrastructure projects, residents assess them through their interpretations of the past and present.
Although our take on infrastructural politics is grounded in the local, we pay attention to the global political, environmental and socio-demographic factors, that shape these conditions.
All three convenors have been part of the ERC Advanced Grant project InfraNorth, which has been and continues to engage with the issues listed above. For this session, we invite others – with or without Arctic experience and case studies – to engage in discussions about the role of infrastructures in shaping – through imaginaries, material realities, emotions, etc. – the futures of local communities.
Convenors: Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk and Ria-Maria Adams.
Deadline for paper proposals: 12 October 2026.
Further information and submission details are available via the VANDA 2027 Call for Papers.
