Dec 9, 2023: Interview in the Finnish Newspaper Lapin Kansa
Photo by Ria-Maria Adams.
The Finnish regional newspaper Lapin Kansa recently featured an interview with our team member Ria-Maria Adams, in its weekend edition. The interview focused on her work with young people in Lapland, which is part of her forthcoming doctoral thesis. Ria-Maria’s dissertation includes the case of young rural “stayers,” who are bucking the prevailing culture of leaving their hometowns to live in more urban areas of the country.
In collaboration with her colleague from the University of Lapland, Teresa Komu, Ria-Maria has co-authored two publications (a book chapter and a research article, both released in 2021) on the well-being of young people in Finnish Lapland. Journalist Niina Lavia builds on these articles in her interview with Ria-Maria, highlighting the voices of local young people. The interviewees talk about the building blocks of what makes a good life for them, as well as the challenges they face. For example, while long distances are not a problem for young people in the North who are used to commuting long distances, the rising fuel prices emerge as a challenge to pursue their lifestyle in the Arctic. The article “He jotka jäävät” (Those who stay) can be read in Finnish behind a paywall at the following link.
InfraNorth researchers contribute two chapters to the forthcoming book Arctic Silk Roads: An Anthropology of the Unbuilt, edited by Natalia Magnani and Matthew Magnani. The volume will be published by Berghahn Books in January 2026 as part of the Studies in the Circumpolar North series. As climate change accelerates, the melting of sea ice is […]
The forthcoming special issue “Ethnographies of Infrastructure” of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, guest edited by Philipp Budka, Peter Schweitzer, and Olga Povoroznyuk, is progressively being made available online ahead of the print edition, which will appear in February 2026. The introduction, authored by Schweitzer, Povoroznyuk, and Budka, is now available open-access. It presents the […]
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The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography has published the article “Amazon in the Arctic: E-Commerce, Infrastructure, and Alimentary Assemblages in Nunavut, Canada” by InfraNorth researcher Katrin Schmid. Since establishing a delivery hub in Iqaluit, Nunavut in 2020, Amazon.com, Inc. has become an essential resource for many Nunavut residents, providing affordable access to goods otherwise constrained by […]
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The quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal Polar Geography has just released the article “No room in the North: housing scarcity as infrastructure’s failed relations in the Arctic” by InfraNorth researchers Katrin Schmid and Ria-Maria Adams. The article examines the entanglements of housing infrastructure, economic structures, and social relations in Arctic regions, focusing on Nunavut (Canada) and […]
