Jan 2026: InfraNorth Contributions to Forthcoming Book “Arctic Silk Roads”

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 fueling the global imagination and geopolitical anticipation of the Arctic region’s accessible transport routes and potential for resource extraction. “Silk roads” are being conjured across the circumpolar North, both as official Arctic and infrastructural policy, and as broader visions of global connectivity with other markets. Following the myriad ways that local economies and agencies are proliferating around the anticipation of large-scale infrastructural corridors and their often-unrealized arteries, Arctic Silk Roads examines the different conditions under which top-down infrastructural dreams facilitate or constrain individual agencies.
InfraNorth team members’ contributions include:
- Polar Silk Worlding: Imagination, Infrastructure, and Anticipation in Chinese Arctic Tourism, by Ria-Maria Adams and Mia M. Bennett. (Chapter 4)
- The Promises and Fears of Infrastructure: An Alaskan Port Expansion, Geopolitics, and Local (Dis-)Engagement, by Olga Povoroznyuk and Peter Schweitzer. (Chapter 7)
For more information, please visit the Berghahn Books website.