Based on ethnography of airports in Eastern Arctic Russia (Chukotka), the article examines institutionalized practices of active waiting prior to the boarding of an aircraft, called the podsadka. On the one hand, a distinct feature of Russian Arctic aviation is its unpredictability. Delays, cancellations of flights, and persistent waiting by passengers are an inevitable part of the everyday life of airports in Chukotka. On the other hand, even in remote places of the Russian North, airports are spaces of heightened control. The article argues that the disjuncture between the rigidity of airports and the flexibility of people creates a podsadka game among passengers and contributes to its “hunting” / “active” peculiarities. The article begins with a comparison of passenger and air carrier perspectives, which are termed “lucky” and “efficient” mobilities, respectively. It expands on this theme by considering airports as spaces for displays of diverse airport regulations and passenger intentions. Finally, it focuses on specific traits of Chukotkan mobility that include overcoming multiple queues and waiting, revealing the strategies applied by local people to be lucky in their travels.
The article is open-access and can be read online here.
InfraNorth researchers Philipp Budka and Katrin Schmid will present their work at the 46th Annual Conference of the Canadian Studies Association in the German-speaking Countries (GKS). Under the theme “The North: Changes, Challenges, Opportunities,” the conference will be held in Berlin from February 26 to March 1, 2025. Philipp Budka will participate in Panel 11, […]
Peter Schweitzer and Olga Povoroznyuk will participate in the 2025 Barents Spektakel, an annual art and culture festival in Kirkenes, Norway. In its 21st edition, the festival explores the theme “Remote Control,” fostering a cross-disciplinary exchange on the center-periphery model and the dynamics between central areas and peripheral (or remote) regions. On Friday, 21 February, […]
International Conference, September 22 – 24, 2025, at the University of Vienna. Deadline for submissions: April 6, 2025. Infrastructure is often seen as solid, fixed, and inevitable while shaping the way we move, live, and connect. But what about the infrastructures that remain unfinished, abandoned, or merely imagined? How do built, un-built, or non-built environments […]
Peter Schweitzer and Olga Povoroznyuk were recently invited as guest speakers of the RATIC Arctic Infrastructure Science Talks, a short series of online talks hosted by Jana Peirce (Alaska Geobotany Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks) in preparation for the Arctic Science Summit Week 2025 and the ICARP IV Summit. Each talk is followed by time […]
Two members of the InfraNorth team, Timothy Heleniak (a senior research fellow at Nordregio) and Ria-Maria Adams, will participate in the 6th Nordic Rural Research Conference, held in Kiruna, Finland, from December 3-5. This year’s conference theme is “New Pathways to Sustainable Transitions?” Timothy Heleniak is coordinating working group 1.1, “The benefits of migration in […]
On Monday, December 2, 2024, at 19:00 CET, Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk, and Stanislav Saas Ksenofontov (Indigenous Sakha social scientist, Postdoctoral scholar at the University of Northern Iowa), will be guest speakers in the CRAFT webinar series “Engaging Social Sciences and Indigenous Perspectives in Arctic Infrastructure Research.” The event will be streamed live on Facebook. […]
