Mar 27, 2024: Article by Alexandra Meyer and Zdenka Sokolíčková in “Ethnos”
The latest issue of Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology has published the article ‘Melting Worlds’ and ‘Climate Myths’: Diverging Stories of Climate Change in Longyearbyen, an Arctic ‘Frontline Community’ by Alexandra Meyer and Zdenka Sokolíčková.
Climate change is a powerful story in Longyearbyen, the largest settlement on Svalbard in the high Arctic. While most natural science agrees on accelerating climate change with profound environmental impacts, this article unpacks the multidimensionality of the topic locally.
Meyer and Sokolíčková examine climate change as a discourse, analyzing how the local community receives and reproduces the dominant climate change discourse, and comparing it to other narratives about climate change and adaptation. The authors aim to contribute to the growing field of reception studies in anthropology. They conducted ethnographic fieldwork to gather their data, which includes interviews, informal conversations, and importantly, counter-stories that provide nuances and contest the dominant climate change discourse. The authors point to the over-simplification, sensationalism, and (mis)use of the climate discourse for other purposes. They suggest it is essential to listen to such counter-stories to promote fair, inclusive, and transparent climate change politics.
The article is open-access and can be read online here.
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Oct 1, 2025: InfraNorth Presentations at the 2025 GASCA Conference “Un/Commoning Anthropology”
On October 1, 2025, InfraNorth researchers Philipp Budka, Elena Davydova, Katrin Schmid and Susanna Gartler will present at the 2025 conference of the German Association for Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA/DGKSA). This year’s edition will be held from September 29 to October 2, 2025, at the University of Köln, under the theme “Un/Commoning Anthropology.” Temporalities […]
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Jul 2025: Presentation by Philipp Budka at EASA Workshop “Past Tense, Future Imperfect”
InfraNorth researcher Philipp Budka presented the paper “Navigating Temporalities, Infrastructure, and Uncertain Futures: Scenario Workshops in Churchill, Canada” at the workshop “Past Tense, Future Imperfect: Temporalities as Mobilising Force.” The two-day event, held in hybrid format from July 23 to 24, 2025, was organized by the EASA networks NAoHH (Anthropology of History and Heritage) and […]
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Jun 2025: Article by Jolynna Sinanan, Ria-Maria Adams & Philipp Budka in “Visual Anthropology”
The peer-reviewed academic journal Visual Anthropology has just published the article “Framing Multipolar Tourism: Imaginaries, Visualities and Futures,” written jointly by Jolynna Sinanan (University of Manchester) and InfraNorth researchers Ria-Maria Adams and Philipp Budka. The article examines multipolar iconography and how imaginaries of remote, climate-vulnerable places have materialized through improved transport, enhanced accommodation facilities, […]
