Dr. Olga Povoroznyuk, the research coordinator and study region lead for the Russian Arctic in InfraNorth, has received the sowi:doc Award 2023 for her outstanding dissertation project “Soviet infrastructure in the post-Soviet era? Building a railroad and identity along the Baikal–Amur Mainline in East Siberia.” Dr. Povoroznyuk defended her dissertation at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University […]

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 […]

Philipp Budka wrote an article on transforming transport infrastructures in Canada for the booklet Arctic Sustainability Transformation: What Is It, What Can It Be, And What Does It Need To Be?, edited by J. Priebe, H. Lempinen & H. Vikström and published by Umeå University. Download Booklet

Sophie Elixhauser, Alexandra Meyer and others wrote an article on collaborative research on climate and environmental change for the journal Environment Science & Policy. The article’s aim is to rethink how anthropology can be involved in interdisciplinary research on climate and environmental change, considering wide-spread obstacles for successful collaboration and recommending best practices. S. Elixhauser, […]

The local newspaper Sør-Varanger Avis in Kirkenes published an article about the recently conducted scenario workshops in Kirkenes. Researchers Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk and Alexandra Meyer (University of Vienna) and Bjarge Schwenke Fors (Barents Institute) were interviewed about the workshops and the aims of the projects, including the connection between transport infrastructure and well-being in Arctic communities. […]

The Paper “Ignoring environmental change? On fishing quotas and collapsing coastlines in Bykovskiy, Northern Sakha (Yakutiya)” written by Olga Povoroznyuk and Peter Schweitzer was published by Ambio, a journal of environment and society issued by the Royal Swedish academy of Sciences. The paper is discussing the impact of climate change on the local community of […]

The chapter “What difference does a railroad make?” by Olga Povoroznyuk and Peter Schweitzer is focusing on the impact of the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) in Eastern Siberia in the 1970s-1980s. Special attention is paid to the role of the cities of Tynda and Severobaikalsk which were founded along the BAM at that […]

The ERC project InfraNorth is inviting applications for the position of an outreach expert to communicate and disseminate project related research. Deadline has been extended to February 6. For details, please navigate to the University of Vienna’s job portal.

Olga Povoroznyuk successfully defended her PhD dissertation “Soviet Infrastructure in the Post-Soviet Era? Building a Railroad and Identity along the Baikal–Amur Mainline in East Siberia”. Her cumulative dissertation introduces the notion of transformative infrastructure and focuses on the role of large-scale infrastructures as articulations of state modernization and identity building. The research was supported by […]

Interdisciplinary review article on social and environmental consequences of roads and railways led by Olga Povoroznyuk with contributions from W. Vincent, P. Schweitzer and a few other Arctic scholars is now accessible online in the Canadian journal Arctic Science https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.1139/as-2021-0033 The article features six Arctic case studies and is a result of collaboration between social […]

Alexis Sancho-Reinoso has created a story that combines maps, pictures, and text to tell his experiences while travelling to Luleå and Kiruna, in the Swedish northernmost region Norrbotten. The excursion took place after the InfraNorth workshop about the history of Arctic infrastructures. The storymap is available here.

This survey focuses on the role of transport infrastructures in Arctic and sub-Arctic communities. It is anonymous, consists of seven (7) questions, and takes about 10 minutes to complete.The survey is available at https://sosci.univie.ac.at/InfraNorthQuestionnaire/All residents in Northern communities aged 18 years or more are invited to participate in the survey!