The crowded and empty Arctic

Author(s)

Julie Klinger, Mia Bennett, Ria-Maria Adams, Eleanor Armstrong

Abstract

We, as four foreign researchers with research commitments in Kiruna, Sweden, reflexively examine the imaginaries of Kiruna as either empty or crowded while prob-lematizing the Arctic as a homogenous region. While our scholarly interests (mining, space, education, transport infrastructure) and disciplines are distinct, we reflect on how their convergence in the city indicates broader historical shifts in Arctic imagi-naries and the political economies of research, which follow and shape climate geo-politics, development, and cultural practices. In the interstices of these currents, the Arctic-imagined as empty and remote from global metropoles-becomes crowded and connected through mobility to and from as well as within the Arctic, which shapes processes of knowledge production.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

External organisation(s)

University of Delaware, University of Washington, Stockholm University

Journal

Lychnos

Pages

57-72

DOI

https://doi.org/10.48202/25085

Publication date

11-2023

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504009 Ethnology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Sciences(all)

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 13 - Climate Action

Portal url

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/the-crowded-and-empty-arctic(2c848e97-f10c-451f-b520-f7f2157076be).html