Research Focus Areas

Short Biography

Currently, Ria-Maria Adams works as a researcher for the ERC funded project: https://infranorth.eu, focusing on the role of transport infrastructures in the Fennoscandian Arctic. In February 2024, she defended her PhD thesis at the University of Vienna on the topic of youth wellbeing in northern Finland.

Previously, Ria-Maria has contributed as a researcher to the Finnish case study of the LISH project at Aalto University addressing liveability in shrinking towns in Finland and Germany. She has also worked at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland in the project: Live, Work or Leave? Youth – wellbeing and the viability of (post) extractive Arctic industrial cities in Finland and Russia.

Recent Publications

• Klinger J.M., Armstrong E. S., Adams R.-M. &. Bennett M. M. (2023) The crowded and empty Arctic: Examining spatial imaginaries and infrastructures in Kiruna, Sweden. In: Priebe and Wormbs (2023) Thematic Issue: Arctic Dreams. Lychnos. Annual of the Swedish History of Science Society: 57-72. https://tidskriftenlychnos.se/article/view/25085/22738
• Adams, R.-M., Meyer, A. & Bennett, M. (2023) For Whom Do the Sleigh Bells Toll? Unwrapping Santa’s Arctic Infrastructures. InfraNorth Blog. https://infranorth.eu/blog/for-whom-do-the-sleigh-bells-toll-unwrapping-santas-arctic-infrastructures/
• Adams, R.-M. (2023) Hunting a 'good life': young lifestyle migrants in Finnish Lapland. Polar Geography, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1088937X.2023.2182383
• Adams, R.-M. & Bennett M. (2022) Moving Mountains to Ship Iron: Transport Hierarchies in the Scandinavian Arctic – InfraNorth Blog. https://infranorth.eu/blog/moving-mountains-to-ship-iron/
• Adams, R.-M., Bolotova, A., & Alasalmi, V. (2022). Liveability under shrinkage: Initiatives in the ‘capital of pessimism’ in Finland. European Planning Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2022.2126721
• Stammler, F.; Adams, R.-M. & Ivanova, A. (2022). Rewiring Remote Urban Futures? Youth Well-being in Northern Industry Towns. Journal of Youth Studies. DOI:10.1080/13676261.2022.2081493
• Adams, R.-M., & Bennett, M. (2021). When Imaginary Infrastructures Become Real: The Development of Santa Claus Tourism in Northern Finland – InfraNorth Blog. https://www.infranorth.eu/blog/when-imaginary-infrastructures-become-real-the-development-of-santa-claus-tourism-in-northern-finland/
• Adams, R.-M., & Komu, T. (2021). Radically Ordinary Lives: Young Rural Stayers and the Ingredients of the Good Life in Finnish Lapland. YOUNG, https://doi.org/10.1177/11033088211064685
• Adams, R.-M., Allemann, L., & Tynkkynen, V.-P. (2021). Youth Well-being in “Atomic Cities”: The Cases of Polyarnye Zori and Pyhäjoki. In F. Stammler & R. Toivanen (Eds.), Young People, Wellbeing and Placemaking in the Arctic (pp. 222–240). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003110019-14
• Komu, T., & Adams, R.-M. (2021). Not wanting to be “Stuck”. Exploring the role of mobility for young people’s wellbeing in Northern Finland. In F. Stammler & R. Toivanen (Eds.), Young People, Wellbeing and Placemaking in the Arctic (pp. 32–52). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003110019-4

Current Affiliations

• Guest Researcher at Arctic Centre/University of Lapland in the Arctic Anthropology Team lead by Prof. Florian Stammler
  https://www.arcticcentre.org/EN/About/Contacts/anthropology-staff