Political Arctic/Arctic Political

The 7th symposium will address this year political
aspects of life in the Arctic as well as the Arctic life as an object of politics,
even in the academia. Life in the Arctic has become politicized in many ways due to
the effects and challenges posed by climate change, industrialization, urbanization
and globalization to local communities and inhabitants. Across the region, conflicts
over land use and natural resources accompanied by insecurity and uncertainty about
the future are part of everyday life in the Arctic. Such conflicts are political,
and occur without respect to the borders of states or boundaries of politically
constructed regions. In contrast to much publicized and debated threats of an open,
international, direct and even military conflict over Arctic resources, these often
small-scale, local conflicts relate to unequal social arrangements, benefit sharing
and risk distribution in connection to megaprojects and infrastructural development
around the region, and they could also be called “structural violence”. Living in
the Arctic, for both humans and non-humans, is nowadays a political question of
coping with, adapting to and transforming changing conditions and circumstances, but
also a starting point and object of political interventions of different scales,
institutional arrangements and by a broad range of political actors. Papers and
presentations covering different aspects of Arctic life as a political phenomenon
are welcome.

NORTHERN POLITICAL ECONOMY
SYMPOSIUM 2017

Loma-Vietonen, Ylitornio,
26-27 September, 2017
Second call for papers 1.6.2017

Keynote speakers

Mikko
Lehtonen: Arctic and/as Alternative Modernity. 

Mikko
Lehtonen is professor of Media Culture at the University of Tampere, Finland. In his
latest book (in Finnish Maa-ilma) Lehtonen develops an alternative way of
understanding culture, based on human bodies and their skillful actions. He is
interested in the changing relations and conceptualizations of economy, politics and
culture in the current conjuncture.

A second key note speaker
will confirmed as soon as possible. 

Deadline for
proposals

Please send your abstract (max.
250-words) with your name, title, affiliation and contact information before July
31, 2017 by email to Monica Tennberg (monica.tennberg@ulapland.fi).

Programme

The
programme will include keynote talks, presentations by the participants and
discussions on the basis of presentations. A symposium dinner will be organized.

The accepted papers and programme will be announced by
August 15, 2017.

Deadline for
registration

If you prefer to participate to
the symposium without presenting a paper, please register your participation before
September 15, 2017 by email to Susanna Pirnes (susanna.pirnes@ulapland.fi).

Travel and accommodation

The event will be held in Loma-Vietonen (Yli-Tornio), 65 kilometres
northwest from Rovaniemi. There is no fee for participation. The organizers cover
the costs of travel, accommodation and meals during the seminar. Please note that
the symposium participants are expected to cover their own travel costs to and from
Rovaniemi, from where a bus transportation is arranged to the symposium site. Let us
know if you have any wishes about the diet. 

More information

Symposium
organizer, research professor Monica Tennberg, research professor, Northern
political economy/Sustainable development research group, Arctic Centre, University
of Lapland (monica.tennberg@ulapland.fi) and the symposium organizing team Tanja
Joona (tanja.joona@ulapland.fi), Susanna Pirnes (susanna.pirnes@ulapland.fi), and
Hanna Lempinen (hanna.lempinen@ulapland.fi)

WELCOME!