The new three-year research project will analyze the attractiveness of Arctic industrial cities in Finland and Russia as places to live and work. The project focuses especially on the determinants of youth wellbeing. The Finnish part of the project is hosted by the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and funded by the Academy of Finland.

The future and sustainability of Arctic
city-communities depends on how the young generation sees prospects for their own
personal development there. This project looks at youth coping strategies and
beyond, studying how youth aim to overcome a ‘survival mode’ of problem
handling and harness actively opportunities in an ultimate pursuit of happiness. The
project studies how young themselves perceives their wellbeing and how authorities,
civil society and (industrial) companies provide conditions for it. The project aims
to contribute to a broader theory of viable Arctic communities combining approaches
from the different disciplines of anthropology, legal studies, geography and
political economy.

– In Finland the research will be conducted in
Kemijärvi, Kolari and Pyhäjoki. In these places young people will actively be
involved in the research process, says Project Leader, research professor Florian
Stammler from the Arctic Centre.

The project is part of bigger
international project consortium which other partners come from the University of
Helsinki, North Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk and Petrozavodsk State
University. In Finland the project is led by professor Florian Stammler from the
Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and partner in the University of Helsinki
is professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen. The budget for the project in Finland, funded by
the Academy of Finland, is 523 250 euros and Arctic Centre’s part is 304 089 euros.
Researchers at the Arctic Centre are senior researcher Tanja Joona and PhD student
Lukas Allemann. The length of the project is 1 January 2018 – 31 December
2020.

Further
information:

Research Professor Florian Stammler,
Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland
+358 400 138 807,
florian.stammler(at)ulapland.fi

A project website will be
launched at www.arcticcentre.org/youthwellbeing,
and updates will be published at https://arcticanthropology.org, as well as
through twitter at @arcticanthro #youthwell


Photo (Florian Stammler): Young people playing in
Novyi Urengoy in Russia which is one of the places where the research will be
conducted.

LaY/AK/JW