August 20-21, 2015, Pyhätunturi, Finland

Updated call for papers

The fifth annual Northern Political Economy symposium discusses studies on social
changes in Arctic research. Much of the current Arctic studies aims at
explaining and understanding change in the Arctic. These changes are a
combination of complex, often interrelated environmental, social, cultural,
economic and political transformations and efforts to tackle and adapt to them.
However, these studies seem to grasp only partially multiple political aspects
related to this change and thus, are left unproblematized. The symposium
welcomes contributions to discuss the politics of the “social”, as elusive and
problematic it is, in the Arctic, for example, struggles over subjectivities and
agencies, community viability, participation, resilience and performativity –
and different ways to capture them through conceptual and theoretical
development, methodological innovations and presentation of case studies.

Key note speakers

There will be two key note speakers in the symposium this year.

A
key note speaker of the symposium is Frank Sejersen from
University of Copenhagen. Frank Sejersen is an associate professor at Eskimology
and Arctic Studies Section, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies,
where he has been pursuing research in the Arctic in general and in Greenland in
particular, since 1994. The principal areas of research are environmental
governance, resource use, self-determination policies, climate change, local
knowledge, as well as cultural, economic and societal changes.

His
new book “Rethinking Greenland and the Arctic in the Era of Climate Change. New
Northern Horizons” investigates how Arctic indigenous communities deal with the
challenges of climate change and how they strive to develop self-determination.
Adopting an anthropological focus on Greenland’s vision to boost extractive
industries and transform society, the book examines how indigenous communities
engage with climate change and development discourses. It applies a critical and
comparative approach, integrating both local perspectives and adaptation
research from Canada and Greenland to make the case for recasting the way the
Arctic and Inuit are approached conceptually and politically. The emphasis on
indigenous peoples as future-makers and right-holders paves the way for a new
understanding of the concept of indigenous knowledge and a more sensitive
appreciation of predicaments and dynamics in the Arctic.

Prof.
Mitchell Dean’s (Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy,
Copenhagen Business School) areas of speciality include political and historical
sociology, social and political thought, particularly in respect of power, and
governing in liberal democracies, starting with the government of poverty. More
recently he has emphasized problems of sovereignty, and related issues of
security, exception and legitimate violence, liberalism authoritarianism,
international police and problems of the international order. In addition to
Michel Foucault’s work, prof. Dean’s research has been influenced by the works
of Giorgio Agamben, Carl Schmitt, and numerous other social and political
thinkers. Mitchell Dean’s latest book The Signature of Power (Sage 2014) is a
study of power. The book combines an extraordinary breadth of perspective with
pinpoint accuracy about what power means for us today. It provides readings of
the main approaches in the field and builds on this to reframe the concept of
power. The book throws new light onto the importance of biopolitics, sovereignty
and governmentality.

Deadline for proposals

Please send your abstract (max. 250-words) with your name, title, affiliation
and contact information by May 29, 2015 to the symposium organizer by email
(monica.tennberg@ulapland.fi).

More information is available from the Symposium
web page.

Symposium organizer, research professor Monica Tennberg, research professor,
Northern political economy/Sustainable development, Arctic Centre, University of
Lapland (monica.tennberg at ulapland.fi)