It was probably a matter of time, but I thought until today ‘how great that the tundra is still free of infections’. The reindeer herders strategy of avoiding dangerous places had worked pretty well since March. Using flexibly nomadic movements to avoid dangerous places has been a strategy among the Nenets for centuries, which has worked well to mitigate impacts of all kinds of diseases and disasters of any sort. But now apparently some student brought the virus in, from a dormitory. The person travelled on a helicopter that was bringing Nenets students back to their home nomadic camps for the summer holiday. This means that the other almost 20 passengers of that helicopter have also been in contact.
Continue reading “Covid-19 arrived in the Yamal tundra”Category: youth wellbeing
Arctic Security and Anthropology
Our colleagues Gunhild Hoogensen Gjorv with Marc Lanteigne launched the Routledge Handbook of Arctic Security, of which they are the main editors, and where there are some chapters relevant for (and co-authored by) us. Gunhild said that the starting point for their approach to security is much broader than just hard dominant state approaches to security, focusing on security that matters to people on the ground. The basics is that feeling secure is first and foremost being free from worry. I think in this definition security as a concept is related pretty closely to well-being, another of our focuses. It would be interesting to explore the connections between the two more explicitly. The book has 42 authors, of which seven were at the launch during the Arctic Frontiers conference 2020 in Tromso. The contributions cover the whole range of security issues connected to the Arctic Council, communities and extractive industries, indigenous theoretical approaches to security, legal reform and security in Russia, and in all other Arctic countries, energy security, peace, and many other relevant topics.
1st December: “World Aids Day” Всемирный день борьбы со СПИДом – ВИЧ и коренные народы Севера в России HIV and indigenous peoples in Russia
(English version see bеlow, after the end of the Russian text)
В связи с этой датой хотелось бы обратить внимание на один аспект эпидемии ВИЧ-инфекции в России, который еще недостаточно изучен и мало известен широкой общественности. Я и сам относительно недавно узнал о нем.
Как показывают исследования у коренного населения Севера риск заразиться ВИЧ выше, чем у остальных жителей России (см. Буторов 2018, Волова и Родиниа 2016, 2014 Истомин и Мефодьев 2015). Эта инфекция в России встречается гораздо чаще, чем в странах Европы, а среди коренного населения Ямало-Ненецкого и Ханты-Мансийского округов ВИЧ распространяется еще быстрее. Continue reading “1st December: “World Aids Day” Всемирный день борьбы со СПИДом – ВИЧ и коренные народы Севера в России HIV and indigenous peoples in Russia”
Is there something “Arctic” to youth well-being in northern settlements?
This was one of the guiding topics discussed at the session hosted by our WOLLIE project during the Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit conference 2019. On the one hand, the session served as a meeting spot for all the project members, to introduce their preliminary results to a broader audience. On the other hand, we engaged more broadly with concepts and debates in Arctic youth research.
Continue reading “Is there something “Arctic” to youth well-being in northern settlements?”
We don’t survive – we live here!
These were the introductory words of Alexandr Ivanov, the head of the Olenek district in Yakutia, in his discussion during our session on indigenous people’s territorial governance under industrial development at the Northern Forum for sustainable development in Yakutsk, 25 – 26 September 2019 (full session programme).
He thought it is useful to remind researchers from any field and country that there is a tendency in scholarship to portray indigenous life in the Russian Arctic as a struggle for survival, rather than a quest for harnessing opportunities, achieve well-being and happiness, and just living at home. This stems from the old idea that the Arctic is a resource frontier with a tough climate rather than home for people. Social scientists doing Arctic Studies have acknowledged this long ago, and published on it before. Continue reading “We don’t survive – we live here!”
Arctic youth well-being reserach project WOLLIE goes to Kola Peninsula
Last week, the mid-term meeting of our research project on youth in Arctic industrial settlements (WOLLIE) took place in Kirovsk and Revda, two mono-industrial cities in the Murmansk Region, North-West Russia. While discussing our project goals and achievements so far, we also visited several places. Being highly industrialised, densely populated and relatively compact, the Murmansk Region showcases the huge diversity of mono-industrial settings in the Arctic.
Single-industry towns are widespread all over the Arctic. What can they offer to their young generation inhabitants? Why do young people want to leave, or to stay? What can be done to make them stay, or return? These are the main questions that WOLLIE is trying to answer. Continue reading “Arctic youth well-being reserach project WOLLIE goes to Kola Peninsula”
Does anthropology need to engage with well-being as a concept?
This is the topic of our next reading circle discussion, to which you are all welcome, 23 April 2019, 13-14.30. We first meet in Florian’s office on the top floor or Arktikum, Rovaniemi, and if we are more people than fit there, we go to a bigger room. The reading for the discussion is Thin2009_Colby2009_well-being_anthro Thin, Neil 2009. Why anthropology can ill afford to ignore well-being. Chapter 1 in Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective, ed by Gordon Mathews, Carolina Izquierdo. Oxford, New York: Berghahn books, pp. 23-44.
Cookies and tea will be served:)
You can also look this up at the ‘lectures and events, Rovaniemi’ page of this blog.
Arctic Youth well-being project participating in circumpolar comparison
The team of the joint Finnish-Russian project studying well-being among youth in Arctic
industrial cities (WOLLIE) was invited to participate in the circumpolar study on Arctic Youth and sustainable futures, headed Joan Nymard Larsen, and the Arctic Human Development Report and Arctic Social Indicators editors team. At a meeting in Stockholm in the beautiful building of Nordregio, we talked among 17 Arctic social scientists about the determinants for well-being among youth in the Arctic. Continue reading “Arctic Youth well-being project participating in circumpolar comparison”
Do young people need their own law?
Our new Finnish-Russian co-financed research project “Live, Work or Leave? ” looks at young people’s understanding of wellbeing compared between Finland and Russia. So far one of the differences between the two countries was that in Finland there is a law on young people (nuorisolaki), in force since January 2017. In Russia so far there are youth policy programmes on different levels. This may change in 2018, as the Russian Federal parliament discusses the adoption of such a law. However, so far the Russian government is opposed to such a law. The main problem that this law should solve is a problem of definition: in Russia there is no law defining who counts as “youth”, what is the object of youth policy, what is a young family, what is a youth organisation. In our project we shall keep track and find out the fate of this law project. Most importantly, we will find out what are the conditions that young people would like to have for feeling well in Arctic industrial cities. On top of that, we hope that we can compare Finnish and Russian youth policies in its specific implementation in Arctic industrial cities.
