Arctic politics and governance in times of global interests and challenges.

The Arctic has been part of Western international political and economic systems for centuries despite being a remote and difficult accessible periphery. As a reflection of globalization, the Arctic is today attracting global interest while climate change and melting sea ice are opening up for different kinds of actors and activities. The Arctic has witnessed tensions and co-operations between states bordering the Arctic (the Nordic countries, Russia, Canada and the US) and indigenous peoples (Inuit, Sami and other peoples). Arctic societies are predominantly based on natural resources - such as fisheries, mining, and energy - and developing these resources entail substantial risks. Sub-state jurisdictions have existed for some time and some of these are claiming more self-determination, sovereignty and even statehood. Global interests in the Arctic include non-Arctic states and NGOs from Europe, Asia and elsewhere with ambitions to participate in the activities of the Arctic Council. We invite both conceptual, theoretical and empirical papers and a diversified group of participants in terms of gender, seniority and geography to discuss these and other issues related to nation building, state formation, economic and social developments, including trade and tourism, resource governance, multi-level governance issues, sustainability issues, environmental politics, security issues, risk management, educational capacity building etc. The overall aim is to create a workshop of researchers with different approaches, representing different sub-disciplines, with a common interest in Arctic politics.

Workshop directors:
Uffe Jakobsen (chair), Arctic Politics Research Group, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen (co-chair), Department of Sociology, Political Science and Community Planning, University of Tromsø-The Arctic University of Norway, Postboks 6050, Langnes, NO-9037 Tromsø, Norway, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The deadline for paper proposal is 15 January 2017.

Practical information at the congress website: http://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/i_statskundskab/nopsa2017