20 February 2023 | 12:30 - 14:00 (GMT+1): Closed Session / By Invitation Only (Poster Session and Networking Lunch) - IN-PERSON
20 February 2023 | 14:00 - 18:00 (GMT+1): Open Session - HYBRID
Room: Hörsaal 3
Session Conveners: Olga Povoroznyuk (University of Vienna, Austria) and Howard Epstein (University of Virginia, USA)
Session Description:
The workshop will be devoted to the multidisciplinary and collaborative study of the environmental, technological, and societal impacts of infrastructure. Acknowledging that industrial, urban, transport, and other infrastructures are an integral part of development in the Arctic, the workshop will focus on questions of their sustainability under conditions of remoteness, resource extraction, and environmental change in the Arctic. This event will: 1. bring together natural and social scientists, engineers, and Arctic residents; 2. explore local perspectives on infrastructural development; 3. serve as a forum for sharing best practices of collaboration among Indigenous and local communities, industry representatives, and scientists.
As the proposed activity is an outcome of the “Rapid Arctic Transitions due to Infrastructure and Climate” (RATIC) initiative, a final dimension of the workshop is to start a discussion about the future of RATIC. As we are approaching ICARP IV, the multidisciplinary and multidimensional treatment of infrastructure has not lost its relevance. On the contrary, an increasing number of Arctic research projects and initiatives is addressing infrastructure in one way or another. While this new-found attention can be seen as a success of RATIC, it also signals that it is time to recalibrate its mission.