29 March 2026 | 09:00 - 12:00 CET
Open Session - HYBRID
Room: Richard Mortensenstuen
Organiser: Monika Szkarłat Maria Curie-Sklodowska University (Poland); Holger Straßheim Bielefeld University (Germany)
Session Description:
Polar expertise is in transition, shaped by geopolitical rivalry, rapid technological advances, ‘wicked’ political challenges and changing societal expectations of science. In the Arctic and Antarctic, expertise has long been central to governance, cooperation, and diplomacy, but its definition and authority are now being renegotiated. Technological change—especially the rise of artificial intelligence and large language models—challenges established notions of who qualifies as an expert and how knowledge is produced, validated, and trusted. At the same time, the inclusion of diverse actors, from Indigenous knowledge holders to private-sector innovators, is broadening but also complicating polar epistemic communities. In areas of overlapping policies such as global public health, biodiversity or food sovereignty, actors from science, policy and society are confronted with complex governance constellations and knowledge gaps. The need for more human and environmental links at the nexus between policies as well as governance levels is putting pressure on the existing ecosystems of expertise.
From an international relations perspective, growing geopolitical tensions and the securitization of the Polar Regions risk diminishing the prominence of environmental and climate concerns in favor of hard security agendas. Expertise, once mobilized primarily for evidence-based policymaking and environmental stewardship, is increasingly instrumentalized as a strategic resource in state competition, infrastructure development, and presence-building. From a sociological perspective, these shifts raise questions about epistemic authority, legitimacy, and the evolving role of experts in societies where technological mediation and political priorities are in flux. With the initiation and implementation of IPY-5 initiatives ahead, working across diverse knowledge systems and finding ways of co-producing transdisciplinary research is an imminent task.
This session invites discussion on how polar expertise is being redefined under conditions of geopolitical rivalry, securitization, and technological disruption, and what these transformations mean for the future of science-policy interfaces and governance in the Polar Regions. We are inviting contributions on both good practices and analytic perspectives focusing on the following and related key questions:
- How are polar experts and advisors dealing with multiple challenges and societal expectations? What are the central problems and knowledge gaps when organizing polar expertise and developing Arctic as well as Antarctic policy coherence?
- Which modes of governance networks and knowledge translation between Indigenous Peoples and experts, local leaders, early career and community researchers, activists and policymakers can we observe? How is the polar ecosystem of expertise changing and what are the consequences?
- What could transformative polar expertise look like? What are promising practices of shaping knowledge translation, connecting communities and engaging with regional and global efforts?
The session is organized in close collaboration with members of the Social and Human Sciences Working Group (SHWG).