AAS – Working Group Arctic and Subarctic

Call for Contributions (to an edited volume):

Working title: “More than ‘Nature’: Research on Infrastructure and Settlements in the North”

The Working Group Arctic and Subarctic in Vienna invites scholars to contribute to an edited volume to be published in the fall of 2020. While the Arctic seems inevitably linked to pristine wilderness, climate change, and endangered animal species in popular imagination, the presence of villages, towns and cities, and the infrastructures they rely on, have largely been overlooked and underrepresented. One could argue that, historically, the extraction of resources and their transportation from the North have been prime reasons for the development of infrastructure and the establishment of settlements in the Arctic and Subarctic. In addition to purely economic motivations, ideological, military, political and strategic considerations have played and continue to play important roles.

The aim of this book is to showcase contemporary research about Northern towns and Arctic and Subarctic infrastructures, as well as related aspects and phenomena, mainly from a social science perspective.

The themes and topics of the contributions include but are not limited to:
• Arctic infrastructure
• Living conditions in the Arctic
• Research methods
• Urban-rural relations
• Center-periphery relations
• City life
• Urbanity

We invite contributions from the following disciplines, among others:
• Urban Studies
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• History
• Northern Studies
• Geography
• Sociology

Interested scholars are encouraged to send an abstract of 200–300 words to the editors by May 15, 2019. Invitations to contribute will be made by June 30, 2019. The deadline for the submission of the article will be October 30, 2019. Peer-review feedback will be sent by February 15, 2020. Submission of the revised articles is due May 15, 2020.

Editors: Working Group Arctic and Subarctic (Doris Friedrich, Markus Hirnsperger, Stefan Bauer)
E-mail: book@sub-arctic.ac.at, Website: www.sub-arctic.ac.at/book

Fundraising für Buchprojekt zu Grönland

Buch Grönland (Flyer)

Join APECS Austria!

APECS Austria is founded

A.A.S. members Sigrid Schiesser, Elisabeth Öfner, Elena Nuykina and Gerti Eilmsteiner-Saxinger are already members of APECS international.

Dear Polar Early Career Scientists!

In the framework of the last Austrian Polar Research Institute (APRI) annual meeting, an APECS Austria initiative was born. If you don’t know, APECS stands for Association of Polar Early Career scientists. It was started during the last International Polar Year and is since the beginning a very active, internationally well regarded union. On the homepage (www.apecs.is) you can find more about APECS activities.
Through the years, a bunch of APECS national committees (NCs) formed, to bring together all the young polar scientists of different fields of one country. Every NC has to define its individual foci (e.g., outreach or the organization of workshops), depending on the needs and wishes of its members. APECS Austria will be closely related to APRI.

The first step for APECS Austria is to recruit a large enough group of motivated people who are interested. Currently, we are a small group of active members that are starting up all this. However, we want to emphasize that there are various ways of being engaged as a member: There is the opportunity to be actively involved at an organizational level. But a general interest, such as participation in workshops and other activities, is also more than welcome!

The APECS membership, hence the APECS Austria membership is for free!
We invite all undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, early faculty members, educators and others with interests in Polar Regions and the wider cryosphere to become members of our National Committee! We also encourage already established scientists to join APECS as mentors.
At the end, to help us form an APECS Austria that is adapted to the interests of you as members we ask you to have a look at our online survey – just takes a few seconds. Go to survey link
APECS Austria will be a nice way to get to know all the polar related scientists of all the different fields, from natural to social sciences, of Austria, but also from all over the planet. Would be nice if we get the thing going!

Best regards,
The APECS Austria founding team

Daniel Binder daniel.binder@zamg.ac.at
Elin Högström Elin.Hoegstroem@geo.tuwien.ac.at
Sigrid Schiesser sigrid.schiesser@univie.ac.at
Birgit Wild birgit.wild@univie.ac.at
Mounir Takriti mounir.takriti@gmx.net
Barbara Widhalm barbarawidhalm@tuwien.ac.at

International Polar Year 2007—2009

The International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have devoted the period from 1st March 2007 until 1st March 2009 to the polar regions of the world. Arctic and Antarctic are in focus of a comprehensive scientific programme, which even stretches over two years this time – to give scientists the opportunity to conduct research in all seasons of the year on the northern and southern hemisphere.

The International Polar Year is the forth broad event concerning the Polar Regions, after the first International Polar Year 1882/83 followed by the second one in 1932/33 and the International Geophysical Year 1957/58. Scientists from all over the world are involved in more than 200 interdisciplinary scientific programmes, particularly concerning climate research, physics and biology. But also cultural and social topics are addressed.

The International Polar Year motivated us to organize a lecture at the University of Vienna, public photo exhibitions, talks and discussions to inform and make people aware of arctic concerns.

The arctic regions include areas above the arctic circles and are home to over one million people. Despite their marginal position, the Polar Regions play in important global role considering the complex correlation between the climate and the marine ecosystem.

Alongside scientific research, expeditions and observation programmes in the Polar Regions, also the general public should be addressed and involved in activities around the International Polar Year. Lectures, conferences, or educational programmes inform about the Arctic and Antarctic, about land, ocean, ice and people.

Links:

official website dedicated to the Int. Polar Year 2007: http://www.ipy.org

Other relevant links to the history of the IPY:
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/aro/ipy-1/History.htm