Updated call for papers

The fifth annual Northern Political Economy symposium discusses studies on social changes in Arctic research. Much of the current Arctic studies aims at explaining and understanding change in the Arctic. These changes are a combination of complex, often interrelated environmental, social, cultural, economic and political transformations and efforts to tackle and adapt to them. However, these studies seem to grasp only partially multiple political aspects related to this change and thus, are left unproblematized. The symposium welcomes contributions to discuss the politics of the “social”, as elusive and problematic it is, in the Arctic, for example, struggles over subjectivities and agencies, community viability, participation, resilience and performativity – and different ways to capture them through conceptual and theoretical development, methodological innovations and presentation of case studies.

Key note speakers

There will be two key note speakers in the symposium this year.

A key note speaker of the symposium is Frank Sejersen from University of Copenhagen. Frank Sejersen is an associate professor at Eskimology and Arctic Studies Section, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, where he has been pursuing research in the Arctic in general and in Greenland in particular, since 1994. The principal areas of research are environmental governance, resource use, self-determination policies, climate change, local knowledge, as well as cultural, economic and societal changes.

His new book “Rethinking Greenland and the Arctic in the Era of Climate Change. New Northern Horizons” investigates how Arctic indigenous communities deal with the challenges of climate change and how they strive to develop self-determination. Adopting an anthropological focus on Greenland's vision to boost extractive industries and transform society, the book examines how indigenous communities engage with climate change and development discourses. It applies a critical and comparative approach, integrating both local perspectives and adaptation research from Canada and Greenland to make the case for recasting the way the Arctic and Inuit are approached conceptually and politically. The emphasis on indigenous peoples as future-makers and right-holders paves the way for a new understanding of the concept of indigenous knowledge and a more sensitive appreciation of predicaments and dynamics in the Arctic.


Prof. Mitchell Dean’s (Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School) areas of speciality include political and historical sociology, social and political thought, particularly in respect of power, and governing in liberal democracies, starting with the government of poverty. More recently he has emphasized problems of sovereignty, and related issues of security, exception and legitimate violence, liberalism authoritarianism, international police and problems of the international order. In addition to Michel Foucault’s work, prof. Dean’s research has been influenced by the works of Giorgio Agamben, Carl Schmitt, and numerous other social and political thinkers. Mitchell Dean’s latest book The Signature of Power (Sage 2014) is a study of power. The book combines an extraordinary breadth of perspective with pinpoint accuracy about what power means for us today. It provides readings of the main approaches in the field and builds on this to reframe the concept of power. The book throws new light onto the importance of biopolitics, sovereignty and governmentality.

Deadline for proposals

Please send your abstract (max. 250-words) with your name, title, affiliation and contact information by May 29, 2015 to the symposium organizer by email (monica.tennberg@ulapland.fi).

More information is available from the Symposium web page.

Symposium organizer, research professor Monica Tennberg, research professor, Northern political economy/Sustainable development, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland (monica.tennberg at ulapland.fi)