My resarch has taken quite a close, critical eye to environmental decision making in the recent past in Svalbard. Now a new consultation has opened up, the Governor’s office are requesting inputs into the latest area in Svalbard to have an environmental management plan devised – cental Spitsbergen. This area includes the areas in the… Read More
Throughout my PhD I found that making contacts with colleagues also working the Polar Regions was extremely helpful. Some of the positives were practical: advice and help with logistics and access to field sites, discovering useful existing research or providing key cultural contexts to my findings. There was also a pastoral element to this as… Read More
My first full day in Longyearbyen yesterday was a jam packed one. First up was a meeting with a fellow social scientist, Dina, with similar interests as myself and who is connecting the growing group of us working in Svalbard, which is a great new development! Next a trip to the library, which since my… Read More
The flights are booked, the diary is filling up. After 4 years, it is time to return to the scene. Next week, 31st January, I begin a 3 week re-visit to Svalbard. One of the goals of the Svalbard Futures project is to share the findings from my PhD research and to talk through how… Read More
It’s been quiet on the blog since I returned from Svalbard in February. I have been head down, trying to write chunks of thesis. However, at the moment I am employing the ‘change is as good as a rest’ strategy: The Wales DTC of the ESRC has kindly supported me in paying a visit to… Read More
“Ruins challenge us to make sense of them, as they frame emptiness and dramatize the evanescence of meaning…we need to make them speak and militate for our theories” Schönle, A. (2006 p. 652) Whilst the fascination with ruins in academia and beyond can be questioned for it’s potential for nostalgic views on troubled pasts through… Read More
Though science might take front and centre stage quite often in Svalbard, art certainly plays some interesting roles up here. There are long-standing artists residency programmes (for both Longyearbyen and Ny Alesund) and expedition trips (like The Arctic Circle or Cape Farewell) specifically for artists and art-science collaborations, which have attracted many to these shores,… Read More
Since I just received a weather warning for Aberystwyth, (looks like it’s storms and hide tide time again, brace yourselves those at home!) this post I wrote earlier seems all the more apt. After Monday’s wet and mild weather things have been getting steadily colder and we’ve had a bit of snow fall, it all… Read More
For once, I’m not talking about environmental regulations, though I very well could be, given the multitude of boundaries lurking on the map, but not visible in the landscape, but that’s another story… No, today I stepped over a fear and re-arranged my own values in doing so. To most people it would look like… Read More
Ice spike boot attachments: a fiver well spent! I never thought I’d say that kind of phrase! After the -23 clear skies of Saturday, the blizzard and white out yesterday. Today, we have a new challenge: standing upright and going in the direction intended. It’s warmer here than in Oslo at +3 degrees, and raining.… Read More
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