Suchergebnisse

This article analyzes ethnographic data that shows long-term militarization forms a significant part of state governance of the population and environment in the Arctic. Kola Peninsula, the study region, is a borderland with the West and has since the 1950s been a heavily militarized area. Applying insights from research on militarization, subjectivities, materiality, borders, and regionalism in autocratic regimes, I show how militarization shapes the environment and the lives of Indigenous reindeer herders. Despite discourses of demilitarization in the 1990s, Kola Peninsula did not move away from militarization as part of governance. The article explores what I call <em>continuous militarization </em>by engaging with two phenomena: (a) fencing off territories for military use and infrastructure, and (b) nuclear pollution. It discusses the interrelations of materiality and knowledge in maintaining Indigenous subjectivities and culture in line with the objectives of militarization, and shows how Russia uses participation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region to support the objectives of militarization and justify them to the local population. The article finds that militarization is employed by the authorities to solidify the current autocratic regime among residents in the Arctic.

Abstract The global drive for a greener economy generates controversy in Russia, a country that is dependent on export of raw mineral resources. Debates are most heated in relation to the North, where resource extraction takes place. In an environment of high unemployment and low income ecological issues are priority for a few environmentalists. Russian politicians, who support the green economy in international fora, instead emphasize economic development at home and show little interest in environmental protection. This article focuses on the controversies over policies from the perspective of environmentalists and members of local communities in Murmansk Region who are struggling to establish a national park in the Khibiny Mountains. The initiative has been presented by some environmentalists as a contribution to the green economy, but it also demonstrates mechanisms of nature governance in Russia, as well as the limited possibilities for bottom-up participation of NGOs, scholars, and the indigenous community. The article also situates the green economy in Russia within critical analysis of the global green economy, which reveals common trends and problems. Russia replicates the common overemphasis on economic development and commoditization of nature rather than radical reformation of nature's value and use. Key words: Green Economy, Russia, Nature Conservation, Arctic, Indigenous Sami, Murmansk Region

Abstract The global drive for a greener economy generates controversy in Russia, a country that is dependent on export of raw mineral resources. Debates are most heated in relation to the North, where resource extraction takes place. In an environment of high unemployment and low income ecological issues are priority for a few environmentalists. Russian politicians, who support the green economy in international fora, instead emphasize economic development at home and show little interest in environmental protection. This article focuses on the controversies over policies from the perspective of environmentalists and members of local communities in Murmansk Region who are struggling to establish a national park in the Khibiny Mountains. The initiative has been presented by some environmentalists as a contribution to the green economy, but it also demonstrates mechanisms of nature governance in Russia, as well as the limited possibilities for bottom-up participation of NGOs, scholars, and the indigenous community. The article also situates the green economy in Russia within critical analysis of the global green economy, which reveals common trends and problems. Russia replicates the common overemphasis on economic development and commoditization of nature rather than radical reformation of nature's value and use. Key words: Green Economy, Russia, Nature Conservation, Arctic, Indigenous Sami, Murmansk Region

Notwithstanding the gradual intensification of contacts across the different parts of the circumpolar North, research on gender in the Arctic is still a fragmented field – not the least because of language barriers. The four cases presented here, all from the Far North of Russia, are intended to complement research on gender in North America and the Nordic countries. We also hope they will encourage wider use of feminist approaches in geography and social sciences. After a first overview of how gender emerged as a topic of study in the circumpolar North, the introduction will focus on gender-specific forms of mobility and immobility. Next, gender will be discussed in relation to identity and intersectionality under colonial and post-colonial conditions. Thereafter, Feminist Political Ecology and other theoretical directions are portrayed as theoretical approaches to studying gendered economies. Such contextualization of the study of gender in the Arctic prepares the ground for short summaries of the four papers in this special issue, to be concluded by a brief statement about future directions of research. Particularly the concept of intersectionality is favored as a useful basis for examining gender, indigeneity, and economic differences.

Chapter 1: Post-Soviet Women: New Challenges and Ways to Empowerment - Introduction -- Part I: Women's positions in the Post-Soviet Societies -- Chapter 2: From defending women's rights in the "whole world" to silence about Russia's predatory war? The (geo)politics of the Eurasian Women's Forums in the context of "traditional values" -- Chapter 3: Debates around domestic violence prevention law in Russia - pro and contra -- Chapter 4: The Private Remains Non-Political: Gender Equality in a Non-Western Context: The Example of Armenia -- Chapter 5: General Trends in Gender Inequality in Post –Soviet Central Asia -- Chapter 6: Women's rights in Central Asian countries in the grip of retraditionalization and neoliberal capitalism -- Chapter 7: Why was there no FEMEN in the Baltic states? Some preliminary observations Matthew Kott -- Part II: Negotiating Women's Roles -- Chapter 8: Being a Woman and Russian National Identity: Discourses and Representations through the Lenses of Russian Conservative and Nationalist Organizations -- Chapter 9: Female parliamentarians in Armenia: from traditional theme-takers to the new theme-givers -- Chapter 10: Valkyries & Madonnas: Constructing femininity during the Russo-Ukrainian War -- Chapter 11: Women cultivating love in the Belarusian countryside -- Part III: Women's Agency, New Movements and Activisms -- Chapter 12: They beat us, we fly.' Indigenous Activism among Women in the Russian North -- Chapter 13: Women's Activism in Ukraine: Artistic Method in Early Civic Documentations of the Ukraine-Russia War -- Chapter 14: Generations of Feminist Translations: Connecting Russophone Academic and Activist Feminist Translation Debates across the 2000s and 2010s -- Chapter 15: Balancing between global trends: what happens with women empowerment in Azerbaijan?. Chapter 16: Women's Responses to the Conservative Wave in Russian Social Policy.