The new three-year research project will analyze the attractiveness of Arctic industrial cities in Finland and Russia as places to live and work. The project focuses especially on the determinants of youth wellbeing. The Finnish part of the project is hosted by the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and funded by the Academy of Finland.
The future and sustainability of Arctic city-communities depends on how the young generation sees prospects for their own personal development there. This project looks at youth coping strategies and beyond, studying how youth aim to overcome a 'survival mode' of problem handling and harness actively opportunities in an ultimate pursuit of happiness. The project studies how young themselves perceives their wellbeing and how authorities, civil society and (industrial) companies provide conditions for it. The project aims to contribute to a broader theory of viable Arctic communities combining approaches from the different disciplines of anthropology, legal studies, geography and political economy.
– In Finland the research will be conducted in Kemijärvi, Kolari and Pyhäjoki. In these places young people will actively be involved in the research process, says Project Leader, research professor Florian Stammler from the Arctic Centre.
The project is part of bigger international project consortium which other partners come from the University of Helsinki, North Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk and Petrozavodsk State University. In Finland the project is led by professor Florian Stammler from the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and partner in the University of Helsinki is professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen. The budget for the project in Finland, funded by the Academy of Finland, is 523 250 euros and Arctic Centre’s part is 304 089 euros. Researchers at the Arctic Centre are senior researcher Tanja Joona and PhD student Lukas Allemann. The length of the project is 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2020.
Further information:
Research Professor Florian Stammler, Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland
+358 400 138 807, florian.stammler(at)ulapland.fi
A project website will be launched at www.arcticcentre.org/youthwellbeing, and updates will be published at https://arcticanthropology.org, as well as through twitter at @arcticanthro #youthwell
Photo (Florian Stammler): Young people playing in Novyi Urengoy in Russia which is one of the places where the research will be conducted.
LaY/AK/JW