Introduction: feminist approaches and the study of gender in Arctic social sciences

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• indigeneity
• intersectionality
• feminist approaches in geography and anthropology

Acknowledgements

Our gratitude goes first and foremost to the inhabitants of several communities across the North that met us with generosity, introduced us to their everyday lives, shared their concerns, expectations and ambitions, and discussed with us their views on gender-related issues. Debates with colleagues working in different social sciences and humanities added multiple facets. Many of them participated in one or several of the workshops mentioned above. We would like to thank Hugh Beach, Stephan Dudeck, Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Yulian Konstantinov, Petia Mankova, Olga Povoroznyuk, Gertrude Saxinger, and Virginie Vaté for many years of cooperation and their commitment as workshop/conference co-conveners. Finally, we would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, and Jessica Graybill and Tim Heleniak for making this special issue possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Vladislava Vladimirova http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2594-9912

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful to the Research Council of Norway, the International Arctic Science Committee, Tromsø Research Foundation, the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies (KVINNFORSK) at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Uppsala University, the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), the Riksbanken Jubileumsfond, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for their financial and moral support.