Toward a Comparative Ethnography of Arctic Seaports Projects

Local Impacts of Expanding Maritime Infrastructure in Alaska, Norway, and Russia

Bibliographic Data

ID7473528
AuthorsOlga Povoroznyuk (0000-0002-9359-0729, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna and Austrian Polar Research Institute (APRI), Vienna, Austria, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume55
Issue1
Pages86-109
Publication date2026-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/08912416251398479
OpenAlexW4417033152
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited23

My comparative ethnography focuses on suspended seaport expansion projects in three Arctic coastal communities: Nome (USA), Kirkenes (Norway), and Tiksi (Russia). All three projects are driven by similar development promises and geopolitcal threats, enacting divergent national interests and producing diverse local impacts. While Nome and Kirkenes pursue commercial and tourism-oriented futures, Tiksi remains shaped by military and state-centric imperatives. Across cases, Indigenous and local perspectives reveal tensions between global infrastructure promises, national interests, and lived experiences of marginalization, cultural disruption, and environmental risk. The study conceptualizes infrastructure as a political and social process, arguing that suspended projects continue to generate emotional engagement and social mobilization. On a methodological level, it underscores the value of comparative ethnography and infrastructuring across scales for critical inquiry into local disengagement and disempowerment produced by the globalizing maritime infrastructure

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