Peter Schweitzer

© Margit Schmid

The Far North increasingly becomes a residence for groups of people who do not live there permanently, such as shift workers, tourists or military personnel. Over the next five years, cultural and social anthropologist Peter Schweitzer will investigate the existing and planned transport infrastructure in the Arctic. He examines whether this infrastructure facilitates the sustainable and satisfactory settlement of humans in the Far North or will, instead, lead to increased migration from the region. Using a mixed-methods approach, a team of anthropologists and geographers will make a series of case studies in the North of Russia, North America and Fennoscandia. They are aimed at investigating the material and immaterial ties between the local population and the transport infrastructure. The collected data will then be used to develop locally relevant narratives and options for decision-making in the form of interactive future scenarios.