The “Arctic Week” is a one-week international conference that provides transdisciplinary approaches to climate and environmental changes in the Arctic. It aims to provide an overview of the different challenges of the Arctic regions, as understood by Arctic peoples and by researchers. In a desire to pursue the interdisciplinary approach to environmental and climate changes initiated at the first edition, combining human and social sciences, environmental sciences, as well as indigenous peoples and international students, a second edition will be host from the 9th to 13rd of December 2019, Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (Paris).
The Arctic (including sub-Arctic) is one of the regions of the world most affected by ongoing and increasing changes. To understand, anticipate and adapt to these environmental, socio-economic, climatic and cultural changes, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches that involve Arctic and non-Arctic actors are necessary. Theidea for the first Arctic Week (2018) was developed by the Arctic Network “Environment and Societies facing Global Issues” of the Observatory of the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (OVSQ/UVSQ) in cooperation with an indigenous reindeer herder and co-researcher who all wanted to bring together social and environmental scientists, Arctic indigenous peoples and students. The Arctic Week 2018 was a great success and we have therefore decided to organise the second Arctic Week in December 2019 with new partners.
Just like in 2018, the idea for the Arctic Week 2019 is to create synergies between social and environmental scientists and between scientists and Arctic indigenous peoples while also engaging students and youth in these projects. It is also very important to hold public events and photograph exhibitions in order to raise public awareness in France about Arctic climate change and biodiversity issues.
The participation of Arctic indigenous peoples from Siberia, Northern Europe, Greenland, Alaska and Canada is crucial for the conference because they are frontline witnesses of the profound effects that global and climate changes have on the environment and they want their knowledge and observations to be heard. Climate change has reached a crescendo in Siberia from 2005, as observed by both climatologists and Arctic indigenous peoples. Several scientific projects in the Arctic have proven the valuable input of indigenous knowledge systems, and the latter should be fully involved in and recognised by the scientific community.
The participation of students – as future direct or indirect actors in the Arctic (early career scientists, economic agents or policy-makers) – is central for the preparation and organization of the Arctic Week. It is crucial to convince the students of the importance of the Arctic on international environmental, economic, social and cultural levels, and also to heavily engage them with transdisciplinarity and indigenous knowledge as means for improving sustainability and adaptive practices related to climate change and biodiversity.
Extended deadline for proposals is 15 October 2019.
See here full call for proposals: https://www.uarctic.org/media/1599860/arctic-week-2019-call-for-proposals-1.pdf