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Faculty

Research Group Saxinger

Research Topics

Resource extraction, community–industry relations, human–environment relations, Indigenous studies, solidarity, intersectionality, subsistence, multi-locality, remoteness, mobility, human security, decolonial research methodology and co-creation of knowledge

Research Interests

The overall interest of this research group is socio-economic wellbeing and multi-perspective approaches to resource extraction in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Therefore, the relation of people to their environment (practices, symbolism, ideas) and the past and contemporary interaction between local and Indigenous communities and the extractive industries are in the focus. One key area is long-distance commuting (LDC) or so called fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) work, which is today the prime form of labour organisation in remote mining regions of the world. Other important research fields are regional development of remote places and mono-industrial towns as well as human security in the Arctic.

Indigenous cultural revitalisation, ‘competing’ histories in settler and mining colonial contexts and related perspectives of Indigenous youth in northern Canada as well as entanglements of large-scale oil extraction in Siberia with changing mobility practices for subsistence hunting are the main areas of the PhD students Susanna Gartler and Gertraud Illmeier respectively. Gerti Saxinger’s new focus is on solidarity and social justice discourses around increased mineral extraction in times of the ‘green transition’.

Current and past members of this APRI working group are social anthropologists, political scientists and geographers.

Dr. PD Gertrude Saxinger

Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria
Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern, Switzerland

Short Biography

Team

  • Dr. Emma Wilson, APRI and ECW energy, London. Research in APRI: Mining in Solidarity
  • Susanna Gartler, PhD Student, Dpt. of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Univ. of Vienna. PhD Project: First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun cultural revitalisation and the making of a cultural centre. Projects Nunataryuk and LACE.
  • Sigrid Wentzel, PhD student. Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Uni Vienna. Project: CoRe. Research: Architecture in Sakha/Yakutia.

Former Team Members

  • Miguel Roncero
  • Elisabeth Öfner
  • Tara Cater
  • Linn Sükar Kogler
  • Elena Nuikina
  • Gertraud Illmeier
Team

Dr. Emma Wilson

Short Biography

Team

Susanna Gartler

Short Biography

Team

Mag.a Sigrid Wentzel

Selected Publications

  • Alexis Sancho-Reinoso, Gertrude Saxinger, Christoph Fink, Olga Povoroznyuk, Sigrid Irene Wentzel, Gertraud Illmeier, Peter Schweitzer, Natalia Krasnoshtanova & Vera Kuklina (2022) Mapping hierarchies of mobility in the Baikal Amur Mainline region: a quantitative account of needs and expectations relating to railroad usage, Polar Geography, DOI: 10.1080/1088937X.2022.2046195
  • Degai, Tatiana, Andrey N. Petrov, Renuka Badhe, Parnuna P. Egede Dahl, Nina Döring, Stephan Dudeck, Thora M. Hermann, Andrei Golovnev, Liza Mack, Elle M. Omma, Gunn-Britt Retter, Gertrude Saxinger, Annette J.M. Scheepstra, Chief V. Shadrin, Norma Shorty, and Colleen Strawhacker (2022) “Shaping Arctic’s Tomorrow through Indigenous Knowledge Engagement and Knowledge Co-Production” Sustainability 14, no. 3: 1331. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031331.
  • Gartler, Susanna, Hogan, Joella and Gertrude Saxinger (2022 forthcoming) The Living Culture House. First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun Cultural Revitalization and the Making of A Cultural Centre. AAS Working Group Publication. Lit Verlag: Vienna.
  • Saxinger, Gertrude, Natalia Kransnoshtanova, Gertraud Illmeier (2021) Neglected Transportation Infrastructure. Corporate Social Responsibility and the Russian State in a Small Siberian Oil Town. Sibirica. 20(3). 1-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/sib.2021.200302 (Open Access)
  • Gartler, Susanna, Taiya Melancon and Eileen Peter (2021) Being Young in the Yukon – Youth Perspectives on Extractivism and a good Life. In: Stammler, Florian & Toivanen, Reetta (eds.). Young People, Wellbeing and Placemaking in the Arctic. Routledge Research in Polar Regions Series. Open access at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003110019
  • Holen, Davin and Gartler, Susanna (2021) Interdependency of subsistence and market economies in the Arctic. Subsistence: A Way of Life in the North (Chapter 6). In: The Economy Of The North – Econor 2020.  Solveig Glomsrød, Gérard Duhaime And Iulie Aslaksen (Eds.). Arctic Council Secretariat, pg. 149. Open access at: https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/bitstream/handle/11374/2611/MMIS12_2021_REYKJAVIK_SDWG_Econor.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
  • Larsen, Joan N.; Schweitzer, Peter; Abass, Khaled; Doloisio, Susanna Gartler, Natalia; Ingeman-Nielsen, Thomas; Ingimundarson, Jón H.; Jungsberg, Leneisja; Meyer, Alexandra; Rautio, Arja; Scheer, Johanna; Timlin, Ulla; Vanderlinden, Jean-Paul; Vullierme, Magali (2021) “Thawing Permafrost in Arctic Coastal Communities: A Framework for Studying Risks from Climate Change” Sustainability 13, no. 5: 2651. Open access at: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052651
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2021) “Rootedness along the way: meaningful sociality in petroleum and mining mobile worker camps”. Mobilities, 16(2),194-211 . Open Access DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2021.1885844
  • Gartler, Susanna/Taiya Melancon/Eileen Peter (2021) Indigenous youth perspectives on extractivism and living in a good way in the Yukon. In: Young People, Wellbeing and Placemaking in the Arctic, Stammler, Florian and Reetta Toivanen (eds) London/New York: Routledge. 120 – 143. Open Access https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003110019/young-people-wellbeing-placemaking-arctic-florian-stammler-reetta-toivanen
  • Krasnoshtanova, Natalia/Illmeier, Gertraud/Saxinger, Gertrude (2021) Токма – маленькое село вдали оТ больших дорог (Tokma – small village off the big roads). Irkutsk: Russian Academy of Sciences/V.B Sochava Institute for Geography. pp. 40. Open Access https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/detail/o:1249268
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2021) “Social dimensions of mining in Yukon Territory”. In: The Economy of the North – ECONOR 2020. Glomsrød, S., Duhaime, G. & Aslaksen, I. (eds.). . 116-118. Open Access https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/2611
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2020) “Multilokalität als Normalisierungspraxis und synchrone Raumintegrationsleistung bei Fernpendelnden in der Erdöl- und Erdgasindustrie in Russlands Arktis” (Multilocality as practices of normalisation and synchronic spatial integration among long-distance commuters (FIFO workers) in the Arctic Russian oil and gas industry”. In: Multilokale Lebensführung und räumliche Entwicklungen. Danielzyk, R. (ed). Hannover: ARL Academy for Spatial Research and Planning. 322-328. Open Access https://shop.arl-net.de/multilokale-lebensfuhrungen.html
  • Susanna Gartler/Joella Hogan/Gertrude Saxinger/Elders of the First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun (2019) Dän Hùnày – Our People’s Story. First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun Elders’s Memories and Opinions on Mining. Publishers: First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun/ReSDA/Yukon College. 80pp. Open Access https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/detail/o:1249041
  • Kuklina, Vera/Saxinger, Gertrude/Povoroznyuk, Olga (2019) “Power of Rhythms – Trains and Work along the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) in Siberia”. Polar Geography, 42(1), 18-33 . Open Access DOI: 10.1080/1088937X.2018.1564395
  • Gartler, Susanna, Vera Kuklina and Peter Schweitzer (2019) Sustainable Cultures and Cultural Sustainability. In: Arctic Sustainability: A Synthesis of Knowledge. Petrov, A. & Graybill, J. (eds.). Routledge. Open access at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429277016
  • Gartler, Susanna (2018) One Word, Many Worlds: The Multivocality of “Subsistence”. In: Alaska Journal of Anthropology. Vol. 16/2. Pgs: 49–65.  https://www.alaskaanthropology.org/product/aja-volume-162-2018/
  • Gartler, Susanna and Alexander Meitz (2017) Arctic FROST Young Scholars Panel – Arctic anthropology and sustainability, The Polar Journal, 7:1, 249-250. Open access at: https://doi.org/10.1080/2154896X.2017.1327477
  • Saxinger, G. and  First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (2018) “Community Based Partcipatory Research as a Long-Term Process: Reflexions on Becoming Partners in Understanding Social Dimensions of Mining in the Yukon”, The Northern Review,47: 187–207.
  • “In limbo between state and corporate responsibility: Transport infrastructure in the oil village Verkhnemarkovo, Irkutskaya Oblast in Russia” von Gertrude Saxinger, Natalia Krasnosthanova, Gertraud Illmeier. In: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 190 (2018), 012062. doi :10.1088/1755-1315/190/1/012062, PDF Open Access: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/190/1/012062
  • Cater, Tara (2017)Making Fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) Work: Multiple Temporalities and Social Reproduction in Rankin Inlet, NunavutSociety and Space, web-based article: https://societyandspace.org/2017/11/14/making-fly-in-fly-out-fifo-work-multiple-temporalities-and-social-reproduction-in-rankin-inlet-nunavut/
  • Saxinger, Gertrude/Gartler, Susanna (2017) Mobile Workers Guide – fly-in/fly-out & rotational shift work in mining : Yukon experiences. 64 pp. Open Access https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1248892
  • Öfner, Elisabeth (2017). In den Norden fernpendeln: Arbeitsmobilität im ruralen Baschkortostan, Russische Föderation. Dissertation, Universität Wien
  • Seidl, Gregor/Saxinger, Gertrude (2016). “Hunters and Gatherers in the Industrialised World (Editorial)”. In: Journal für Entwicklungspolitik XXXII (4): 4-16. Open Access https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-32-4-4
  • Hossain, Kamrul/Roncero Martin, J. Miguel/Petrétei, Anna/Holienčin, Filip (2016) Introduction. In: Hussain K. et al. (eds) Indigenous peoples of the North and human security. Leiden: Brill
  • Hossain, Kamrul/Zojer, Gerald/Greaves, Wilfrid/Roncero, J. Miguel/Sheehan, Michael (2016) “Constructing Arctic security: an inter-disciplinary approach to understanding security in the Barents region”. In: Polar Record, 53(1) 1-15.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247416000693
  • Saxinger, G./Öfner, E., Shakirova, E., Ivanova, M., Yakolev, M., Gareyev, E. (2016) Ready to go! The next generation of mobile highly skilled workforce in the Russian petroleum industry. In: The Extractive Industries and Society 3/3: 627-639.
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2016) Unterwegs. Mobiles Leben in der Erdgas- und Erdölindustrie in Russlands Arktis /Мобильный образ жизни вахтовых рабочих нефтегазовой промышленности на Русском Крайнем Севере/Lives on the Move – Long-distance Commuting in the Northern Russian Petroleum Industry. With an extended summary in English and Russian. Wien/Weimar/Köln: Böhlau.  https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/epdf/10.7767/9783205201861
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2016) Lured by oil and gas: Labour mobility, multi-locality and negotiating normality & extreme in the Russian Far North. In: The Extractive Industries and Society3/1: 50-59.
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2016) Infinite Travel: The Impact of Labor Conditions on Mobility Potential in the Northern Russian Petroleum Industry. In: Laruelle, M. (ed.):New Mobilities and Social Changes in Russia’s Arctic Regions.London: Routledge: 85-103.
  • Saxinger, G./Petrov, A./Kuklina, V./Krasnostanova, N./Carson, D.A. (2016) Boom back or blow back? Growth strategies in mono-industrial resource towns – “east” & “west””. In: Taylor, A./Carson, D.B./Ensign, P./Huskey, L./Rasmussen, R./Saxinger, G. (eds.): Settlements at the Edge: Remote human settlements in developed nations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing: 49-74.
  • Taylor, A./Carson, D.B./Ensign, P./Huskey, L./Rasmussen, R./Saxinger, G. (eds.): Settlements at the Edge: Remote human settlements in developed nations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2015) Behind the Scenes in Yukon Mining: Work, camp and family life in Yukon mining today. http://yukonresearch.yukoncollege.yk.ca/resda/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/LACE-folder.pdf, 18/08/2016
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2015)  Glossary. In: Panzer, S. and Simmel, Ch. (eds) Gazprom City. Vienna: Schleebrügge Editors, pp. pp 118-129
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2015) ”To you, to us, to oil and gas” – The symbolic and socio-economic attachment of the workforce to oil, gas and its spaces of extraction in the Yamal-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Districts in Russia. In: Fennia- International Journal of Geography193/1: 83–98.
  • Roncero, Miguel / Gregory Weeks (2015) The Internationalization of Civil Wars: R2P and its implications in a globalized world. In: Viñas, Martin/Puell de la Villa (eds.) La Historia Militar Hoy: Investigaciones y tendencias. Madrid: Instituto Universitario General Gutiérrez Mellado – Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia: 387-415.
  • Saxinger, G., Elisabeth Öfner, Elena Nuikina (forthcoming 2015), Mobil’nost’ I migratsiya iz Recpubliki Bashkortostan v regiony Kraynego Severa Rossii [Mobility and migration from the Republic of Bashkortostan to the Russian North]. In: Rim Valiakhmetova (ed.) Trudovye resursy, zanyatost‘ i chelovecheskoe razvitie: Doklad o razvitii chelovecheskogo potentsiala v Respublike Bashkortostan. Ufa: Institut sotsial’no-politicheskich I pravovykh issledovaniy.pp.TBA
  • Saxinger, Gertrude / Elena Nuykina / Elisabeth Öfner (forthcoming 2015): The Russian North Connected – The Role of Long-Distance Commute Work for Regional Integration. In: Sustainable Northern Cities in Russia, Orttung, R. (ed.) Berghan. pp.
  • Saxinger, Gertrude / Elisabeth Öfner / Elvira Šakirova / Maria Ivanova / Maksim Yakovlev / Eduard Gareev (2014) “Ya gotov!”: Novoe pokolenie mobil’nykh kadrov v rossiyskoy neftegazovoy promishlennosti. In: Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniya, 3, pp. 73-103
  • Nuikina, Elena (2014) Making a viable city: visons, strategies and practices. Doctoral thesis at the U of Vienna. pp. 249.
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2014) Vakhtovy metod v neftegazovoy otrasli rossiyskogo kraynego severa. In: Silin, A.A. / A.L. Khaytun (eds.), Toplivno-energeticheskiy kompleks rossii: aktual’nye problem I strategiya razvitiya. Penza: Rio PGSKHA. pp. 57-63.
  • Saxinger, Gertrude (2014) Vakhtovy metod: sotsial’no-antropologicheskoe issledovanie na kaynem severe. In: Izvestiya vyszhykh ychenbnykh zavedeniy: Sotsioilogiya. Ekonomika. Politika. pp. 24-26.
  • Saxinger, Gertrude / Susanna Gartler (2014) Review: Frozen assets. British mining, exploration, and geopolitics on Spitsbergen, 1904-53 by Frigga Kruse. In: Polar Journal, 4/2, pp. 409-411. DOI:10.1080/2154896X.2014.960676
  • Saxinger, Gertrude / Elisabeth Öfner / Elv‘ira Šakirova / Maria Ivanova / Maksim Yakovlev / Eduard Gareev (2014) „Ich bin bereit“– Die nächste Generation mobiler Fachkräfte in der russischen Erdgas- und Erdölindustrie. Eine Untersuchung zur Bereitschaft für berufsbedingtes Fernpendeln in den Norden bei Studierenden an der Staatlichen Technischen Erdöluniversität in Ufa. In: Austrian Studies in Social Anthropology, Journal 2/2014, pp. 1-24
  • Öfner Elisabeth (2014) Russia’s long-distance commuters in the oil and gas industry: social mobility and current developments – an anthropological perspective from the Republic of Bashkortostan. In: Journal of Rural and Community Development 9(1), 41-56. Open Access https://journals.brandonu.ca/jrcd/article/view/860
  • Roncero, Miguel / Enrique San Martín (2013) Nabucco’s coup de grâce. In: Real Instituto Elcano, Expert Comment 71/2013.
  • Roncero, Miguel / Gregory Weeks (2013) Doomed to Failure? Lack of an Accepted Definition and Flawed Statistics as the Two Main Problems with Current International Efforts to Fight Corruption. In: Favorita Papers 01/2013, Diplomatische Akademie Wien, pp 104-109.
  • Keeling, Arn / Tara Cater (2013) ”That’s where our future came from”: Mining, landscape, and memory in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. Études/Inuit/Studies, 37 (2). pp. 59-82.

Projects

  • CoRe: Configurations of ‘Remoteness’: Entanglements of Humans and Transportation Infrastructure in the Baykal-Amur Mainline (BAM) Region (2015-2020) is a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) related to the APRI research group of Peter Schweitzer who is PI of CoRe. Gertrude Saxinger and Gertraud Illmeier (MA student) look in this framework on mobility and (im)mobility as well as on infrastructures of human movements in the BAM region and villages off the railroad in the region.
  • EU PolarNet  – connecting science with Society. Developing the EU´s Polar research policy. Lead: Alfred Wegener Insitute. Horizon 2020 coordination action (2021-2024). Member: Gertrude Saxinger
  • “LACE – Labour mobility and community participation in the extractive industries:– Yukon” is funded by SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada) and the Yukon Territorial Government through the research program ReSDA (Resources and Sustainable Communities in the Arctic), duration: 2014-2019, project leader: Dr. Gertrude Saxinger. PhD student: Susanna Gartler
  • „HuSArctic”–  Human Security as a promotional tool for societal security in the Arctic”. We are international partner in this project run by the Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi, Finland. Funded by the Academy of Finland, duration 2015-2018, project leader: Dr. Kamrul Hossain. Members: PhD student Miguel Roncero and Gertrude Saxinger
  • „Lives on the Move: Vakhtoviki in North-Western Siberia“is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): [P 22066-G17]. project partners: Department of Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna & Institute for Urban and Regional Research (ISR), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), duration 2010-2015, project leader: Prof. Dr. Heinz Faßmann/ Dr. Gertrude Saxinger. Project members: Elisabeth Öfner and Elena Nuykina

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