Svensson, Gaute

English

Goytia Casermeiro, Susana

Lauda

108My name is Susana Goytia Casermeiro and I am a LL.D. (Doctor of Laws) student at Luleå University of Technology, which is located in northern Sweden, in the Barents Region. I commenced my doctoral studies in 2012, two and a half years after moving to Scandinavia from my hometown of Salta, Argentina. I currently work within EU FP7 project STAR-FLOOD (http://www.starflood.eu/) whose overall aim is to develop policies to better deal with flood risks in urban areas of Europe. The project builds on the assumption that flood vulnerable areas will be more resilient if, instead of relying solely on structural defences, they implement multiple flood risk management strategies -e.g. spatial planning, warning systems and insur-ance- in a simultaneous and aligned manner. However, the successful implementation LL.D. studentLaw, Luleå University of TechnologySwedenSusana Goytia CasermeiroBARENTS STUDIES: Peoples, Economies and Politics VOL. 1  |  ISSUE 3  |  2015109of a resilient set of strategies in a certain area is dependent on it being properly insti-tutionally embedded. My main role in the project is to analyse and evaluate the legal framework for flood risk management in Sweden, including the implementation of the EU Floods Directive. The project includes three case studies per participating country. For Sweden, these are Karlstad, Gothenburg and Kristianstad, three of our most flood vulnerable municipalities. These studies would be highly relevant for flood vulnerable areas in the Barents Region, such as Haparanda and Rovaniemi.  Today, I focus my research on water as a hazard. But water is also a source of life and susceptible to multiple uses including drinking, agriculture, fishing, energy produc-tion, navigation and recreation. Water often crosses borders, lacing together the people and communities in its path. Because of its features, water resources require different legal approaches and solutions than those applicable to other natural resources. Water Law is therefore a challenging discipline, which moreover is undergoing a period of reform, following an international recognition of the increasing pressure on water re-sources. Sweden in particular is debating substantial modifications to its long-standing regime of water operations in favour of fundamental environmental principles. Water resources need to be wisely and equitably managed if they are to sustain. This is obvi-ously easier said than done. It is towards issues such as these where I hope my future research will take me.  In addition to research, my position as doctoral student requires me to teach at under-graduate level. Most of my teaching is on Constitutional Law and Administrative Law, but this fall I will get an opportunity to dive into Public International Law – a personal favourite. While I am writing my thesis in English, all teaching in the Jurisprudence programme at LTU is done in Swedish. In this matter, I find that each year that passes leaves behind a more confident teacher.“I focus my research onwater as a hazard.”YOUNG RESEARCHERS OF THE BARENTS REGIONSUSANA GOYTIA CASERMEIRO |  Pages 108–109

Young researchers of the Barents Region

108“My research focus is to understand social aspects of nature-based tourism in relation to local practices”BARENTS STUDIES: Peoples, Economies and Politics VOL. 1  |  ISSUE 2  |  2014Photo credit: Gaute Svensson109“MY RESEARCH FOCUS IS TO UNDERSTAND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF NATURE-BASED TOURISM IN RELATION TO LOCAL PRACTICES”GAUTE SVENSSON  |  Pages 108-110Gaute Svensson Doctoral studentDepartment of Archaeology and Social Anthropology (IAS)Faculty of social science University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norwaygaute@reisa-nasjonalpark.noMy name is Gaute Svensson. I am a 37-year-old doctoral student at the University of Tromsø. My employer and project owner is Halti National Park Centre – a centre that, in addition to research, is also involved in providing information and education regard-ing protected areas like national parks. My disciplinary background is social anthropology, which also constitutes the aca-demic anchoring of my previous and current work. As for the general features of my research focus, my main concern has been to understand social aspects of nature-based tourism in relation to local practices like hunting, angling, harvesting and outdoor recreation in Northern Norway. In the ongoing doctoral project my main concern is two-fold and can be summed up in a question: How do local outdoor practices and tra-ditions influence nature-based tourism today and vice versa? This question is based on an interest in understanding the dynamic aspects of outdoor practices and traditions today – something that is fundamental to humans in the Barents region. In order to understand how people in this region understand nature (and themselves in relation to nature, one might add) one must offer viewpoints on how these practices are adapting to the changes of today. This is the context which creates some of the premises of my research on nature-based tourism, an industry which is said to contribute to sustain-able rural development.Anthropology is known, among other things, for its focus on people’s everyday lives, a point of departure seeking what is often referred to as a native’s point of view. In my doctoral research everyday life has been approached through internships at sev-eral nature-based tourism enterprises as well as through participation in hunting and angling among locals in Northern Norway. Participant observation in this fieldwork has included small game hunting, salmon fishing, ice fishing for char, glacier walks, canoeing, deep sea angling, and dog sled trips, to mention a few.110 BARENTS STUDIES: Peoples, Economies and Politics VOL. 1 |  ISSUE 2  |  2014Among other work-related tasks I am the project manager for the trilateral project Norman. This is a project bringing together Norwegian, Finnish and Canadian nature management institutions focusing on the managed of protected areas. We had our initial seminar in Canada in 2013, and we are planning to host the second and final seminar in Tromsø, Norway this year. Besides Halti National Park Centre in Norway, the other partners in Norman are Metsähallitus and the ELY Centre in Finland, and the Department of Natural Resources in Northwest Territories Canada.My personal interests have been important in defining my academic work, as my main hobbies are hunting, angling and outdoor recreation. As I was taught old traditions like snare hunting when I was growing up, my curiosity for these old practices has been highly important in my personal and professional life. Beside hunting and angling in more modern ways, I also have a desire to keep the old practices alive – a desire that calls for research. This interest has led me to cross-cultural, non-academic work in Greenland and Canada, where I have sought to learn about other forms of traditional hunting and angling. Beside a year of hunting and angling in Northern Norway and Northern Sweden, I have taken several trips to Northern Canada during which I was living off the land for periods of two to twelve weeks. The Arctic and Barents regions are rich in knowledge, practices and traditions of a life in nature. It is my belief that traditional ecological knowledge can help us understand the challenges of tomorrow.

Goes, Sander

110Sander Goes Postdoctoral FellowFaculty of Social Sciences, University of NordlandBodø, NorwayBARENTS STUDIES: Peoples, Economies and Politics VOL. 1  |  ISSUE 3  |  2015111“My research interest is primarily related to environmental management practices.”BAckGROUND AND EDUcATIONMy research interest is primarily related to environmental management practices. After obtaining a Master-degree in environmental sciences at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands – with public management as my major topic of interest – I moved to Norway and received my PhD in political science from the University of Tromsø in 2013. My dissertation illustrates first of all how international financial institutions, environmental NGO’s as well as public authorities put pres-sure on international oil companies after their violation of environmental norms and regulations. Secondly, the dissertation illustrates how foreign actors understand law enforcement practices in the Russian Federation, and thirdly, the changing relation-ship between the oil-producing state and oil companies during a specific political era characterized by President Vladimir Putin’s first two presidencies. This third perspective is especially interesting due to the rising oil prices during that particular period. Besides my academic work, I gained experience in the field as enforcement official and as consultant in the private sector where I implemented and monitored environmental management systems. This valuable practical experience was and still is helpful in my contemporary work where I try to understand and explain the world around me. LAw ENfORcEmENT AS pUBLIc mANAGEmENTI illustrate not only how environmental regulations are enforced in practice, but also how regulations turn out to be a tool for public managers to make sure that particular objectives are being made. The sanctions that the Russian authorities imposed on international oil companies and their motivations for doing so – as illustrated by describing two conflicts between the Russian authorities and oil companies where the former were effectively able to pressure the latter to give up control over major oil and gas projects – are examples of such practices discussed in my dissertation.YOUNG RESEARcHERS Of THE BARENTS REGIONSANDER GOES |  Pages 110–113112NORRUSS: UNDERSTANDING cOOpERATION BETwEEN HIGHER EDUcATION INSTITUTIONS IN THE BARENTS REGION.I am currently involved in two research projects. My contribution to the NORRUSS project, financed by the Norwegian Research Council is aiming to study cooperation between higher education institutions in the Barents Region. This is partly based on the findings of my PhD: how foreign actors understand the rules of the game in Russia and that Russian society, as many other societies, is a system of interconnected formal (including the formal decision-making process of education institutions) and infor-mal levels in which the informal level is regarded as dominant. Formal and informal contacts between representatives of higher education institutions are often a result of years of close cooperation with regard to student exchange, research projects and joint academic programs. Informal networks, however, are assumed to be understood differ-ent in Russian society compared to Norwegian society. Understanding different theo-retical concepts with regard to informal networks is, I argue, a first essential step before identifying informal networks across education institutions in the Barents Region and valuable if we seek to explore the outcomes of such networks or identify its participants in an international perspective. Informal networks are interpreted differently because of the impact formal structures have on daily lives of citizens and institutions; whether we speak of complicated legal structures or hierarchical procedures as discussed in my contribution to the NORRUSS-project or enforcement practices as outlined in my PhD-dissertation.‘GREEN mINING’ IN THE ARcTIc?Regarding the ‘Green Mining’ project, I analyse the degree to which environmental norms are established within the Norwegian mining industry. Like most companies op-erating in environmentally sensitive industries, mining companies are struggling to meet the rising demands by society in terms of transparency and corporate social responsibil-ity. Mining companies, especially those operating in the Arctic, are by society no longer regarded as “responsible” as long as they make a profit and avoid sanctions for breaking the law. Nowadays, society demands compliance with environmental norms that go beyond legal obligations, for instance, by disclosing the ecological footprint of produc-tion processes or a well-functioning – and by third parties certified – environmental management system based on international standards. The aim of my contribution to this project is to examine whether such developments have taken place in the mining industry in Northern Norway. Could we, for instance, speak of a green development of the Norwegian mining industry, ‘legitimizing’ business or simply ‘window-dressing?’ BARENTS STUDIES: Peoples, Economies and Politics VOL. 1  |  ISSUE 3  |  2015113YOUNG RESEARcHERS Of THE BARENTS REGIONSANDER GOES |  Pages 110–113

Young researchers of the Barents Region

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