The GlobalArctic Network
Since its inception in 2014, the at that time “GlobalArctic project,” has produced two GlobalArctic edited books, as well as a freely available Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Coursera. In doing so we have established a comprehensive and resolutely trans-disciplinary approach and framework of the Arctic in global ecological, cultural, economic, geopolitical, and societal contexts.
When we started, a significant part of our effort was to convince researchers, journalists, managers, and policymakers that the Arctic was indeed Global and that the Global Change is indeed profoundly transforming the Arctic in all the above dimensions. These times are over, and we are proud to have contributed, albeit modestly, to that change in perception. We are pleased that our approach and conceptualization is now taken up by many of the Arctic stakeholders, and beyond, and especially by young researchers. And this to the point, that the Arctic Circle, the trade show in Arctic matters, has now copied the concept.
We have therefore reframed, our GlobalArctic project as a network of like-minded persons, mostly from Academia, from all disciplines, and from the entire world. Members of our network all share a profound concern about what is happening under our eyes in the Arctic, as well as about what this means for planet Earth, especially ecologically and geopolitically.
We do not do any primary research, but we offer a platform to practically-minded academics and to intellectually-minded managers and politicians, so as to collectively “learn our way out” of the dead-end into which run-away military-industrial development is heading, with the Arctic serving as a particularly illustrative laboratory of such dynamics, a warning for humankind and the planet.