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The uptake of COVID-19 vaccines has varied considerably across European countries. This study investigates people’s decision-making process regarding vaccination by analyzing qualitative interviews (n = 214) with residents from five European countries: Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. We identify three factors that shape vaccination decision-making: individual experiences and pre-existing attitudes towards vaccination, social environment, and socio-political context. Based on this analysis, we present a typology of decision-making regarding COVID-19 vaccines, where some types present stable stances towards vaccines and others change over time. Trust in government and relevant stakeholders, broader social factors, and people’s direct social environment were particularly relevant to these dynamics. We conclude that vaccination campaigns should be considered long-term projects (also outside of pandemics) in need of regular adjustment, communication and fine-tuning to ensure public trust. This is particularly pertinent for booster vaccinations, such as COVID-19 or influenza., The first and corresponding authors contributed to this manuscript in equal parts and share first authorship. Funding for this study was received from: University of Basel research grant [3BE1003]; Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany: Global Health Research in the Wake of the Sars-CoV-2 Outbreak Grant [01KI20510]; FWF – Austrian Science Fund (Elise Richter grant V561 and START grant Y1433); Cariplo Foundation, Social Science Research Grant (Bando Ricerca Sociale), 2020-1314. Open access funded by the FWF - Austrian Science Fund.

The construction of railroad infrastructure in East Siberia and the Russian Far East was a key aspect of Soviet industrialization during the 1970s and 1980s. Although built primarily for freight transportation, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline (AYaM) have also been used for passenger transport and have thus contributed to increased mobility and heightened local expectations about future mobility. This article presents the results of an extensive survey carried out in the BAM/AYaM region, which maps experiences of individual mobility, including usage-related needs, practices, and expectations. The findings show low levels of satisfaction differing across the region’s social and spatial diversity. The paper argues that hierarchies of mobility prevail at two related levels in the BAM/AYaM region: 1) the state’s regional development policies favor industrial development, focusing on freight transportation while neglecting local passengers’ needs for improved individual mobility; and 2) intersectional structural conditions along lines of diversity, such as gender, age, ethnicity, and place of residence, result in mobility disadvantage and lower mobility satisfaction. These hierarchies are embedded in the broader social and spatial inequality structures in the Russian Federation.

This perspective presents a statement of the 10th International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences Indigenous Knowledge and knowledge co-production panel and discussion group, 20 July 2021. The statement is designed to serve as a characterization of the state-of-the-art and guidance for further advancement of Indigenous Knowledge and knowledge co-production in the Arctic. It identifies existing challenges and provides specific recommendations for researchers, Indigenous communities, and funding agencies on meaningful recognition and engagement of Indigenous Knowledge systems.

In this paper, we explore the methodical, methodological, epistemological and outreach potential – and related challenges – of cartographic storytelling in ethnographic research, based on the online portal Life of BAM. Our extensive literature review highlights the need for deep self-reflection in the cartographic production of manifold realities and the way in which visualised stories can be co-produced by local people and researchers. It also describes cartography’s conceptual turns and its role in anthropology and ethnography. As an outreach tool, the Life of BAM portal conveys knowledge about social and infrastructural configurations in the greater area of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and Amur-Yakutsk Mainline (AYaM) railroads in Eastern Siberia, through a series of lay-language and visualised ‘episodes’ built into the ArcGIS StoryMaps online tool. Interlinking qualitative and quantitative data in the cartographic visualisation of manifold realities can trigger better comprehension of complex matters, through multimodal forms of representing stories in space. Cartographic storytelling, as a means of knowledge and science communication, supports – in our case – civil society, education, heritage work and policy making, and is a way of making local concerns more tangible for state officials and corporate actors. By engaging with cartographic storytelling and building the Life of BAM portal, we affirm that a reflective attitude towards the multiplicity of stories’ ontologies in narration, collection, comprehension and representation is of key importance if we want to do justice to a decolonial approach towards Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and research partners in the field.

This poster addresses the need to understand perspectives of change, both societal and environmental, from indigenous viewpoints in Canada. It is based on six years of collaborative, community-based research in Mayo, including semi-structured and narrative interviews with First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Elders. Their accounts tell of over one century of interaction and involvement with the extractive industry. The poster addresses the way First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Elders experienced and make sense of several major shifts, from settling at the onset of galena ore extraction, to life in and relocation from ‘Dän Ku’ (Our Home) to the townsite of Mayo, to life and work in Elsa and Keno – the mining hills nearby, which are home today to one of Canada’s largest gold mine. It discusses contemporary concerns with the industry, such as increased access to and thus pressure on wildlife due to mining roads, pollution, economic benefits and local employment. The poster further considers the methodological process which was centered on a community-based participatory approach. It is part of the outreach and science communication activities of the ReSDA (Ressources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic) funded project “LACE – Labour Mobiltiy and Community Participation in the Extractive Industry, Case Study in the Yukon”.

The Northern Review 47 (2018): 187–207North American Indigenous communities increasingly demand a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to social and natural sciences research undertaken on their traditional territories. This article outlines key principles of CBPR, reflecting on the “social licence to research” and how research in anthropology and other social sciences has been practised in the past. The article illustrates elements of establishing partnerships, knowledge sharing, knowledge co-production, and data and research-product ownership. It also stresses the need for long-term relationships in a research partnership in order to build trust between the involved parties and to provide meaningful outcomes. It highlights benefits and also the challenges that come along with CBPR practice and argues that time is the essential asset in a successful CBPR project. The article is based on experiences in the research project LACE—Labour Mobility and Community Participation in the Extractive Industries, Yukon—hosted from 2014 to 2018 by the community of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, the “Big River People,” in Mayo, Yukon, Canada.

This article provides insights into the motivation of future highly skilled workers to become long-distance commuters (LDC) (i.e. fly-in/fly-out [FIFO]/drive-in/drive-out [DIDO]) to remote Arctic and Subarctic petroleum extraction sites. The study draws on a sample of students from long-distance commuter families, who study at the Ufa State Petroleum Technical University (UGNTU) in the Republic of Bashkortostan: a primary LDC sending region in Russia. The study is based on ethnographic qualitative and quantitative research. It shows that LDC shift work is seen as both a socio-economic necessity and a prospering career by half of the respondents. The readiness for long-distance commuting was nearly equal among male and female students. Furthermore, it is an attractive form of gaining a livelihood, especially in rural regions like those in the Republic of Bashkortostan with a competitive labour market and poor socio-economic development. On the other hand, the repeated separation from family, long travel times, inconvenient life in camps as well as health and safety concerns were cited as deterrents for the other half of the respondents. The article highlights disparities between urban and rural areas as well as between those in full-time LDC and those commuting to earn additional income to supplement their regular agricultural work.

Train rhythms are dictated by regulations as well as the collaboration of human and non-human actants. When a railroad is the prime form of ground transportation and the mono-industry forming force in the cities along the railroad, the rhythms of trains have power over the everyday life of people who rely on them as passengers, workforce and traders. This is the case of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) in Siberia. The paper tackles the interaction of natural, technical, bureaucratic and economic rhythms and asks where power structures are located. Material and social networks of the involved actants are shaped by constraints and forces: Moscow driven bureaucracy, technological needs and natural conditions as well as the individual or collective needs and aspirations of social beings are entangled within the power structures that are intrinsic to railroad operations. This article is based on ethnographic field work in Siberia along the BAM. In it we argue that the diversity of rhythms introduced by the train company dominates other work and life rhythms that vary across gender, age, class and family status.

This paper analyses the notions of extreme and normality among highly mobile and multi-local people who contrast themselves with the sedentary population: long-distance commute (LDC) workers in the petroleum industry of the Russian North. It explores how mobile and multi-local people negotiate emotionally and geographically distant spaces which are meaningful in their lives and suggests the concept of conscious acts of separation and connection as prerequisites for integrating the trio of distinct realms of a long-distance commuting life: home⿿journey⿿on duty . This article rethinks the problematization and exoticism of highly mobile and multi-local life-styles and considers the embeddedness of LDC in macro-political and macro-economic processes in contemporary Russia.

Boom back or blow back? : Growth strategies in mono-industrial resource towns – “east” and “west”

Nahezu unbekannt sind der Öffentlichkeit die Lebensweisen jener ArbeiterInnen, die das „schwarze und blaue Gold“ für den Export nach Europa fördern. Sie sind fahrende und fliegende Menschen, die zyklisch für Wochen oder Monate in den Fördergebieten leben und arbeiten, um wieder für eine Weile zu ihren Familien heimzukehren. Die Ethnographie führt von der Wolgaregion in die subarktische „russische Gashauptstadt“ Novy Urengoy und gibt einen kritischen Einblick in die russische Petroleumindustrie., Barely known in public is the life of long-distance commute workers who extract the „blue and black gold” for the export to Europe. They are travelling people who work and live rotationally for a few weeks at the extraction sites before they go back again to their families in the southern regions. This ethnography takes the reader from the Volga Region to the Arcitc “Russian Gas Capital” Novy Urengoy and provides critically insights into the Russian petroleum industry.

Kein Thema hat die Wissenschaft im letzten Jahr so beschäftigt wie COVID-19. In diesem Essay befassen wir uns mit drei Schlüsselrollen der Wissenschaft während der Pandemie: Grundlagenforschung, Politikberatung und Wissenschaftskommunikation. Wir stützen uns auf Erkenntnisse aus zwei Forschungsprojekten zum Thema „Solidarität in Zeiten einer Pandemie“ in Europa (SolPan) und Lateinamerika (SolPan+). In beiden Projekten wurden die Erfahrungen, Reaktionen auf politische Maßnahmen, soziale Risiken und Bewältigungsstrategien untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der Projekte, aber auch die Umstände, unter denen sie durchgeführt werden, spiegeln globale Ungleichheiten wider und verdeutlichen die Bedeutung kontextsensitiver Forschungsfragen und -ziele. Wir ziehen Bilanz, was die Wissenschaft während der Pandemie bereits erreicht hat, und verweisen auf virulente Herausforderungen, die es zu bewältigen gilt. Wir schließen mit einem Aufruf zu solidarischer Wissenschaft.

Fernpendeln ist insbesondere in entlegenen Regionen verbreitet, zum Beispiel in der arktischen Erdöl- und Erdgasindustrie, wo Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter für einmonatige oder halbmonatige Schichten ein- und auspendeln. Die theoretischen Betrachtungen eines mobilen und multilokalen Lebens basieren auf ethnographischer Forschung im polaren Westsibirien, die der Frage nach Bewältigungsstrategien dieser Lebensführung nachgeht. Es gibt zwei wesentliche Hürden, die es für die Herstellung von Lebenszufriedenheit zu nehmen gilt: die Trennung der relevanten sozialen Räume (zu Hause und auf Schicht) sowie die Zuschreibung von sozialer Devianz dieses Lebensstils. Der Beitrag beschreibt zwei Prozesse, die bei Arbeiterinnen und Arbeitern mit positiver Bewältigungsleistung vorliegen: (1) Raumintegrationsleistung, die durch gleichzeitiges Verbinden und Trennen einen erweiterten, für das Leben bedeutungsvollen Raum entstehen lässt und (2) flexible Normalisierung, die die von außen zugeschriebenen Devianzen in Potenziale umwandelt. Long-distance commuting (also called fly-in/fly-out or FIFO) is a system of labour-force provision for industrial operations in remote regions; e. g., at oil and gas extraction sites in the Russian Arctic. Employees there commute on a rotational shift basis of 14 days in and 14 days out (14/14) or on a 30/30 roster. This chapter is based on longterm ethnographic research in the northwestern Siberian Arctic. The theoretical considerations relate to coping strategies for the two main constraints inherent to this way of life: the separation of meaningful social spheres (home and on duty) and the ascription of deviance to this lifestyle. People who cope well with this multilocal and mobile way of life pursue two strategies: (1) the conscious integration of space through the simultaneous connecting and separation of the spheres in order to constitute an integrated, enlarged and meaningful social and geographical space and (2) a flexible process of normalisation which turns the ascription of deviance into potential.