Expressions of Intent for IPY 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

The Middleman in the Tundra: entrepreneurship and social change in the Barents Region  (MIDDLEMAN)

Outline
This research project will examine the role of entrepreneurs in social change in various countries of the Barents Region: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Recent studies of processes in the former Soviet Union have mainly examined coping strategies of low-level actors in pronouncedly critical situations, especially when it comes to indigenous minorities in the Russian North and Siberia. Apart from these low-level actors, however, two additional protagonists deserve attention in this context: the State and new entrepreneurship of a widely varying magnitude. Particularly in the post-Soviet context, new entrepreneurship has usually been depicted as “mafia”, the “oligarchs” etc. Yet the latter characterisations have remained particularly opaque in the current scientific literature and call for closer analysis. From such a vantage point, a revisiting of the theoretical discussion of the 1960s, which can be referred to as “the role of the entrepreneur in social change” (e.g. Barth 1963; 1966; Eidheim 1963; 1968)., is timely and necessary. Suggestions for such a revisiting come from related disciplines (e.g. developmental and postsocialist studies). The role of middle-to-high level entrepreneurship across the borders between Fennoscandia and NW Russia have received a sharp actuality in recent years in connection with the continuing existence of deep systemic rifts on the two sides of the divide. For Arctic communities dependent on renewable resources (fish, reindeer meat, berries etc.), a great difference exists between the attitudes towards the entrepreneurs who market such produce. This radical difference attributes very different meanings to the term “cooperative” in its Russian and Fennoscandic sense, and creates a discrepancy, in the bridging of which a middleman’s resource gets born. Insofar as the primary producers on both sides of the border do not share a common understanding when it comes to their roles as producers, they become dependent on middlemanship, which explains the rifts in terms it sees most advantageous to itself. The management of the conceptual gap is therefore a resource exploited at the expense of both sides. The nature of this technique was a central topic of discussion in the 1960s debate, particularly in reference to processes of change – economic and ethnopolitical – in Northern Norway of the time. What current ethnographic material can offer to great analytical advantage is how the exploitation of systemic rifts propels social change and how the entrepreneurial actors make use of these disparities.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
The MIDDLEMAN Project addresses IPY theme #1 and will examine economic interactions and attitudes to entrepreneurship, market economy, and international trade in Arctic communities. It resumes topical research themes in Northern anthropological studies. It also addresses the IPY target to enhance higher education through active inclusion of graduate students in field research, and by providing materials for social-sciences studies in regional unviersities and the University of the Arctic (for the next generation of researchers from and in the Arctic).

What international collaboration is involved in this project?

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
NW Russia, Kola Peninsula (Murmansk Region), Norway (Finnmark), Finland (Lapland), Sweden (Norrbotten)

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: 10/2006-12/2007 field research            
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
None. MIDDLEMAN field research activities will be able to draw on the logistical benefits provided by the IFS Kolm’yavr (see IPY Expression of Intent by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology). q2_4_Legacy : MIDDLEMAN will contribute to the enhancement of social-sciences education in regional universities and the University of the Arctic (see below, section 3.3)

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
MIDDLEMAN will contribute to the enhancement of social-sciences education in regional universities and the University of the Arctic (see below, section 3.3)

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
Own support

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
The proposal has been preliminarily submitted to the German IPY Committee on 20 December 2004.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
New

How will the project be organised and managed?
The scientific co-ordinator will organise fieldwork activities, data comparison and evaluation, data management and outreach in consultation with the lead applicant as representative of the host institution, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, and the other two applicants. The Administration of the Institute will administer the project budget. Graduate students will conduct short-term to medium-term field research (participant observation and other methods of qualitative social research) in selected communities and trading posts in the Barents Region. The scientific co-ordinator and the lead applicant will accompany the PhD students for part of the fieldwork period.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
MIDDLEMAN is a research project with a clear orientation towards the enhancement of Barents regional universities’ programmes in social sciences. Project results will be made available for teaching graduate students in sociology, anthropology and economics. The initiators plan to include graduate students from reigonal universities in the research activities.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document)?
Data will be stored at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology; the Kola Science Centre (Russian Academy of Sciences); and the Arctic Centre (University of Lapland) (potentially to be developed as World Data Centre “R” for Rangifer-related research). Researchers will apply “informed consent” policy and guarantee personal data protection.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
The project initiators will apply to the Thyssen Foundation for financial support.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
None

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr Joachim Otto Habeck
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
PO Box 11 03 51
Halle (Saale)
D-06017
Germany

Tel: 0049 345 29 27 216
Mobile: 0049 179 918 4111
Fax: 0049 345 29 27 502
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation

Other Information