The separation between humans and nature is the root cause of the global ecological crisis. This approach can be found in the Arctic water-society relations. Research is dominated by a particular "hydro-hegemony" of anthropocentricity, state-centricity and human intentionality. The project develops an alternative post-anthropocentric approach to investigate water-society relations as complex entanglements of human/non-human relations. In the project, multidisciplinary, qualitative case-based research will be conducted, and multisite, ethnographic data will be collected and analyzed with the Grounded theory-based Situational analysis. The research will focus on both the past and current relations to the sea, rivers and islands; diverse cross-border interactions; multiple meanings of water and ice; multi-level governance and transformations in the environment in the Bothnian Bay.

2023

2027