Welcome to Umeå and ICASS IX!

ICASS IX People & Place

The Arctic is home to approximately four million people, counting numerous ethnicities among its inhabitants. More than ten percent of the total population living in the Arctic is Indigenous peoples. In modern times, rapid and extensive changes has brought opportunities but also challenges to peoples and places in the north, including climate change, industrial extraction, pollution, globalization, migration, food- and water insecurity and widening socio-economic gaps. 

Social sciences and humanities have a great responsibility to address these challenges. Through focusing on people and place we highlight the many variances across the Arctic region in terms of sustainabilities, political systems, demography, infrastructures, histories, languages, legal systems, land and water resources, public health and so on.

Arcum (Arctic Research Centre), Sámi dutkan (Language studies) and Vaartoe (Centre for Sami Research) at Umeå University are pleased to host “People & Place” - the ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS IX) organized by the International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA). We encourage Indigenous peoples, northern residents, decision-makers, politicians as well as academics to participate.