Arctic Six Fellow wants to explore relations in northern sparsely populated areas

Dorothee Bohn was appointed an Arctic Six Fellow, a fellowship program for early-career researchers that aims to strengthen interdisciplinary research opportunities in the Arctic. For Dorothee Bohn, this program provides many opportunities to build expertise in her research within northern tourism development, and in Arctic matters.

“I'm looking forward to meeting and networking with fellow researchers. Developing and sharing research ideas within a nice research community are the best aspects of academia. It is so important to be part of a community,” she explains.

With life in Finland and work in Sweden, Bohn has close connections to the Arctic

Dorothee Bohn is from Germany, but moved to Rovaniemi in Finland 2008, where she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in tourism management. For her PhD on Arctic tourism, Bohn got a position at the Department of Geography at Umeå University, where she continued as a postdoctoral researcher. Bohn is also a visiting researcher at the Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi, where she is part of the Arctic Politics and Development research group. While employed at Umeå University in Sweden, Bohn lives on the countryside in Rovaniemi with her husband, who is a reindeer herder. She loves spending time outdoors hiking with her dogs, cross-country skiing and picking berries.

“Since my partner is a reindeer herder, and I study regional development in sparsely populated areas, the Arctic and Arctic issues are central to both my work and my personal life,” Bohn says.

I am very interested in how these networks and relations evolves over time, and how they can make places more resilient and sustainable in a changing world.

Wants to explore regional development and relations between different actors in the Arctic

Dorothee Bohn is a tourism geographer who specializes in tourism development in sparsely populated areas. Within her fellowship, she wants to broaden this perspective into the direction of regional development by focusing on socioeconomic and human-nature relations between different actors in these areas.

“I am very interested in how these networks and relations evolves over time, and how they can make places more resilient and sustainable in a changing world. The effects of climate and environmental change are becoming increasingly visible in the Arctic, which makes it essential to rethink what “development” means, both in the Arctic and globally,” Bohn says.

How can new green industries and tourism evolve together with existing livelihoods? How does the view on the relationships between humans and nature impact current policy and adaptation planning? Who benefits from the planning and investments that are made, and who is left behind? How can these adaptations work in sparsely populated areas? How can systems be more resilient and what is the right strategy? These are all questions that Bohn would like to answer in the future. For doing so, she has already established close collaboration with colleagues from Umeå University and the Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi and would now like to further extend her connections to the Arctic Six partner universities in Norway.

We tend to think that society and economy are one thing, and the nature is another thing. It is disconnected, but we need to see them as one thing in terms of theory and policy.

“My plan is to initiate research collaboration with the Norwegian partners. It would be interesting to conduct comparative case studies on regional development to help us better understand how and why places and industries develop differently, as well as find solutions to practical problems” she explains.

Bohn hopes that her fellowship within the Arctic Six will help her expand her professional network and find collaborators also for future project applications.  

The passion for the Arctic revolves around regional development and nature

Upon the question of which Arctic issues are important to Dorothee Bohn, she replies that there are two main issues she is passionate about. Firstly, she mentions regional development, and how we best can support local agency and community development in the Arctic so that people can combine traditional knowledge with new technologies to tackle climate change adaptation and social service provision. Secondly, she highlights that a closer consideration of nature within regional development efforts is needed.

“We tend to think that society and economy are one thing, and the nature is another thing. It is disconnected, but we need to see them as one thing in terms of theory and policy. I have recently come across the notion of conviviality, an idea of coexistence that aims to sustain both humans and other species. We have to think about who the Arctic is for. Adding conviviality in regional policy and planning could be a goal worth striving for, as more thought is devoted to how to live together.” Bohn notes.

Dorothee Bohn is an Arctic researcher who strives to assess relations between industry and people to help develop a sustainable Arctic. She sees a future where regional development and nature can connect and reshape the discourse on what the Arctic is and who it is for, and hopes to explore these issues within her Arctic Six Fellowship.