The International Network Exploring Youths and Fashions in the Arctic

The aim of the workshop is to do the final preparation before entering the field in order to do smaller case studies on youth and fashions while in Nuuk, Greenland.

Day 1 will be dedicated to finalizing the fieldwork design.

Day 2-4 will be dedicated to fieldwork. Contact to Greenlandic youth will be provided beforehand by network member Rosannguaq Rossen and her students at University of Greenland, as well as help with Greenlandic to English translations if necessary.

Day 5 fieldwork insights will be shared and discussed at a public seminar to allow for an exchange between researchers and Greenlandic people targeting youth specifically.

Suggested venue is a high school or youth organization in Nuuk. The purpose of the seminar is to get feedback for developing the next steps in the network: Journal issue and a more expansive research project.

The aim of the workshop at the Art & Design School HSE Moscow is to organize a 1-day discussion involving scholars, designers and artists who focus on the Arctic in their research and/or their creative practice.

One of the goals is to invite the organizers and participants of the Arctic Art Forum, the Arctic Biennale and the Arctic Summer School held in Arkhangelsk (Russia) and discuss potential platform for international interdisciplinary collaboration. 

The second part of the Russian workshop will be held at Krasnoyarsk as a part of a 4-day Fashion program of the Krasnoyarsk Book Fair which has operated for more than 10 years in the Siberian region and combines a rich variety of events (lectures, discussions, shows, performances, concerts). The Fashion program curated by the network member Liudmila Aliabieva and consists of the young fashion designers contest, exhibition and an international educational and cultural program built around two major topics – the North (how to design for the cold, local crafts and heritage, local history and memory) and sustainability.

The workshop will also include a public seminar to develop discussion of fashion production and consumption strategies and practices between the network members and local people targeting primarily younger people.

The workshop has a double focus:

1. The development of a larger collaborative research project on youths and fashions On day 1 of the workshop, other potential relevant research partners will be invited to participate (on their own expense).
2. Preparation of publication reflecting the output of the network activities. The aim is to publish a special issue of the international journal Fashion Theory. Journal of Dress, Body and Identity (Taylor & Francis).

1. Building and consolidation of a sustainable research network for further research projects applications on youths and fashions in the Arctic region.
2. Generate smaller, collaborative, case-based field studies on youths and fashions in Greenland to prepare for larger research project.
3. Coupling research on youths with the rise of indigenous fashion in the fashion system to further understand developments in identity formation among youths in the Arctic region, the network will connect with and visit the Krasnoyarsk Book Fair and Fashion Program in Siberia, Russia. 
4. Publication for special issue of Fashion Theory. Journal of Dress, Body and Culture (Taylor & Francis) communicating the initial research results by the networks participants individually as well as collectively and gained through the collaborative case studies done in connection with network workshops.