BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:ArctiC-EUrope relations: A Case Study of Inter-Regional Co-Constru ction and Its Geopolitical Impacts - Emilie Canova (Scott Polar Research I nstitute\, University of Cambridge) DTSTART:20250220T143000Z DTEND:20250220T153000Z UID:TALK226663@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Deb Wood DESCRIPTION:In October 2021\, the EU published its fourth Arctic policy\, aiming for greater involvement in the Arctic due to climatic and geostrate gic concerns. The EU’s position – both inside and outside the Arctic r egion – raises crucial questions about how we understand regions and the ir institutions as geopolitical actors. It was therefore necessary to comp licate the main Eurocentric narrative of a political entity (the EU) engag ing in a geographical area (the Arctic).\n\nIn this thesis I propose a nov el geopolitical approach\, viewing EU-Arctic relations as interactions bet ween two equivalent but distinct supra-national regions: the Arctic and it s governance (“ArctiC”) and Europe and the EU (“EUrope”). This res earch introduces new tools to analyze complex political entities through r egional theory\, advancing our understanding of European geographical orde rings and the geopolitical dynamics of supra-national regions. It shows ho w the ArctiC and EUrope interact and co-construct each other constantly at different scales. \n\nThe thesis is divided into three parts. Part I outl ines the theoretical framework and methods. I employed mixed qualitative m ethods\, analysing policy documents\, conducting Arctic conference ethnogr aphies\, and structure interviews\, using a novel creative elite-interview ing method. Theoretically\, I combined Anglo-Saxon critical geopolitics wi th the French/Lacoste school of geopolitics to create an analytical framew ork enabling inter-regional comparisons. Part II provides a historical ana lysis of ArctiC-EUrope relations pre-2008\, adding context to current rela tions and tracing shifts in geopolitical imaginaries of the regions. Part III examines contemporary ArctiC-EUrope relations through maps and confere nces. I show that maps not only fix spatial perceptions of regions but als o create ontologically distinct regional spaces\, necessitating different political actions. Arctic conferences contribute to the creation of a Euro pean Arctic sub-region as the major place in Arctic governance and to the blurring of regional limits. Integrating scales and temporalities\, confer ences are sites where we can study the meeting of EUrope and the ArctiC ge ographically\, epistemologically and politically. LOCATION:Hybrid: Seminar room\, SPRI &\; Zoom - email organiser for det ails END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR