Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers
ABSTRACT This article analyses the phenomenon of the post-Soviet Russian summer cottage, dacha, in the Arctic. We take an ethnographic comparative perspective for contributing to the refinement of our understanding of human-environment relations and urban anthropology of incomer-northerners, those w...
Published in: | Polar Record |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2014
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247414000710 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247414000710 |
id |
crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0032247414000710 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0032247414000710 2024-06-23T07:49:26+00:00 Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers Stammler, Florian Sidorova, Lena 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247414000710 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247414000710 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Polar Record volume 51, issue 6, page 576-589 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 journal-article 2014 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247414000710 2024-06-12T04:04:57Z ABSTRACT This article analyses the phenomenon of the post-Soviet Russian summer cottage, dacha, in the Arctic. We take an ethnographic comparative perspective for contributing to the refinement of our understanding of human-environment relations and urban anthropology of incomer-northerners, those with roots somewhere outside the north. Evidence from fieldwork in Murmansk Oblast, West Siberia and Sakha-Yakutia shows how for a socialist and post-socialist northern urban livelihood, the dacha has become an indispensable counterpart of life in the urban concrete housing blocks for most Russian northern inhabitants. We explore in this article the importance of dacha for northern identity of urban dwellers, by analysing spheres of individual and collective agency, freedom, attachment to place and land. We conclude that the dacha movement has filled a gap that had been left open by Soviet Arctic urbanisation: a dacha has come to stand for a human-environment relationship that gradually re-introduces rurality to urban life in the Russian Arctic so permanently that dacha places start losing their seasonal character. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Murmansk Oblast permafrost Polar Record Sakha Yakutia Siberia Cambridge University Press Arctic Murmansk Sakha Polar Record 51 6 576 589 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT This article analyses the phenomenon of the post-Soviet Russian summer cottage, dacha, in the Arctic. We take an ethnographic comparative perspective for contributing to the refinement of our understanding of human-environment relations and urban anthropology of incomer-northerners, those with roots somewhere outside the north. Evidence from fieldwork in Murmansk Oblast, West Siberia and Sakha-Yakutia shows how for a socialist and post-socialist northern urban livelihood, the dacha has become an indispensable counterpart of life in the urban concrete housing blocks for most Russian northern inhabitants. We explore in this article the importance of dacha for northern identity of urban dwellers, by analysing spheres of individual and collective agency, freedom, attachment to place and land. We conclude that the dacha movement has filled a gap that had been left open by Soviet Arctic urbanisation: a dacha has come to stand for a human-environment relationship that gradually re-introduces rurality to urban life in the Russian Arctic so permanently that dacha places start losing their seasonal character. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stammler, Florian Sidorova, Lena |
spellingShingle |
Stammler, Florian Sidorova, Lena Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers |
author_facet |
Stammler, Florian Sidorova, Lena |
author_sort |
Stammler, Florian |
title |
Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers |
title_short |
Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers |
title_full |
Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers |
title_fullStr |
Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers |
title_sort |
dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among arctic russian city-dwellers |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247414000710 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247414000710 |
geographic |
Arctic Murmansk Sakha |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Murmansk Sakha |
genre |
Arctic Murmansk Oblast permafrost Polar Record Sakha Yakutia Siberia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Murmansk Oblast permafrost Polar Record Sakha Yakutia Siberia |
op_source |
Polar Record volume 51, issue 6, page 576-589 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247414000710 |
container_title |
Polar Record |
container_volume |
51 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
576 |
op_container_end_page |
589 |
_version_ |
1802639854054408192 |