♣ Oslo • ♠ Stockholm

August 11, 2012 by Samantha Catalyst

8/13: I lunched today with Annika Nilsson, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), working on Arctic environmental issues. We had a lot to discuss, Oof, so good to finally connect!

Annika works closely with Dag Avango, Researcher at nearby Royal Institute of Technology, and Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, from U. Tromsø. As a coincidence, Annika and Dag are heading up to work with Gunild this fall, on Arctic resource development, actors, and networks. Since I will be up there as well, hashing out the European Research Council proposal (with Peter Arbo and Sidsel Saugestad), at once, we suggested we both coordinate our travel dates to organize a symposium on Arctic resource development at U. Tromsø, which certainly would be helpful for me, given Annika and Dag’s great work on networks and knowledge production in the Arctic.

Just a tangent here, we had great weather, dined outdoors near the SEI, what fabulous buffet style lunch at the nearby cafe.

I always make the most of a sit down meal, the ritual dimension of sharing so important on such occasions. Among the ancients, kinsmen were those who shared with their commensals. As such, it was only natural that they and their kindred god should seal and strengthen their fellowship by meeting together to nourish their common life by a common meal.

“Only persons who are a part of the circle within which each person’s life is sacred [through the shared meal] can be considered a comrade” (Robertson Smith p. 269 Religion of the Semites).

Okay. Enough Religion 101. Back to the story.

Annika works among remodeled late 19th century buildings that once served as a veterinary school. Just shows to go how life in urban Stockholm has changed these past one-hundred years, with absolutely no need for industry upkeep of horse and carriage. Perhaps academic activity will one day take place out of converted car sales parking lots.

I did not realize that we had so much in common! project wise that is, so it was for this reason, we took the time to catch up on alignment. For example, Annika is participating on Assessing Arctic Futures: Voices, Resources and Governance — quite similar to a proposal on sustainability we are putting together, due next month — the we here being Florian Stammler (Arctic Centre, Roveniemi), Maria Stoilkova (U. Florida), and UC Berkeley ERG’s own Evil Genius, Anna Katenbacher, my assistant who continually keeps my head above Ostriching into the ground.

Annika is also working on the Barents oil gas development project, and developing a working paper through another researcher, Nadezhda Fillimonova, recently graduated from Uppsala U. with a Master’s degree (congrats Nadia!), over which I became quite excited to hear about, given my own current research on the Barents Shtokman project.

In fact, I am just now putting together a briefing paper for Annika’s end-of-the-week workshop with colleagues to let them know I have been in town, that we connected over lunch, and that we are ready to move forward on a few proposals.

Thanks again Annika! for a great meal and chat.

Onward to Uppsala!

8/12: To Stockholm.

Airport sushi (my Berkeley reprieve).

What canned vegetables see (inside Stockholm subway station).

Voilà

Stockholm is such a beautiful city.

I was here just several months ago, paying a visit to Nadezhda Fillimonova, working then at Stockholm Environment Institute, about whom I blog below. But the city in April bears no resemblance to what I am seeing before me today, so green and warm.

8/11: CICER-O (on Saturday)

On Saturday, I visited Dr. Ilan Kelman. I was lucky to come across his acquaintance from a one, Dr. Marius Næss, with whom I lunched just several days previously in Tromsø, mentioned in my Tromsø post below. Our meeting was today brief, but in fact, we were capable of rolling out, as it were, in this quieted exchange, several research interests over which we share a mutual direction.

Dr. Kelman hails from the great North American city of Toronto, a favorite of mine to be sure, with its Chicago look and NYC feel. Tip-tap, Tip-tap was the sound of the metronomic form by which we moved across our priorities as we got to know each other at high-noon, and may I add here, how refreshing it is to be able to cross paths so nimbly, as if acquainted already with each other’s typologies of form.
Ilan is lead author on a superb (and successful) Norwegian Research Council application on oil and gas communities in the Arctic and sustainable visions of the future, which is one purpose for our meeting — on a Saturday afternoon, a real no-no in terms of Life-Balance issues, as was instructed to me this past week at Fulbright Norway orientation. But, oh well, as Ilan hails from N. America, we were happy to meet at the CICERO building on a weekend.

CICERO has a Mad Men TV-show set feel. Lucky for me there was plenty of coffee from a typical latte making machine I have become quite familiar with, and for which I include in my descriptions surrounding the corporeality of expertise.

We covered a whole slew of items, including a lengthy discussion on Ilan’s Island Vulnerability Studies and Disaster Research, which can be found more generally on his website.

Something that caught my attention was the walk back to central Oslo. CICERO is on the road to Holmenkollen, which enroute by foot, I managed only to find by main thoroughfare, although the Google maps suggested alternate routes. And on my way back, these routes became apparent to me. What they are, in fact, and the reason for which I could not trace the original path to CICERO, are small walking paths along side little streams flowing down from Holmenkollen.

What a fabulous way to walk through a city.