The Arctic University of Norway is a medium-sized research university that contributes to knowledge-based development at the regional, national and international level.

The partnership between UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the project From Fenais to Fenais - Cultural Matrix of Local Development, will strengthen our competences in the common interests in community development and democratization. Dr. Anniken Førde will be member of the advisory board, where she will contribute with her expertise on community planning and placemaking processes. Førde will also participate in the research team, conducting fieldwork on in the Azores together with local researchers. She will also participate in workshops in Iceland and Norway, collaborating with visiting Azorean and Icelandic partners, and contribute in continuous dialogue with project partners. Combining the partners’ experiences and expertise on transformation and mobilization processes in coastal communities in The Azores, Norway and Iceland, the partnership can contribute to comparative perspectives on how communities can develop capabilities for dynamic resilience and responsible development.

Dr. Anniken Førde is professor in community planning at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, The Department of Social Sciences. Førde teaches community development, urban planning, philosophy of science and methodology for planning and culture studies. Her research interests are place transformations, changing coastal landscapes, tourism development, innovation and sustainable diverse communities. Among her publications are the co-edited book Creative Approaches to Planning and Local Development. Insights from Small and Medium-Sized Towns in Europe, Routledge 2017. Førde applies a relational perspective on place, recognizing that the specificities of place are continually produced as a product of complex interrelations. Approaching place as woven together of on-going stories, her research explores the transformative powers of place narratives; how storytelling can serve as a tool to gain agency and resist centralization, and thus to create alternative futures for coastal communities. She has also worked with developing collaborative research methods. In the From Fenais to Fenais project she will contribute as researcher and member of the advisory board, providing input with comparative expertise and empirical case studies. She will engage in the collaboration with local partners and communities in the cop-roduction of applied knowledge. In addition, her colleague Trond Waage, doctor in visual cultural studies, will contribute with his expertise on documentary filmmaking.

UiT The Arctic University of Norway

The Whale will become a new attraction in Andenes, Norway, one of the best places in the world to see whales. The ambition is to create a world class attraction, combining high quality architecture with the highest standards of displays, exhibitions and knowledge about whales and their environment.

We believe this partnership will create a long-lasting collaboration between Andenes and the Azores. We look forward to sharing knowledge and are sure that the experience we gain along the way will be of importance and valuable for both projects.

Camilla Ilmoni is the initiator of The Whale. She has worked with tourism development for 17 years in Vesterålen. Camilla holds a MSc in marine biology and has broad experience in developing wildlife experiences. Camilla is currently the manager of communication, marketing, and sales in The Whale.

The Whale AS

The Stefansson Arctic Institute (SAI, www.svs.is) is an independent governmental research institute within the Icelandic Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate. SAI takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human-environment relations in the Circumpolar Arctic. Particular emphasis is on research and scientific assessments concerning economic systems and human development, coastal communities and marine-resource governance, political ecology of agricultural systems, and the impacts of and adaptation to past and present climate change.

The Stefansson Arctic Institute contribution to the project will be through anthropologist Dr. Einarsson as researcher in the project and member of the advisory board, providing input with comparative and empirical case studies based experience and expertise. Here it will also be important to share, create and engage, through fieldwork and co-production of applied knowledge, in dialogue with local participants, researchers and communities within the project.

Dr. Níels Einarsson is an anthropologist and director of the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, Iceland. His professional and research interests include the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of marine resource governance, community adaptations to climate change, marine tourism with focus on whale watching, and North Atlantic and Arctic coastal communities sustainability, social capital and cultural change issues. He has led and participated in numerous international research and scientific assessment projects with a focus on the circumpolar region and in 2008-2011 he was in the lead for the EU sponsored FISHERNET project, with the aim of preserving, disseminating and using fishing and coastal cultural heritage (www.fishernet.is/en ). In 2014-2015 he collaborated with grassroot sustainable fishing organization LONXANET (http://www.fundacionlonxanet.org/ ) and researchers at Universidade da Coruña, Spain, on an EEA NILS Science and Sustainability funded research project titled Fish, people and property rights - Social implications of fisheries governance in fishery dependent societies, from the North Atlantic Arctic to Galicia.

Stefansson Artic Institute

The Húsavík Whale Museum is a non-profit organisation, founded in 1997. The aim of the museum is to convey information about whales, marine ecology and the interaction of whales and humans through history in an entertaining and interesting way.

The partnership represents a great opportunity to share our experience from the past 25 years. In the beginning the museum started out as a small exhibition about whales and has since then extended it´s focus on cultural, natural and social heritage as well as historical conservation.

My name is Eva Björk Káradóttir and I´m the museum director of Húsavík Whale Museum. I´m 35 years old and grew up in a small fishing village on the East coast of Iceland. I´m a big fan of nature and wildlife, I love diving, dining and travelling and am very excited to get to know Portugal and Azorez.

Húsavík Whale Museum

O GEPAC é um organismo do Ministério da Cultura de Portugal, com âmbito de atuação e competências transversais, que tem como missão garantir o apoio técnico à formulação de políticas culturais, ao planeamento estratégico, às relações internacionais, o apoio jurídico e contencioso no campo da cultura. Garante, ainda, a monitorização e avaliação das medidas e dos resultados e pretende ser uma instituição de referência na criação de conhecimento das Políticas Culturais.

Tendo em conta a missão GEPAC, e considerando que a questão da criação de redes na Cultura e a promoção da coesão territorial são dois dos eixos previstos no programa do Governo, a parceria neste projeto constitui-se como uma oportunidade de observação, monitorização e avaliação de novas práticas de networking na área da Cultura e na sua relação com outros setores, bem como um suporte para uma reflexão crítica sobre os fatores de risco e de sucesso numa abordagem da Coesão Territorial e do Desenvolvimento Local baseada na Cultura. Pretende-se, assim, construir conhecimento, com base na evidência, que sirva de suporte ao desenvolvimento de políticas que interliguem o desenvolvimento local e a coesão territorial a partir da Cultura.

GEPAC

O DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Centro para a Mudança Socioeconómica e Territorial, é uma unidade de investigação do Iscte desenvolvendo pesquisa internacional alicerçada sistematicamente na interdisciplinaridade. A nossa pesquisa procura contribuir para a compreensão do mundo contemporâneo através da análise dos contextos, dos actores e das consequências da mudança com um enfoque particular nos quadros institucionais e recursos extensivos a abordagens comparativas. Dedicando uma atenção especial às dinâmicas de mudança da sociedade portuguesa, os investigadores do DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte estão implicados na contribuição para a concepção do futuro e, quando apropriado, não hesitam em adoptar uma abordagem normativa. O Centro tem a responsabilidade de contribuir para a concepção, implementação e gestão do Centro de Conhecimento para o Património Costeiro envolvendo a coordenação da formação e acompanhamento de Agentes Culturais para o Desenvolvimento Local (ACDL) e a facilitação da sua capacitação para a animação territorial nas unidades territoriais de intervenção. A actividade dos ACDL poderá vir a envolver a sua organização em ‘grupos de intervenção’ concebidos como Knowledge Alliances organizadas em ‘comunidades de prática’.

Dinamia ‘Cet