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Posts tagged futures

Paper: Notes on the transformation of a railway in Northern Manitoba, Canada

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Budka, P. (2024). Notes on the transformation of a railway in Northern Manitoba, Canada. Paper at Vienna Anthropology Days 2024, Vienna, Austria: University of Vienna, 23-25 September.
Co-chairing of Panels “Building Tomorrow: Exploring Infrastructures and Futurities”, 25 September.

Introduction

On a chilly day in February 2022, I boarded the Via Rail Canada train in Winnipeg for my inaugural journey to Churchill, a community of 870 individuals situated at the Hudson Bay in Northern Manitoba, Canada, which is inaccessible by road. I was the only passenger in the sleeper car for this 48-hour journey. Four other passengers were siting up front in the economy car. A train attendant told me that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced the number of people using public transportation, particularly during the winter months when ice roads offer a cost-effective travel option in Manitoba. Leaving the province’s capital behind, we rode along the endless fields of grain of Canada’s prairie, now all covered in ice and snow. From time to time, the train stopped. One reason for that was to let freight trains pass. The railway companies always give priority to freight transportation. “That’s where the business is,” the train attendant explained during one of those stops.

Train station in Churchill, MB, Canada. (Photo by Philipp Budka)

Presentation: Transport infrastructure & community development in Churchill

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Budka, P. (2024). Transport infrastructure and community development in Churchill: Findings from future scenario workshops. Presentation at Churchill Barber Symposium 2024, Churchill, Canada: University of Manitoba et al., 28-29 August.

Abstract

The Town of Churchill, a community of 870 people on the Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba, is unique in terms of transport infrastructure. It is inaccessible by road but it is home to the only deep-water port on the Arctic Ocean that is directly linked to the North American rail system. The community’s relatively large airport, which was constructed due to the former military presence, has become a key component of the growing tourism industry in the “Polar Bear Capital of the World”. The town’s history is closely intertwined with these infrastructures, and they have played a significant role in its growth and development. But what does the future hold for Churchill? What are the implications of the transfer of ownership and operation of the Hudson Bay Railway and the Port of Churchill to a consortium of local communities for the town and the region? How might climate change and environmental crises impact the community, its economy and infrastructure? What could a sustainable Churchill look like? To address such questions and related future scenarios, the European Research Council (ERC) project InfraNorth, with the support of the Town of Churchill, organized two future scenario workshops in August 2023. These events brought together locals as well as transport professionals to discuss, evaluate, and outline a variety of infrastructure scenarios. In this presentation, we will discuss aspects of the planning and organization of the workshops, as well as selected results.

Poster visualizations for future scenario workshop in Churchill, MB, Canada (Illustrations by Nickia McIvor). (Photo by Philipp Budka)

Paper: Infrastructural futures in Northern Manitoba, Canada

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Budka, P. (2024). Infrastructural futures in Northern Manitoba, Canada. Paper at Arctic Congress, Bodø, Norway: Nordland Research Institute and Nord University, 29 May – 3 June.

Introduction

Infrastructures play a pivotal role in numerous social transformations, sociopolitical developments, and creative processes of innovation. Consequently, infrastructures have become a significant focus of research in anthropology and the humanities and social sciences more broadly (Buier, 2023; Harvey & Knox, 2015; Star, 1999). Questions that connect infrastructures to development, sustainability, and transformation point to the significance of temporality – not only the present and the past, but also the future – as a crucial analytical lens (Amatulli & Budka, forthcoming; Carse & Kneas, 2019). This paper examines the role of transport infrastructures in Northern Manitoba, Canada, by discussing questions related to infrastructural futures and futurities.

Traffic sign outside of Churchill, MB, Canada. (Photo by Philipp Budka)

Paper: Indigenizing digital futures

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Budka, P. (2021). Indigenizing digital futures: The case of a web-based environment for remote First Nation communities in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Paper at German Anthropological Association Conference, Online (hosted by University of Bremen, Germany), 27 September – 1 October.

Abstract

DGSKA 2021

Exploring digital phenomena, processes and practices in an indigenous context point to the fact that the mediation of culture and the formation of identity include the mixing and recombination of cultural elements (e.g. Budka 2019). Such an “indigenization” perspective (Sahlins 1999) promotes an open and dynamic understanding of digital culture and offers a critical view of Euro-American centred concepts of digital modernity, such as “the digital age” and “the network society”, that imply a unilinear evolutionary world view that tends to ignore culturally different ascriptions of meaning to digital realities (Ginsburg 2008).

Between 1998 and 2019, the free and community-controlled web-based environment MyKnet.org, which was operated by the First Nations internet organization KO-KNET, enabled residents of remote communities in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, to establish their own web presence, to communicate and interact, and to create and share content. Through an anthropologically informed approach that advocates the significance of indigenous realities in understanding the diversity of digital life and by building on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper discusses how digital futures were imagined and shaped in and in relation to MyKnet.org.

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