The empirical foundation of the project begins with the Dyrk Varanger community greenhouse and the practices that unfold within this space. In recent years, an altered climate has caused Vardø to move out of the Arctic climatic zone, leaving the city post-Arctic in a literal sense. Yet the Vardø community is not unfamiliar with shifting circumstances.
Over the years, regulations in the fishing industry and cuts to the public sector have prompted residents to leave the island, contributing to economic stagnation. Despite prevailing narratives of crisis, Vardø has a dedicated group of local community entrepreneurs, activists, and place-makers committed to shaping the city and ensuring livable futures for upcoming generations. This raises the question: what does livability—a term largely used within urban studies—mean within a broader framework that also includes more-than-human beings?
Despite a history marked by colonial efforts to introduce agriculture and southern-style farming in eastern Finnmark, the Dyrk Varanger community greenhouse represents a bottom-up cultivation initiative, founded and led by local residents who continuously attune their practices to social, climatic, and ecological conditions—whether by necessity or by choice. My work explores the historical and contemporary epistemological frameworks and forms of agency that underpin this community effort, one that provides context for the group’s work to cultivate both vegetables and shared practices.
Based on four publications, I investigate human and more-than-human ways of responding to Vardø’s changing landscapes and ask how these responses unfold, materialize, and matter in a world characterized by constant change.
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