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The Kemi River is the major watercourse in the Finnish province of Lapland and the »stream of life« for the inhabitants of its banks. Franz Krause examines fishing, transport and hydropower on the Kemi River and analyses the profoundly rhythmic patterns in the river dwellers' activities and the river's dynamics. The course of the seasons and weekly and daily rhythms of discharge, temperature, work and other patterns make the river dwellers' world an ever-transforming phenomenon. The flows of life and the frictions of everyday encounters continually remake the river and its inhabitants, negotiating national strategies, economic power, people's ingenuity, and the currents of the Kemi River.
About the author
Franz Krause, born in 1979, works at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Cologne, Germany. His previous postdoctoral projects were at the Countryside and Community Research Institute and Tallinn University. His research focuses on the role of water in culture and society. He works with approaches from environmental anthropology, political ecology and environmental history.
Summary
The Kemi River is the major watercourse in the Finnish province of Lapland and the »stream of life« for the inhabitants of its banks. Franz Krause examines fishing, transport and hydropower on the Kemi River and analyses the profoundly rhythmic patterns in the river dwellers' activities and the river's dynamics. The course of the seasons and weekly and daily rhythms of discharge, temperature, work and other patterns make the river dwellers' world an ever-transforming phenomenon. The flows of life and the frictions of everyday encounters continually remake the river and its inhabitants, negotiating national strategies, economic power, people's ingenuity, and the currents of the Kemi River.
Report
»I recommend this book as an enjoyable read for anybody interested in nature humanrelations, their historical evolution, and prospective futures, in peripheral areas globally and in Northern Europe specifically. It is exceptionally rich in describing the various river practices and their embeddedness in dwellers lifeworlds, and Krause is highly convincing in analysing those within his chosen conceptual framework.
Jaanika Kingumets, Suomen Antropologi, 48/2 (2024) 20240513
