Arctic Silk Roads - An Anthropology of the Unbuilt

As climate change accelerates, melting sea ice is fueling the global imagination and geopolitical anticipation of the Arctic region's accessible transport routes and possibilities for resource extraction. "Silk Roads" are being conjured across the circumpolar North, both as official Arctic and infrastructural policy, and as broader visions of global connectivity with other markets. Following the myriad ways that local economies and agencies are proliferating around the anticipation of large-scale infrastructural corridors and their often-unrealized arteries, Arctic Silk Roads examines the different conditions under which top-down infrastructural dreams facilitate or constrain individual agencies.

About the author

Natalia Magnani is Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology and Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. She leads the Norwegian Research Council project “Arctic Silk Road” at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Matthew Magnani is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Climate Change at the University of Maine, and a researcher on the “Arctic Silk Road” project based at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He is the co-author of The Craft of Belonging (Toronto, 2026) with Natalia Magnani.

Product details

• Authors: Natalia Magnani Magnani
• Assisted by: Matthew Magnani (Editor), Natalia Magnani (Editor)
• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 01.01.2026
• EAN: 9781836953081
• ISBN: 978-1-83695-308-1
• No. of pages: 216
• Series: Studies in the Circumpolar North
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change, Climate Change, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Social and cultural anthropology, Development Studies, SDG 9