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Short Title: ANTLER Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=400 ANTLER will provide a basis for research on the social significance of Rangifer (reindeer husbandry and caribou hunting). ANTLER is a research-network initiative with the aim to provide support, methodological integration, data management, and education and outreach facilities for participating projects. These projects share the same topic yet they may employ different methodologies. In addition to the existing scholarship on human-Rangifer relations, IPY 2007-2008 will foster new social-science case studies in many circumpolar regions where reindeer herding and/or caribou hunting take place. ANTLER seeks to unite these efforts, with the aim to assess the current social, socio-economic and cultural significance of reindeer herding and caribou hunting 'on the ground' and to provide reliable and realistic information for future management strategies. ANTLER participants will also compare and evaluate various methodologies in the field of Rangifer research and strategies for improved data management. ANTLER will contribute to a better understanding of an important human-animal relationship in the Arctic: on the one hand, through contributing knowledge concerning the social significance of Rangifer as it shapes human life in the Arctic; on the other hand, through examining the significance of human social, economic and political strategies as they affect Rangifer populations, distribution and its position in the Arctic ecosystem. ANTLER addresses reindeer herding and caribou hunting as important elements in Arctic and sub-Arctic environments and economies. The International Polar Year provides a timely and excellent framework for this international initiative, which will also serve as basis for enhanced multidisciplinary research on Rangifer. Within the wider field of research on human-Rangifer systems, ANTLER's main emphasis is on domesticated reindeer and the domain of knowledge produced by social sciences. It thus complements other projects (such as EALAT and CARMA) with their stronger emphasis on other domains of knowledge. Under the ANTLER umbrella there are two levels of integration. Firstly, there will be five or more key projects, so-called integrated projects, which serve as flagship activities with a research design tailored in accordance with the ANTLER agenda a priori. Secondly, there will be a number of associated projects, each of them designed in its own manner, which contribute selected data to ANTLER. A network secretariat will organize three international workshops and provide communication and dissemination facilities. The initiators shall apply to the Finnish Academy and the ESRC (United Kingdom), which have a bilateral cooperation agreement, and the Norwegian Research Council for financial support for these central activities. This Cooperation Proposal is jointly submitted by three scientific institutions which have a pivotal position in Rangifer social-sicence research: the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland (Finland), the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Germany) and the Scott Polar Research Institute (United Kingdom). The initiators have excellent connections to research institutions across the North, Arctic circumpolar communities and regional NGOs.
ANTLER