Scientists have been preparing for this large-scale sociological study of the Indigenous peoples of the North for three years

A major sociological study of the Indigenous peoples of the North has begun in the Taimyr Peninsula, the Far North of Russia, GoArctic reports.

Scientists have been preparing for this large-scale sociological study for three years.

Representatives of four ethnic groups, namely, the Nenets, Enets, Dolgans and Nganasans, will take part in the research, conducted by scientists from the Sociological and Geographical Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Representatives of four ethnic groups will answer the scientists' questions.

The interview topics will include the peculiarities of everyday life of Indigenous peoples in the actively developing world, which is moving further away from the traditional way of life.

We are interested in language preservation and the maintenance of Indigenous peoples' traditional economic activities, as well as the formation of public opinion in their communities, Indigenous peoples' use of the Internet and their behaviour on social media […], chief scientist of the Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 expedition said.

The long-term monitoring group of scientists from the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been studying how Indigenous peoples from nine regions of the Russian Arctic communicate on social media since 2020. As a result, the scientists have prepared a study, which was launched in early December.

For three years, with the permission of the administrators, our scientists have been members of chat rooms and groups of Indigenous peoples, recording key areas of interest for Indigenous peoples. We entered into dialogues, raised various topics and formulated a pool of questions for the upcoming in-depth interviewing of almost eight hundred representatives of Indigenous peoples of the North, head of the long-term monitoring group and researcher at the Centre for Arctic and Siberian Studies said.

Interviews will be conducted until February 2024, and the first results of the study will be published in the spring.

The Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 expedition includes 700 participants from more than 20 research centres and federal universities, as well as the Russian Geographical Society volunteers. Over a year-long term, participants will conduct 200 studies on routes that will be as long as 12,000 km.

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