NEW_WAY

The NEW_WAY project will analyse the life trajectories of Russian-speaking linguistic actors, as well as the role of the Russian language (both spoken and written) in the political economy of Northern Norway, with a particular focus on the Russian–Norwegian border region.

Following the end of the Cold War and the implementation of more flexible border policies, Northern Norway—like other regions bordering the former USSR—has assumed a central position in geopolitics, global migration, maritime trade, and in the context of emerging security and environmental crises. In the two decades after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the use and learning of the Russian language by various social actors, including non-native speakers, regained importance within the region’s multilingual economy.

Through this MSCA action, the project proposes to bring expertise in biographical research, Russian language proficiency, and specialist knowledge of Russian-speaking migrant communities, in order to complement the Norwegian research team. It aims to expand on biographical workshop methodologies by integrating nexus analysis, under the supervision of a world-renowned expert in this approach.

The objective is to deepen our understanding of multilingual policies and practices in northern border areas, in order to uncover underlying social processes—past and present—such as legal recognition, linguistic investment and commodification, identity and community formation, among others. These insights have important implications for social cohesion and for the development of peaceful neighbourhood policies in other border regions across Europe. The project also holds theoretical potential, including terminological innovation and conceptual development.

The project is expected to contribute to a better understanding of the decision-making dynamics of multilingual speakers, particularly with regard to their investment in and construction of individual linguistic repertoires. Based on ethnographic and biographical data collected across multiple sites, the project aims to develop a holistic perspective on multilingual practices and the decision-making processes that shape them. The resulting vision will go beyond the sum of its parts and will enable a critical rethinking of concepts such as community, diaspora, minority, majority, and language.

PROJECT