More than fifty years ago, the research programme of the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958 included no social science research projects at all. However this was not the case for the International Polar Year 2007-2008 thanks to the efforts of the social science community to be included in the latest IPY.
Not only have social scientists carried out a number of studies focusing on various issues that concern indigenous Arctic communities (most notably climate change); they have also encouraged natural scientists to include members of indigenous communities in the Arctic in their research and practice reciprocity as well as asked for the history and legacy of the latest IPY to be documented.
Dr. Igor Krupnik of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC has played a key role in making the social part of the latest IPY. in a two-part interview posted on SciencePoles, Dr. Krupnik examines the contributions social scientists have made to the most recent IPY.