Marius Warg Næss is a researcher at the High North Department. He has a PhD in anthropology from UiT – the Arctic University of Norway. In 2022 he was granted ERC Consolidator Grant for ERC-prosjektet “From small-scale cooperative herding groups to nomadic empires – a cross-cultural approach (Complexity)”.

Marius works interdisciplinary at the intersection of social science and ecology. His primary focus is on natural resources use and how developing adaptive management systems require the integration of knowledge from the social and natural sciences. He has broad experience working both quantitatively and qualitatively with particular focus on Saami reindeer husbandry and nomadic pastoralists in Tibet. Specifically, he has been concerned with understanding how: (1) labour investment and cooperation influence pastoral production; (2) pastoral decision-making affects herd dynamics; and (3) nomadic pastoralists manage environmental risk.

More recently, he has been using a comparative approach to investigate: (1) the rationale and consequences of governmental management policies; (2) the effects of climate change; and (3) how governmental management policies may both exacerbate the negative effects of climate change and transform traditional social institutions.

Key qualifications:
High North, Tibet, nomadic pastoralism, reindeer husbandry, Tibetan pastoralism, risk management, adaptation, labour and production, mobility/land use, cooperation and conflict, game theory, human ecology, human behavioural ecology, climate change, policy, social organisation, quantitative and qualitative method, interdisciplinary approaches, traditional knowledge, theoretical modelling.

Næss has previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow/researcher at the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo.

Marius Warg Næss’ blog