Climate, Society and Subsurface Politics in Greenland

Climate, Society and Subsurface Politics in Greenland
Author: Mark Nuttall
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2017-05-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1351400282

Once imagined as a place on the very edge of the world, Greenland is now viewed as being at the epicentre of climate change. At the same time, international attention is focused on opportunities for oil and mineral development, seemingly made possible as the inland ice melts and sea ice disappears, revealing geological riches and making access to remote areas easier. In this book, Mark Nuttall takes the reader on a journey through landscapes, seascapes and icescapes of memory, movement and anticipation. Unravelling the entanglements of climate change, indigenous sovereignty and the politics surrounding non-renewable resource extraction, he describes how the country is on the verge of major environmental, political and social transformations as it aspires to greater autonomy and possible independence from Denmark. At the heart of this is discussion about how resources and the environment are given meaning and how they have become subject to intense political and ideological struggle. Climate, Society and Subsurface Politics in Greenland: Under the Great Ice is a key resource for academics, practitioners and students of anthropology, geography, development studies, political ecology and polar studies.

The Shaping of Greenland’s Resource Spaces

The Shaping of Greenland’s Resource Spaces
Author: Mark Nuttall
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2023-08-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000921492

The book examines ideas about the making and shaping of Greenland’s society, environment, and resource spaces. It discusses how Greenland’s resources have been extracted at different points in its history, shows how acquiring knowledge of subsurface environments has been crucial for matters of securitisation, and explores how the country is being imagined as an emerging frontier with vast mineral reserves. The book delves into the history and contemporary practice of geological exploration and considers the politics and corporate activities that frame discussion about extractive industries and resource zones. It touches upon resource policies, the nature of social and environmental assessments, and permitting processes, while the environmental and social effects of extractive industries are considered, alongside an assessment of the status of current and planned resource projects. In its exploration of the nature and place of territory and the subterranean in political and economic narratives, the book shows how the making of Greenland has and continues to be bound up with the shaping of resource spaces and with ambitions to extract resources from them. Yet the book shows that plans for extractive industries remain controversial. It concludes by considering the prospects for future development and debates on conservation and Indigenous rights, with reflections on how and where Greenland is positioned in the geopolitics of environmental governance and geo-security in the Arctic. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental anthropology, geography, resource management, extractive industries, environmental governance, international relations, geopolitics, Arctic studies, and sustainable development.

Greenland and the International Politics of a Changing Arctic

Greenland and the International Politics of a Changing Arctic
Author: Kristian Søby Kristensen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2017-10-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 135166882X

Greenland and the International Politics of a Changing Arctic examines the international politics of semi-independent Greenland in a changing and increasingly globalised Arctic. Without sovereign statehood, but with increased geopolitical importance, independent foreign policy ambitions, and a solidified self-image as a trailblazer for Arctic indigenous peoples’ rights, Greenland is making its mark on the Arctic and is in turn affected – and empowered – by Arctic developments. The chapters in this collection analyse how a distinct Greenlandic foreign policy identity shapes political ends and means, how relations to its parent state of Denmark is both a burden and a resource, and how Greenlandic actors use and influence regional institutional settings as well as foreign states and commercial actors to produce an increasingly independent – if not sovereign – entity with aims and ambitions for regional change in the Arctic. This is the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of Greenland’s international relations and how they are connected to wider Arctic politics. It will be essential reading for students and scholars interested in Arctic governance and security, international relations, sovereignty, geopolitics, paradiplomacy, indigenous affairs and anyone concerned with the political future of the Arctic.

The Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic

The Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic
Author: Ulrik Pram Gad
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2018-10-04
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1351031961

The Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic argues that sustainability is a political concept because it defines and shapes competing visions of the future. In current Arctic affairs, prominent stakeholders agree that development needs to be sustainable, but there is no agreement over what it is that needs to be sustained. In original conservationist discourse, the environment was the sole referent object of sustainability; however, as sustainability discourses have expanded, the concept has been linked to an increasing number of referent objects, such as society, economy, culture, and identity. This book sets out a theoretical framework for understanding and analysing sustainability as a political concept, and provides a comprehensive empirical investigation of Arctic sustainability discourses. Presenting a range of case studies from Greenland, Norway, Canada, Russia, Iceland, and Alaska, the chapters in this volume analyse the concept of sustainability and how actors are employing and contesting this concept in specific regions within the Arctic. In doing so, the book demonstrates how sustainability is being given new meanings in the postcolonial Arctic and what the political implications are for postcoloniality, nature, and development more broadly. Beyond those interested in the Arctic, this book will also be of great value to students and scholars of sustainability, sustainable development, and identity and environmental politics.

After Ice

After Ice
Author: Rafico Ruiz
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2024-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0774869399

As the climate warms and the hydrological cycle falters, ice is no longer a reliable feature of higher latitudes or winter seasons. What are the consequences of the planet’s waning capacity to cool? In other words, what comes after ice? This collection examines the implications of the end of consistent freezing and thawing cycles. After Ice gathers experts in a wide range of disciplines to articulate aspects of the cold humanities. They investigate ice and its dynamic properties as a foundational element of Indigenous communities in the Arctic regions, as a commodity with technological and political value, and as a reflection of environmental change and the passage of time. As the future of the cryosphere is increasingly determined by human behaviour, this thought-provoking exploration envisions ice as both a phase of water and as a milieu for sensemaking. It asks us to consider how to define, describe, and materially characterize our warming world.

Anthropology and Climate Change

Anthropology and Climate Change
Author: Susan A. Crate
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2023-11-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000988937

In this third edition of Anthropology and Climate Change, Susan Crate and Mark Nuttall offer a collection of chapters that examine how anthropologists work on climate change issues with their collaborators, both in academic research and practicing contexts, and discuss new developments in contributions to policy and adaptation at different scales. Building on the first edition’s pioneering focus on anthropology’s burgeoning contribution to climate change research, policy, and action, as well as the second edition’s focus on transformations and new directions for anthropological work on climate change, this new edition reveals the extent to which anthropologists’ contributions are considered to be critical by climate scientists, policymakers, affected communities, and other rights-holders. Drawing on a range of ethnographic and policy issues, this book highlights the work of anthropologists in the full range of contexts – as scholars, educators, and practitioners from academic institutions to government bodies, international science agencies and foundations, working in interdisciplinary research teams and with community research partners. The contributions to this new edition showcase important new academic research, as well as applied and practicing approaches. They emphasize human agency in the archaeological record, the rapid development in the last decade of community-based and community-driven research and disaster research; provide rich ethnographic insight into worldmaking practices, interventions, and collaborations; and discuss how, and in what ways, anthropologists work in policy areas and engage with regional and global assessments. This new edition is essential for established scholars and for students in anthropology and a range of other disciplines, including environmental studies, as well as for practitioners who engage with anthropological studies of climate change in their work.

Greenland in Arctic Security

Greenland in Arctic Security
Author: Marc Jacobsen
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2024-02-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0472904396

Greenland has increasingly captivated imaginations around the globe. Yet, while it is central to the Arctic region, its role has been poorly understood. Greenland in Arctic Security delivers a comprehensive overview of how security dynamics unfold in and in relation to Greenland. Each individual chapter analyzes specific discourses and dynamics pertaining to hard or soft security questions. These span from great power interests in geostrategic infrastructure to domestic debates centered on promoting and protecting Greenland identity when engaging with the outside world. In addition, the book offers perspectives on other security questions that have been catalyzed by the effects of climate change. By combining these different analyses, Greenland in Arctic Security provides new, theoretically informed discussions on how security politics can manifest across different scales and territorial borders. At times, these politics can have consequences beyond their original intent. With Greenland geopolitics and securitization theory of current interest to political and academic debates, this book offers timely insights for readers.

Greenland's Economy and Labour Markets

Greenland's Economy and Labour Markets
Author: Laust Høgedahl
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2021-08-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000414337

This book explores structural changes in Greenland’s economy and labour markets due to the transformative effects of climatic changes and growing international attention. It offers multidisciplinary perspectives from economists, sociologists, and political scientists to demonstrate how the Greenlandic economy works. Due to an increasing focus on the Arctic area and Greenland in particular, the book seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of Greenland’s labour economy, as well as the challenges that arise from the melting ice and internationalisation. It fills a substantive gap in the existing literature by compiling research on these critical subjects and exploring current and future opportunities for labourers. Today, Greenland is reliant on large financial subsidies from Denmark to provide for a large share of its national budget. This fuels Greenland’s political ambition to gain greater independence from Denmark, which requires more private sector growth to develop a sustainable economy. This book thus contains an exhaustive introduction to important business development themes such as macroeconomics, markets, labour supply, labour market policies, and institutions and considers Greenland’s colonial past, great Inuit heritage, and unique geography and nature to re-shape its economy and labour markets. Informed by a lucid writing style, each chapter casts light on different economic and social issues of Greenland. This is the first international book on Greenland’s economy which discusses its geopolitical importance and prospects for the Arctic region. It will be a valuable point of reference for students and academics of economics, Arctic research and political economy.

Inventing Greenland

Inventing Greenland
Author: Bert De Jonghe
Publisher: Actar D, Inc.
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2022-03-25
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1638408068

Inventing Greenland is a critical and timely assemblage of stories highlighting a shifting landscape – one born from the imagination, projections, and ambitions of a wide range of actors. Geared towards a design audience, this book combines spatial sensibilities with Greenland's local cultural, social, and environmental realities. Inventing Greenland is a critical and timely assemblage of stories highlighting a shifting landscape – one born from the imagination, projections, and ambitions of a wide range of actors. Today, especially within the design discipline, there is a lack of understanding of Greenland as a complex constellation of perspectives, histories, and forces. This book aims to fill that knowledge vacuum. Geared towards architects, landscape architects, and urban planners, this book combines spatial sensibilities with local cultural, social, and environmental realities. More specifically, spatial sensibility is a way of responding to and reading beyond a diverse array of relationships in the built environment. Furthermore, Inventing Greenland provides a broad understanding of a unique island undergoing intense transformation while drawing attention to its historical and current challenges and emerging opportunities. Distinctly, each individual story is anchored to a common thread and interest in architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism. Such discourse may serve to prepare designers at large as they take on projects in a rapidly developing Arctic. In the past, the extremeness of Greenland's landscape did not impede the first immigration of Inuit hunting tribes, Norsemen from becoming Greenland Vikings, and European explorers from searching for new trade routes and eventually reaching the North Pole. Every single one of them read, saw, and understood the Greenlandic landscape differently, while projecting their hopes and dreams onto new landscapes, seascapes, and icescapes. As will become apparent, similar hopes and dreams of the early settlers and explorers continue in postcolonial times in a different set of actors, among them the U.S. military, foreign investors, and an Inuit-run government.

The Inuit World

The Inuit World
Author: Pamela Stern
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2021-11-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000456137

The Inuit World is a robust and holistic reference source to contemporary Inuit life from the intimate world of the household to the global stage. Organized around the themes of physical worlds, moral, spiritual and intellectual worlds, intimate and everyday worlds, and social and political worlds, this book includes ethnographically rich contributions from a range of scholars, including Inuit and other Indigenous authors. The book considers regional, social, and cultural differences as well as the shared histories and common cultural practices that allow us to recognize Inuit as a single, distinct Indigenous people. The chapters demonstrate both the historical continuity of Inuit culture and the dynamic ways that Inuit people have responded to changing social, environmental, political, and economic conditions. Chapter topics include ancestral landscapes, tourism and archaeology, resource extraction and climate change, environmental activism, and women’s leadership. This book is an invaluable resource for students and researchers in anthropology, Indigenous studies, and Arctic studies and those in related fields including geography, history, sociology, political science, and education.