Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge Into Western Science in the Arctic Council: Lip Service?
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020-09-21 Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Western science in the Arctic Council: Lip service? Sidorova, Evgeniia (Jen) Sidorova, E. (2020). Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Western science in the Arctic Council: Lip service? (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/113195 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Western science in the Arctic Council: Lip service? by Evgeniia (Jen) Sidorova A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2020 © Evgeniia (Jen) Sidorova 2020 Preface This thesis is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Evgeniia (Jen) Sidorova. The University of Calgary Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board has approved this research study. This thesis has been professionally edited. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my academic supervisor, Dr. Rob Huebert, faculty and staff of the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary, my family, friends, people whom I interviewed for this thesis, and all the wonderful people whom I met throughout these five years. 3 Dedication This thesis is dedicated to Indigenous peoples in all regions of the world. 4 Abstract The utilization of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in wildlife management has been a prominent topic for several decades. Since its establishment, the Arctic Council (AC) has emphasized the importance of TEK and its utilization in its work. Yet, the AC has not been successful in the process of knowledge coproduction. Why has TEK not been meaningfully incorporated into the Arctic Council? To answer this question, the study created and applied the Participation-Indigenous-Local-Application-Cross-cultural evaluation scale to the AC documents in order to analyze to what degree TEK has been incorporated into them. The research included interviews with 15 Indigenous leaders, officials, and scholars who were involved in the work of AC and/or worked with Indigenous communities and TEK projects. This study argues that lip service occurred as a result of several factors: state diversity in the perception of TEK as a concept, lesser effectiveness of Permanent Participants in the incorporation of TEK, politicization of TEK, and the resistance of Western scholars to TEK. 5 Table of Contents Preface............................................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgements. ........................................................................................................................ 3 Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2. Theoretical IR Perspectives on the Knowledge Production Process ........................... 18 Chapter 3. The Arctic Council Structure and Processes: The Role of TEK in the AC ................ 25 Chapter 4. TEK and Comanagement Regimes in the Arctic ........................................................ 78 Chapter 5. Theory and Methodology .......................................................................................... 118 Chapter 6. The Application of the PILAC Scale to AC Documents .......................................... 151 Chapter 7. Findings ..................................................................................................................... 274 Chapter 8. The Implications of the Discussion on TEK in the Arctic Council: What is Hidden Behind the Major Challenges of Incorporating TEK? ................................................................ 327 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 392 Bibliography. .............................................................................................................................. 403 6 Introduction The discussion on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in resource management has been a prominent topic for a few decades, especially across the North American Arctic and subarctic (Berkes, 1999; Nadasdy, 1999). According to some views, traditional knowledge— mainly traditional ecological knowledge—has practical significance for wildlife management and ecology (Berkes, 1999). According to Sillitoe, Dixon and Barr (2005), the history of TEK stretches back to the start of anthropology, but TEK is also related to natural resources and development research. Research Issues and Objectives This study is focused on the examination the incorporation of TEK into the work of the Arctic Council (AC). The research question is: Why has TEK not been incorporated into the AC? The main objectives of this study include the review of the academic discussion on knowledge coproduction in the Arctic Council and Arctic states; the creation of the evaluation scale in order to measure to what extent TEK been meaningfully incorporated into the AC; the analysis of findings; the examination of implications of these findings; and the investigation of general conclusions that arise from these implications, not only for the Arctic region, but instead, in the context of the field of international relations (IR) in general. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the implications of the failure of the incorporation of TEK into the AC. From more broad IR perspectives, the study is aimed to examine the implications of the power dynamics surrounding the incorporation of subjugated knowledge into dominant knowledge frameworks. 7 Although TEK is a well-known concept in the Arctic region, there have not been any systematic studies that have analyzed how exactly TEK was and is currently used at the AC. The process of incorporation of TEK has not been explained, instructed or guided from anywhere in the Arctic. Furthermore, the AC has not published any report or assessment that could explain how exactly TEK should be incorporated in a meaningful way. This study developed an evaluation scale that measures to what degree TEK has been incorporated into scientific reports. This scale is a major contribution to this study. This dissertation pursues several objectives. The first of them includes the analysis of the emergence and development of TEK incorporation in the Arctic Council through monitoring of meeting minutes of working groups and declarations. The study will analyze meeting minutes reports and declarations in order to identify major patterns of TEK incorporation as well as the challenges and obstacles in the process of TEK incorporation. The second objective is to establish a scale that could evaluate the degree of the extent to which TEK has been incorporated and the application of this scale to scientific reports, assessments and any other documentation that aimed to incorporate TEK in the AC work. This scale will be designed to reflect significant components of TEK required for its meaningful incorporation, and it will be based on interviews and academic literature. This step is needed to identify the main factors that became obstacles in the process of meaningful incorporation of TEK into the AC. The third objective is to compare the analytical results of the application of this scale, separating TEK projects published by the Working Groups (WGs) and by Permanent Participants (PPs). The projects of the PPs and WGs will be analyzed separately, as well as their close cultural, ethnic and linguistic connections with knowledge holders (Indigenous Elders); 8 Indigenous intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are more likely to have different perspectives on TEK incorporation. The dissertation will also evaluate to what extent the Canadian and North American influences affected the degree of TEK incorporation in science and policy. This study will evaluate the impact of the presence of PPs and the North American actors on TEK incorporation in the AC. This study applies a social constructivist approach in order to explain why the incorporation of TEK has turned into “lip service.” TEK is understood as a subjugated type of knowledge and as a social construct that has been framed by interactions between the actors. The major outcomes of the study are as follows: State diversity in the concept of TEK: Settler–colonial relationships and Indigenous rights and policies vary from state to state, and this is why the TEK regimes similar to comanagement must be adapted to each state. The North American concept of TEK has