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Natural Resources and Social Visions for Greenland's Futures

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Natural Resources and Social Visions for Greenland's Futures Natural resources and social visions for Greenland’s futures HELENA G. LINDBERG, ARCTIC FRONTIERS 2016, TROMSØ, NORWAY PHD CANDIDATE, POLITICAL SCIENCE/LUCID, LUND UNIVERSITY Overview . Research interests . Greenland’s quest for independence . The ”What’s the problem”-approach . Analysis of New Year Speech . Constraints on social visions and alternatives Research interests . Natural resource exploration and exploitation . Social construction of nature as "up for grabs” . The Arctic region as a so-called new resource frontier . Alternative social visions for the future in the Arctic Alternative social visions? The future must not only be foreseen and dreamt of, but also chosen and built. Masini 2006:1159 • How are dominant discourses about so-called modern development limiting the scope of alternative visions for Greenland’s future? • Is it necessary to become a state in order to have self- determination? Greenland’s quest for independence • Inhabited for 4500 years • Colony of Denmark from 1814 and still under the Kingdom of Denmark • Home Rule Act 1979 with block grant from Denmark • Self-Government Act 2008 • Danish still in control of foreign affairs and defence Why wanting to become a state? • Colonial reasons • Identity reasons • Geographical and logistical reasons • Actual opportunity presenting itself? • Pressure from an increasing focus upon Arctic states, illustrated by the Illuslissat declaration between the Arctic 5 only? What’s the problem approach (1) • Carol Lee Bacchi (1999) asks: – What is the ´problem´represented to be? – What assumptions underlie this representation and is left unproblematic? – What is taken for granted? – What effects are produced by this representation and who is likely to benefit? – How does this representation impose constraints on social vision? What’s the problem approach (2) • How are Greenland’s current and future problems represented by: – The Greenlandic Government – The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) – Greenpeace International • How do certain representations impose constraints on alternative social visions for Greenland’s futures? Nuuk’s statebuilding strategy ”Greenlandic politicians view large-scale extractive industries as the only possible way to a self-sustained economy” Erdal 2013:4 • Playing up sovereignty over natural resources, using an imagined future of independence as a way of enhancing its subjectivity • Climate change as an opportunity for launching extractive industries at an unprecedented scale Kim Kielsen’s New Year Speech 2016 • Kim Kielsen is the Prime Minister in the Greenlandic Government, the Naalakkersuisut, since October 2014 • Leader of the social democratic party Siumut, the biggest party on Greenland • Siumut works towards full Greenlandic independence, out of the ”riksfælleskap” with Denmark Analysis: What’s the problem approach A. What is the ´problem´represented to be? B. What assumptions underlie this representation and is left unproblematic? C. What is taken for granted? D. What effects are produced by this representation and who is likely to benefit? E. How does this representation impose constraints on social vision? A - What’s the problem represented to be? • Greenland has economic challenges which needs to be met by securing the development of four pilars: fisheries, raw materials, tourism and industry • Low price on raw materials on the international market • Many unemployed people • Decreasing population, especially labor force • Unfortunately high rates of violence and sexual abuse B - What assumptions underlie this representation? • Greenland is attractive to foreign investments • Positive development comes with raw materials developmet: ”[…] it is primarily the foreign investments that shall be helping with driving a continued positive development in the area of raw materials.” (emphasis added) • The Greenlandic labor market is not modern enough • Greenlandic people knows what climate change really is • Greenlandic people are good at working together C - What is taken for granted? • ”starting the wheel” and getting ”progress” is the right way to go • Increase in tourism is a good thing • Fisheries is and will continue to be the main business • ”We are part of the globalised world.” • Grown-ups have special responsibility for the children • Children are of utmost importance • All citizens wish for economic independence for Greenland D - Effects produced? Who benefits? ”The most important resource in this country is not minerals or oil. It is us humans!” • Emphasising the human dimension – focus on the role of the Government as a uniting force against those (outsiders) who focus on exploitation of natural resources • Oil and gas not mentioned specifically • Children – what about adolescence? Grown-ups benefit E - Constraints on social visions • There is missions to ”create growth in society” without questioning the capitalistic ”growth”-society. Other values? • Expects a top-down development path • People come together to create growth, but what about the individual’s possibilities to develop? Small scale enterprises? • Greenland needs to become independent but at what cost? Long- term consequences of raw material focus. Resouces curse? • Is becoming a state the only way to control one’s own political space? ”The seduction of independence” • By having the ambition of becoming a nation state, Greenland’s Government is accepting the modern state system and embraced the nation state ideal (Steinberg et al. 2015) • Critised for following the coloniser’s (Western) ideal and capitalistic development path • ”Colonisation of the mind” • Can there be an Inuit right to self-determination that trancends the modern nation state idea? Alternative social visions? Examples . Human agents of transformation: Creative capital . Local-knowledge based development – more bottom-up . Strong sustainability . Cultural economics . Prosperity without (economic) growth Petrov’s search for creative capital […] northern communities are not ‘hopeless places’ fully deprived of the creative capital. Creative ‘hot spots’ in the North exist, and could become the centers of regional reinvention. Petrov 2014:13-14 • Measuring four types of creative capital (CC): scientists, bohemians, entrepreneurs and leaders, as well as the measure of educational attainment beyond bachelor’s degree • Local synergy between creative capital and social capital • Greenland unfortunately not included in this study… CC and political engagement? ”As opposed to Inuit areas in Alaska, Canada and Russia, where development has often been tied to external interests and hence is often viewed with suspicion by local residents, in Greenland, where domestic authorities have more say and more to gain, the impetus to think critically is inevitably blunted.” Steinberg et al. 2015:82 The ‘blessing of remoteness’ (Petrov 2014) • Influx of temporary migrants employed in extraction industries in more central areas decrease CC, while there are positive impacts of remoteness on accumulation of CC • This indicate a higher level of creative potential, independence and self-reliance of remote areas compared to less remote peripheries • Remote settings may also be more attractive to creative individuals and provide better conditions for retaining local creativity (such as Indigenous cultural economies) Local innovation, new ideas “[…] almost every innovation has had a clear core agent to manage the process. Very often this agent, initiator and ‘engine’ of the process has been a local person, who has committed him/herself to the development of a new idea” (Aarsæther in Petrov 2014:6, emphasis added) Concluding remarks Greenland will have joined the status quo with increased international recognition but at a domestic price that is still difficult to foresee Steinberg et al. 2015:88 • The more the Arctic is opening up and becoming a geopolitical hot- spot (which many downplay), this increases the realistic view of Greenland’s independence • Greenland has opportunities to take, but with what vision? • Is the quest for independence ”at any cost” blocking the other opportunities and development options? References • Bacchi, Carol Lee (1999). Women, Policy and Politics. The Construction of Policy Problems. SAGE Publications. • Erdal, Lisa L. (2013). Independence on the Horizon - A Study of the Interplay Between Sovereignty and Natural Resources in Greenland . FNI Report 6/2013 • Gad, Ulrik P. (2014). Greenland: A post-Danish sovereign nation state in the making. Cooperation and Conflict 2014, Vol. 49 (1), pp.98-118 • Kielsen, Kim (2016). Nytårstale 2016. Kim Kielsen, formand for Naalakkersuisut. Accessed: http://naalakkersuisut.gl/~/media/Nanoq/Files/Attached%20Files/Naalakkersuisut/DK/Taler/Nytårstale%202016%20D K_endelig.pdf • Masini, Eleonora (2006). Rethinking futures studies. Futures 38 (2006) 1158–1168 • Petrov, Andrey N. (2014). Creative Arctic: Towards Measuring Arctic’s Creative Capital. Arctic Yearbook 2014 • Steinberg, P.E., Tasch, J. & Gerhardt, H. (2015). Contesting the Arctic: Politics and Imaginaries in the Circumpolar North. I.B. Tauris. • All illustrations/pictures from Wikicommons.
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