Global Transportation Infrastructure and the Arctic Frontier a Dissert
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Development on Ice: Global Transportation Infrastructure and the Arctic Frontier A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Geography by Mia Moy Bennett 2017 © Copyright by Mia Moy Bennett 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Development on Ice: Global Transportation Infrastructure and the Arctic Frontier by Mia Moy Bennett Doctor of Philosophy in Geography University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor John A. Agnew, Co-Chair Professor Laurence Smith, Co-Chair At the end of the nineteenth century, the seeming unavailability of “free” land elicited declarations of the closure of the frontier. But in the twenty-first century, it seems like more frontiers are opening than ever before. The Arctic is a prime example of this trend. With climate change melting away the Arctic ice cap, multinational corporations, national governments, and indigenous corporations all see opportunities for development. Even as the polar seas and the lands around them are rapidly and unpredictably changing, plans are underway to build new infrastructure like ports along Russia’s northern coast and a highway to the Arctic Ocean in Canada. More than geophysical factors, however, are motivating this infrastructure push. Political, economic, and technological drivers are leading developmental interests to seek to shorten the distance between global markets by bridging the supposed “infrastructure gaps” that exist in not only the Arctic, but also places like Central Asia, Siberia, and beyond. Using a mix of qualitative methods and remote sensing, this dissertation analyzes the scalar politics of infrastructure development in two ii contemporary frontiers: the Arctic and Russian Far East. This research first aims to explain how contemporary frontiers are conjured as spaces in need of development and globally articulated infrastructure by focusing on the Arctic as a regional example (Ch. 1) and the Canadian Arctic as a national example (Ch. 2). I then use two case studies to illustrate how transportation infrastructure projects are spearheaded both from within and outside frontier spaces, drawing on the cases of the indigenous Inuvialuit people and their role in lobbying for and building Canada’s first highway to the Arctic Ocean (Ch. 3) and the Singaporean government’s foray into Arctic development initiatives (Ch. 4). Expanding beyond traditional methods in political geography, I review advances made in using multitemporal night light imagery to study socioeconomic dynamics (Ch. 5) and apply techniques from this field to study regional development in Russia and China (Ch. 6), two countries that experienced vastly different development trajectories following the collapse of communism. Coming full circle, I consider how post-Soviet Russia, suffering from a major infrastructural deficit that is illustrated both by fieldwork and remote sensing, may be a lucrative yet precarious investment site for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (Ch. 7). A central conclusion of this research is that the development of frontiers is politically and economically conditioned, locally negotiated, and cyclical rather than linear. iii The dissertation of Mia Moy Bennett is approved. David L. Rigby Roy Bin Wong John A. Agnew, Committee Co-Chair Laurence Smith, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 iv LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................... xiv VITA .......................................................................................................................................... xviii INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 References ..................................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1: Rethinking the frontier: discursive and material practices of Arctic development 1.1 Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 14 1.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 14 1.3 Resource frontiers revisited .................................................................................................... 17 1.4 Representations and materializations of the Arctic resource frontier ..................................... 19 1.5 Accumulations of extraction and degradation ........................................................................ 23 1.6. The vertical and extensive dimensions of the Arctic resource frontier ................................. 28 1.7 The city extends north ............................................................................................................. 31 1.8 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 33 1.9 References ............................................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER 2: Articulating the Arctic: contrasting state and Inuit maps of the Canadian North 2.1 Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 44 2.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 44 v 2.3 Inuit and Western mapping in the Canadian Arctic ................................................................ 48 2.4 Reading between the maps...................................................................................................... 52 2.4.1 Case study 1: A government’s view of the North ............................................................ 52 2.4.2 Case study 2: Geo-mapping for energy and minerals, but not people ............................ 56 2.4.3 Case study 3: Inuit Nunangat: the Arctic as homeland to Canadian Inuit ....................... 61 2.5 Maps matter: effects of colonial cartography in Northern Canada ......................................... 65 2.5.1 An Arctic in-group and a subaltern sub-Arctic ................................................................ 66 2.5.2 Defining land use ............................................................................................................. 69 2.6 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 72 2.7 Figures..................................................................................................................................... 75 2.8 Note on figures ........................................................................................................................ 78 CHAPTER 3: From state-initiated to indigenous-driven infrastructure: The Inuvialuit and Canada’s first highway to the Arctic Ocean 3.1 Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 87 3.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 88 3.3 The Inuvialuit Settlement Region: Invasion, accommodation, and accumulation ................. 93 3.4 Theoretical framework: Indigenous peoples, infrastructure, and roads .................................. 99 3.5 Making a local road global ................................................................................................... 108 3.5.1 Local needs .................................................................................................................... 112 3.5.2 National ambitions ......................................................................................................... 114 3.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 119 vi 3.7 Figures ………………………………………………………………………………...……122 3.8 References ............................................................................................................................. 124 3.9 Appendix: Interviews ............................................................................................................ 136 CHAPTER 4: Singapore: The “Global” City in a globalizing Arctic 4.1 Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 137 4.2 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 138 4.3 Arctic economic development and the production of a regional frontier ............................. 143 4.4 The deterritorialization of the "tiny red dot" ......................................................................... 148 4.5 Singaporean scale-jumping in Arctic cooperation ................................................................ 155 4.6 Conclusion