Aalborg Universitet Subjective Well-being and Quality of Life in Greenland Steenholdt, Naja Carina Publication date: 2020 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication from Aalborg University Citation for published version (APA): Steenholdt, N. C. (2020). Subjective Well-being and Quality of Life in Greenland. Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Ph.d.-serien for Det Tekniske Fakultet for IT og Design, Aalborg Universitet General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. ? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain ? You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from vbn.aau.dk on: October 04, 2021 SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN GREENLAND IN LIFE OF QUALITY AND WELL-BEING SUBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN GREENLAND BY NAJA CARINA STEENHOLDT DISSERTATION SUBMITTED 2020 NAJA CARINA STEENHOLDT CARINA NAJA SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN GREENLAND by Naja Carina Steenholdt Dissertation submitted 2020 Dissertation submitted: 31. December 2020 PhD supervisor: Professor WSR Anne Merrild Hansen, Aalborg University Assistant PhD supervisors: Emeritus Birger Poppel University of Greenland Senior Researcher Ulrik Pram Gad, Danish Institute for International Studies PhD committee: Professor Lone Kørnøv (chairman) Aalborg University Professor Emeritus Valerie Møller Rhodes University Professor Peter Berliner University of Greenland PhD Series: Technical Faculty of IT and Design, Aalborg University Department: Department of Planning ISSN (online): 2446-1628 ISBN (online): 978-87-7210-862-9 Published by: Aalborg University Press Kroghstræde 3 DK – 9220 Aalborg Ø Phone: +45 99407140 [email protected] forlag.aau.dk © Copyright: Naja Carina Steenholdt Printed in Denmark by Rosendahls, 2021 To my mother, Larsine… and the apple of our eyes, Norah. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many have been part of my journey of accomplishing the tasks of this project; offering support, guidance and encouragement, and before you read this dissertation, I urge you to pay attention to these people for whom without, this project would not have been possible. In this project, I was enrolled in two universities: The Department of Planning in Aalborg University and the Department of Social Science in Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland. This opportunity was an absolute privilege, and I am thankful to all of my colleagues in both institutions, for the professional collaboration and for always being welcoming, open-minded and helpful to me. This project was partly funded by the Department of Social Planning in the Ministry of Social Affairs, Family and Justice in the Government of Greenland. I am grateful to this unit, for their support and very helpful supervision in how to handle the difficult conversations with traumatized citizens. The most important contributors to this project has been the people who have been part of this project as informants, both in Denmark and in Greenland. Without you, this dissertation could not have been realized, and I am sincerely grateful for your openness and willingness to participate in this project. I would also thank the people, who in other ways have helped me. This applies not least to the management in the employment offices, Majoriaq; specifically Eli Abelsen in Tasiilaq, Karla Johansen in Aasiaat, Claus Jochimsen in Ilulissat and Maria Nielsen in Uummannaq. Qujanarujussuaq for supporting me with a place to conduct interviews, and helping recruit informants. Among the many to thank, I am grateful to my supervisors, whose individual experience and competence has been integral to the accomplishment of this project. To my supervisor, Professor Anne Merrild Hansen. Thank you for your much appraised support, feedback and encouragement, and for planting the idea of pursuing a PhD, already in my early years as a BA student. I am forever indebted to you, for showing this faith in me. To my supervisor, emeritus Birger Poppel. Your experience and patient support has been invaluable. I am thankful for our many insightful and motivating conversations, and not least your untiring efforts in keeping me from stumbling over myself. To my supervisor, Senior Researcher Ulrik Pram Gad. I will never regret that I persuaded you to be my supervisor. You have supported and challenged me throughout the project, and I am so very grateful for your (at times merciless, yet much appreciated) feedback and guidance, even at times when even I did not know, where I was going. A special thanks to my peer PhD student, Daniela Chimirri, you have been a wonderful ‘work-wife’ throughout the years, and frankly, I cannot imagine how lonely this journey would had been without you. I am grateful for the help from peer PhD student Mette Schlütter from Aarhus University, who provided valuable knowledge about and possible contacts in Uummannaq. Also many thanks to peer PhD student and good friend, Miilla Lennert, for lending me her office to conduct interviews in Nuuk. To postdoc Marc Jacobsen; thank you for showing such sincere interest in my 4 work and being a much unexpected, yet highly appreciated catalyst in the work of the articles in Tidsskriftet Politik and The Arctic Institute, as well as in the exposure in High North News. To my peer members at the Centre for Innovation and Research in Culture and Living in the Arctic (CIRCLA), thank you for many insightful discussions and intellectual feedback to the texts presented on seminars. Managing this dissertation in three languages (four including Tunumiit oraasiat) would have been far too overwhelming without the people who helped translate and proofread the text material. I would like to thank the people who helped translate the interviews in situ, namely Eli Abelsen in Tasiilaq, Maria Steenholdt in Aasiaat and Johanne Olsen in Ilulissat. I also would like to thank Judithe Denbæk from Oqaasileriffik, The Directory of Language and MA student Beathe Christiansen as well as my good friend Nivi B. Kleist for helping me with translating and proofreading the Greenlandic texts. Tamassinut qujanarsuaq! Thanks to Dr. Audrey Matthews for the English proofread of this dissertation and to Kuupik Kleist for translating the resume into Greenlandic. I also would like to thank the linguistic researchers whom I met during my stay at the writing refuge, Klitgården, for stimulating discussions about linguistic equivalence. During this project, I was fortunate to be accommodated in many ways in Greenland as well as in Denmark. To this end, I am grateful to my cousin Agathe and her husband Aron Rafaelsen from Aasiaat. To my good friend, Julie Rademacher and her boys Carl and Victor, thank you for always opening your home to me in my stays in Nuuk and for your generosity of spirit. Thanks to Ann-Marie Sørensen from the Free Church in Uummannaq for letting me stay gratuitously during my trip to Uummannaq. I would also like to give a heartfelt thanks to Elisabeth and Palle Guldmann Petersen, for lending me their cottage at a time where the covid-19 pandemic caused me to lose focus and motivation. Thank you for so generously offering me such a wonderful place, where I was able to hear myself think. Last, but not least, I owe gratitude to my family and friends for their love and moral support. To my mother, Larsine, who unfortunately passed away in the early days of this project; if I could, I would have thanked her for never placing any doubts in me, or my capability to achieve anything I set my nose up to. To my daughter, Norah - my reason of reasons. You sat on my lap many times and typed some of the words in this dissertation. Thank you for making me see the world through your eyes, only to be reminded what is truly important in life. To my brother, Jesper, thank you for always being there for me. Your calm and careful attitude has, as always, been complimentary to the restlessness and impatience of my own. Above all, I owe gratitude to my husband, Olaf, who not only have been tirelessly supportive of me pursuing my dreams and aspirations, but is a wonderful father to our daughter, not least on the many occasions, where I had to be away for field trips and conferences. Any omission among these acknowledgements does not mean lack of appreciation. 5 TABLE OF CONTENT Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................. 17 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 18 1.1 Well-Being and Living Conditions in Greenland ........................................... 18 1.2 The Empirical Status and Shortcoming .......................................................... 19 1.3 Research Questions ........................................................................................ 20 1.4 A Brief Historical Overview .........................................................................