Arctic Discourses and Climate Change in Greenland

    Aktivitet: Foredrag og mundtlige bidragForedrag og præsentationer i privat eller offentlig virksomhed

    Beskrivelse

    Arctic Discourses and Climate Change in Greenland
    By Lill Rastad Bjørst, PhD

    With the new Greenland Self-Government, the necessity of increasing growth in energy intensive industries is on the political agenda, and this at
    a time where both “negative” and “positive” effects of climate change are emerging. This paper has taken its point of departure in the ongoing Arctic climate change debate following analytical questions such as: Who are the central Arctic actors? How do they position themselves in the climate change debate? And how is that related to Arctic discourses, when it comes to climate change in Greenland? The questions of how climate change is discursively and materially
    framed in relation to Greenland and the Arctic lead to considerations pertaining to how the humanistic sciences might frame and approach discussions of climate change as such. Discussions of climate change open up complex social and
    political arenas, where an increasing number of actors (human as well as non-human) are delegated as spokespersons to talk on behalf of nature, culture, society and climate and because of this, this work draws on perspectives derived
    from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and particularly poststructuralist writers such as Barad, Butler and Haraway. Studies of Arctic discourses in the climate debate reveal a discursive battle where science, politics, media and NGOs as well as Inuit are engaged in linking, relating, framing, and forming alliances as well as shaping and reshaping them. A central argument put forth in this paper is that no one acts alone, but rather in alliances with other actors (human and nonhuman) and this affects and forms e.g. the Inuit’s positions and influence on the climate change debate.
    Periode25 okt. 2012
    Begivenhedstitel18th Inuit Studies Conference: “Learning from the Top of the World"
    BegivenhedstypeKonference
    PlaceringWashington DC, USAVis på kort

    Emneord

    • inuit, Greenland