Abstract
Climate change, pollution, and resource extraction have heightened interest in arctic research, and communities now encounter scientists more often. This chapter addresses how to build sustainable research relationships through the perspectives of Indigenous Greenlanders and arctic researchers. Collaborative research, community-based participatory research, and Indigenous methodologies provide examples of research partnerships but do not explain the initial steps of building relationships. I examined results from fifteen interviews with arctic researchers, nineteen interviews with Inuit Greenlanders, and four focus groups—working with fourteen of the original Greenlandic interviewees. Through a grounded theory approach, I found the central theme to a sustainable relationship was trust, surrounded by eight prominent actions necessary to create, build, and sustain trust. The actions for trust include: knowing extensive community history; developing strong local contacts; communicating openly about the project; treating the community members as equals; displaying manners and etiquette through honesty and reciprocity; acting ethically in Indigenous cultures outside of the academic world; exchanging knowledge to build social capital; and giving project results to the community so they can be put to practical use.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Community knowledge, traditional knowledge, Indigenous knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, and local knowledge are used interchangeably within this paper, without judgment, malintent, Westernization, or any disrespect, even though some of these terms were contended by Ray (2012).
- 2.
Member checks are a way to get feedback from the interviewee about the validity and accuracy of researcher interpretations of the interviewee’s responses (Morse et al. 2002).
- 3.
Interviews and focus groups with Greenlanders were conducted in Greenlandic and were translated into English. The quotations are English translations of Greenlandic, seeking to translate the meaning instead of just words. The interviews with researchers were typed into a laptop as the interviewee spoke. As I did not use a tape recorder with the researchers, the quotes should be considered a close approximation.
- 4.
Scientists and researchers often use the term ethics to talk about how to treat people in research. This term does not easily translate into Greenlandic, and the translator had to use Danish for “ethics” and the words respect and good manners in Greenlandic.
References
Alaska Federation of Natives. (1993). Alaska Federation of Natives guidelines for research. Retrieved June 3, 2016, from http://ankn.uaf.edu/IKS/afnguide.html
Berkes, F. (2002). Epilogue: Making sense of arctic environmental change? In I. Krupnik & D. Jolly (Eds.), The earth is faster now: Indigenous observations of arctic environmental change (pp. 334–349). Fairbanks: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States.
Bronen, R. (2008). Alaskan communities’ rights and resilience. Forced Migration Review, 31, 30–32.
Brydon-Miller, M. (2009). Covenantal ethics and action research: Exploring a common foundation for social research. In D. M. Mertens & P. E. Ginsbergm (Eds.), Handbook of social research ethics (pp. 243–258). Newbury Park: SAGE Publications.
Burnette, C. E., & Sanders, S. (2014). Trust development in research with Indigenous communities in the United States. The Qualitative Report, 19(44), 1–19.
Coyne, I. T. (1997). Sampling in qualitative research. Purposeful and theoretical sampling; Merging or clear boundaries? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26(3), 623–630.
Dahl, J. (1988). From ethnic to political identity. Nordic Journal on International Law, 57(3), 312–315.
Embassy of the United States. (2012). Greenland: Embassy of the United States Copenhagen Denmark. Retrieved from http://denmark.usembassy.gov/gl/about.html
[The] Examining Community-Institutional Partnerships for Prevention Research Group. (2006). Developing and sustaining community-based participatory research partnerships: A skill-building curriculum. Retrieved from www.cbprcurriculum.info
Fisher, P. A., & Ball, T. J. (2003). Tribal participatory research: Mechanisms of a collaborative model. American Journal of Community Psychology, 32(3/4), 207–216.
Fondahl, G., Wright, P., Yim, D., Sherry, E., Leon, B., Bulmer, W., Grainger, S., & Young, J. (2009). Co-managing research: Building and sustaining a First Nation – University partnership, CDI Publications Series, University of Northern British Columbia Retrieved from http://www.unbc.ca/cdi/publications.html
Gad, F. (1973). The history of Greenland II: 1700–1782. London: C. Hurst & Company.
Gearheard, S., & Illauq, N. (2009). The Ittaq Heritage and Research Center: Inuit led research in Nunavut. Meridian,12–15.
Gearheard, S., Pocernich, M., Stewart, R., Sanguya, J., & Huntington, H. P. (2010). Linking Inuit knowledge and meteorological station observations to understand changing wind patterns at Clyde River, Nunavut. Climatic Change, 100(2), 267–294.
Glaser, B. G. (1978). Theoretical sensitivity. Mill Valley: Sociology Press.
Hart, M. A. (2010). Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, and research: The development of an Indigenous research paradigm. Journal of Indigenous Voices in Social Work, 1(1), 1–16.
Hirshberg, D., & Sharp, S. (2005). Thirty years later: The long-term effect of boarding schools on Alaska Natives and their communities. Anchorage: Institute of Social & Economic Research.
Hodge, F. S. (2012). No meaningful apology for American Indian unethical research abuses. Ethics & Behavior, 22(6), 431–444.
Holm, L. K., Grenoble, L. A., & Virginia, R. A. (2010, October). Toward a new research ethic for Greenland. Paper presented at the 17th Inuit Studies Conference, Val-d’Or, Québec.
Huntington, H., & Fox, S. (2005). The changing Arctic: Indigenous perspectives. In C. Symon, L. Arris, & B. Heal (Eds.), Arctic climate impact assessment (pp. 61–98). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Huntington, H.P., Brown-Schwalenberg, P.K., Frost, K.J., Fernandez-Gimenez, M.E., Norton, D.W., & Rosenberg, D.H. (2002). Observations on the workshop as a means of improving communication between holders of traditional and scientific knowledge. Environmental Management, 30, 778–792.
Huntington, H., Gearheard, S., Mahoney, A. R., & Salomon, A. K. (2011). Integrating traditional and scientific knowledge through collaborative natural science field research: Identifying elements for success. Arctic, 64(4), 437–445.
Israel, B., Shulz, A., Parker, E., & Becker, A. (1998). Review of community-based research: Assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual Review of Public Health, 19, 173–202.
Kennedy, V., & Wehipeihana, N. (2006). A stock take of national and international ethical guidelines on health and disability research in relation to Indigenous People (Unpublished report), The National Ethics Advisory Committee Te Kahui Matatika o te Motu.
Leiderman, S., Furco, A., Zapf, J., & Goss, M. (2003). Building partnerships with college campuses: Community perspectives (Monograph: A publication of the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education’s Engaging Communities and Campuses Program). The Council of Independent Colleges.
Lucero, J. (2013). Trust as an ethical construct in community based participatory research partnerships. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
Lynge, A. E. (2011). Mental decolonization in Greenland. Intern-Nord, 21, 273–276.
Madriz, E. (2000). Focus groups in feminist research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of grounded theory (pp. 835–850). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Minkler, M. (2004). Ethical challenges for the “outside” researcher in community-based participatory research. Health Education & Behavior, 31(6), 684–697.
Morse, J. M., Barrett, M., Mayan, M., Olson, K., & Spiers, J. (2002). Verification strategies for establishing reliability and validity in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 1(2), 13–22.
Oetzel, J. G. (2005). Effective intercultural workgroup communication theory. In W. B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 351–371). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Olsen, J., Mulvad, G., Pedersen, M. S., Christiansen, T., & Sørensen, P. H. (2004). An ethics committee for medical research in Greenland: History and challenges. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 63(2), 144–146.
Penfield, S. D., Serratos, A., Tucker, B. V., Flores, A., Harper, G., Hill, J., Jr., & Vasquez, N. (2008). Community collaborations: Best practices for North American Indigenous language documentation. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 191, 187–202.
Rasmussen, K. (1908). The people of the polar North: A record (G. Herring, Trans.). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.
Ray, L. (2012). Deciphering the “Indigenous” in Indigenous methodologies. Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 8(1), 85–98.
Rosenthal, E. (2012). Race is on as ice melt reveals arctic treasures. New York Times, September 19. Retrieved September 21, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/science/earth/arctic-resources-exposed-by-warming-set-off-competition.html
Smith, L. T. (2005). On tricky ground: Researching the Native in the age of uncertainty. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of grounded theory (pp. 85–107). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park: Sage.
UN General Assembly, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: resolution/adopted by the General Assembly, 2 October 2007, A/RES/61/295, Retrieved 16 October 2014, from http://www.refworld.org/docid/471355a82.html
Vaughan, R. (1991). Northwest Greenland: A history. Orono: The University of Maine Press.
Wallerstein, N., Oetzel, J., Duran, B., Tafoya, G., Belone, L., & Rae, R. (2008). What predicts outcomes in CBPR? In M. Minkler & N. Wallerstein (Eds.), Community based participatory research for health (2nd ed., pp. 371–394). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Weatherhead, E., Gearheard, S., & Barry, R. G. (2010). Changes in weather persistence: Insight from Inuit knowledge. Global Environmental Change, 20(3), 523–528.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the Washington Internships for Native Students, ASRC Federal, National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, NSF ARC #0908151, International Arctic Social Sciences Association, Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, International Arctic Science Committee, International Arctic Research Center, Arctic-FROST: NSF PLR #1338850, University of Wisconsin-Madison Sociology Department, Dr. Randy Stoecker, Dr. Elizabeth Rink, the researchers willing to describe their experiences, and all of the Greenlanders who welcomed me into their community and shared their stories with me.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gordon, H.S.J. (2017). Building Relationships in the Arctic: Indigenous Communities and Scientists. In: Fondahl, G., Wilson, G. (eds) Northern Sustainabilities: Understanding and Addressing Change in the Circumpolar World. Springer Polar Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46150-2_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46150-2_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46148-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46150-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)