Abstract
The concept of sustainability has become central in arctic politics. However, there is little agreement on what ‘sustainable’ means. For different actors (governments, indigenous people, NGOs, etc.) the concept implies different sets of opportunities and precautions. Sustainability, therefore, is a much more fundamental idea to be further elaborated depending on contexts than a definable term with a specific meaning. This paper suggests a set of theoretical questions, which can provide the first steps toward a research agenda on the politics of sustainability. The approach aims to map and analyze the role of sustainability in political and economic strategies in the Arctic. Sustainability has become a fundamental concept that orders the relationship between the environment (nature) and development (economy), however, in the process rearticulating other concepts such as identity (society). Hence, we discuss, first, how, when meeting the Arctic, sustainability changes its meaning and application from the global ecosphere to a regional environment, and, second, how sustainability is again conceptually transformed when meeting Greenlandic ambitions for postcoloniality. This discussion leads us to outline an agenda for how to study the way in which sustainability works as a political concept.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Ackrén, M., & Jakobsen, U. (2015). Greenland as a self-governing sub-national territory in international relations: Past, present and future perspectives. Polar Record, 51(4), 404–412.
Banerjee, S. B. (2003). Who sustain whose development? Sustainable development and the reinvention of nature. Organization Studies, 24(1), 143–180.
Beckerman, W. (2006 [1994]). Sustainable development’: Is it a useful concept?. In M. Redclift (Ed.), Sustainability, critical concepts in the social sciences, Volume II: Sustainable development (pp. 236–255). London: Routledge (Original source: Environmental Values (1994), 3, 191–209).
Berman, M., et al. (2004). Adaptation and sustainability in a small Arctic community: Results of an agent-based simulation model. Arctic, 57(4), 401–414.
Beukel, E., Jensen, P. F., & Rytter, J. E. (2010). Phasing out the colonial status of Greenland, 1945–54. Monographs on Greenland, vol. 347. Man and Society, vol. 37. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Buckler, C., & Wright, L. (2009). Securing a sustainable future in the Arctic: Engaging and training the next generation of northern leaders. Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Caulfield, R. A. (1997). Greenlanders, whales, and whaling: Sustainability and self-determination in the Arctic. Hanover: University Press of New England.
Gad, U. P. (2005). Dansksprogede grønlænderes plads i et Grønland under grønlandisering og modernisering. En diskursanalyse af den grønlandske sprogdebat – læst som identitetspolitisk forhandling. Eskimologis Skrifter, 19.
Gad, U. P. (2009). Post-colonial identity in Greenland? When the empire dichotomizes back – Bring politics back in. Journal of Language and Politics, 8(1), 136–158.
Gad U. P. (2013). Greenland projecting sovereignty – Denmark protecting sovereignty away. In R. Adler-Nissen & U. P. Gad (Eds.), European integration and postcolonial sovereignty games. The EU Overseas Countries and Territories (pp. 217–234). London: Routledge (‘New International Relations’ series).
Hammond, A. (2013, September). Åbningstale ved Formand for Naalakkersuisut. Retrieved September 8, 2015, from http://naalakkersuisut.gl/~/media/Nanoq/Files/Attached%20Files/Taler/DK/Aabningstale_EM_2013_AH_DK.pdf
Hammond, A. (2014, June). Health, wealth and independence (Paper presented at the ‘Arctic Frontiers’ conference, Tromsø). Retrieved September 8, 2015, from http://arcticjournal.com/politics/362/health-wealth-and-independence
Høiris, O. (1986). Antropologien i Danmark, Museal etnografi og etnologi 1860–1960. København: Nationalmuseet.
Howard, R. (2009). The Arctic gold rush: The new race for tomorrow’s natural resources. London: Continuum Publishing Corporation.
Kates, R. W. (1999). Our common journey: A transition toward sustainability. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Kates, R. W. (2000, May). Sustainability science. Paper presented at the World Academies conference transition to sustainability in 21st Century, Tokyo.
Kleist, M. (2010). Greenland’s self-government. In N. Loukacheva (Ed.), Polar law textbook (pp. 171–198). Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers.
Koselleck, R. (1985). Futures past: On the semantics of historical time (K. Tribe, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Lang, I. L. (2008). Barrierer for rekruttering af hjemmehørende grønlandsk arbejdskraft til Hjemmestyret – En undersøgelse af grønlandiseringen i forbindelse med rekruttering til det grønlandske hjemmestyre. Projekt- og Karrierevejledningens Rapportserie Nr. 234/2008, Københavns Universitet: Det samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet.
Lélé, S. M. (2006 [1991]). Sustainable development: A critical review. In M. Redclift (Ed.), Sustainability. Critical concepts in the social sciences, Volume II: Sustainable development (pp. 165–190). London: Routledge (Original source: World Development (1991), 19 (6), 607–21).
Lorentzen, J., Jensen, E. L., & Gulløv, H. C. (Eds.). (1999). Inuit, kultur og samfund. En grundbog i eskimologi. Århus: Systime.
Palonen, K. (2006). Two concepts of politics: Conceptual history and present controversies. Distinktion, 12, 11–25.
Ricœur, P. (1988 [1985]). Time and narrative (Vol. 3) (K. Blamey & D. Pellauer, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Rigsombudsmanden (2013): ‘Indberetning fra Rigsombudsmanden i Grønland’, 24 May, Retrieved October 28, 2013, from http://www.ft.dk/samling/20121/almdel/gru/bilag/45/1253674/index.htm.
Sachs, W. (2006 [1990]). On the archaeology of the development idea. In M. Redclift (Ed.), Sustainability. Critical concepts in the social sciences, Volume II: Sustainable development (pp. 328–353). London: Routledge (Original source: The Ecologist, (1990) 20(2), 42–43).
Sejersen, F. (2014). Klimatilpasning og skaleringspraksisser. In M. Sørensen & M. F. Eskjær (Eds.), Klima og mennesker: Humanistiske perspektiver på klimaforandringer (pp.59–79). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanums Forlag.
Sejersen, F. (2015). Rethinking Greenland and the Arctic in the era of climate change. London/New York: Routledge.
Strandsbjerg, J. (2014). Making sense of contemporary Greenland: Indigeneity, resources and sovereignty. In K. Dodds & C. Powell (Eds.), Polar geopolitics? Knowledges, resources and legal regimes (pp. 258–276). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Tennberg, M. (2000). The politics of sustainability in the European Arctic. In L. Hedegaard & B. Lindström (Eds.), The NEBI yearbook 2000: North European and Baltic Sea integration (pp. 117–126). Berlin: Springer.
Tennberg, M., & Keskitalo, C. (2002). Global change in the Arctic and institutional responses – Discourse analytic approaches. In J. Käyhkö & L. Talve (Eds.), Understanding the global system. The Finnish perspective (pp. 225–228). FIGARE: Turku.
Tennberg, M., Vola, J., Espiritu, A. A., Fors, B. S., Ejdemo, T., Riabova, L., Korchak, E., Tonkova, E., & Nosova, T. (2014). Neoliberal governance, sustainable development and local communities in the Barents region. Barents Studies: Peoples, Economics and Politics, 1(1), 41–72.
Thomsen, H. (1996). Between traditionalism and modernity. In B. Jacobsen (Ed.), Cultural and social research in Greenland 95/96: Essays in honour of Robert Petersen (pp. 265–278). Nuuk: Ilisimatusarfik/Atuakkiorfik.
Warde, P. (2011). The invention of sustainability. Modern Intellectual History, 8(1), 153–170.
WCED. (1987). Our common future: Report from the ‘Brundtland’ world commission on environment and development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Marc Jacobsen and Nikoline Schriver for their valuable input to this chapter; in particular with their effort to study global and arctic discourses and the scholarly literatures on sustainability.
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
Gad, U.P., Jakobsen, U., Strandsbjerg, J. (2017). Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic: A Research Agenda. 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_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46150-2_2
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)