Imagining and governing the Greenlandic resource frontier

Abstract

This article draws on aspects of current and ongoing research in Greenland on climate change and resource development, in particular on how Greenland is being positioned as a resource frontier and source of raw materials for the global economy within the contexts of a changing climate and a political quest for greater autonomy. This present study is concerned with a consideration of both the political discourse surrounding resource development and the emergent public responses to it. It explores how public disquiet over lack of appropriate consultation (and criticism over the absence of information about planned mega-projects) is leading to a situation where demands for legitimate public engagement in democratic and transparent discussion and debate over extractive industries are increasing, and how this challenges both the representations and governance of resource development.

Keywords:

• Greenland
• resource frontiers
• extractive industries
• human-environment relations
• public consultation

Notes

¹Nuttall, “Greenland: Emergence.”

²Editorial, Greenland Today 13 (2011): 3.

³This article is based on research carried out under the auspices of the “Climate and Society in Greenland” programme, funded by the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland.

⁴Dahl, “Greenlandic Version.”

⁵Friis, “Greenland”.

⁶Nuttall, Arctic Homeland.

⁷Dahl, “Greenlandic Version,” 152.

⁸Nuttall, “Self-Rule in Greenland.”

⁹E.g. see ACIA, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

¹⁰Hastrup, “Arctic Hunters;” Nuttall, “Living in a World.”

¹¹Nuttall, “Living in a World.”

¹² http://www.greenland.com/en/corporate/agenter/groenland-som-brand.aspx.

¹³Anholt, “Branding Places and Nations.”

¹⁴ www.futuregreenland.gl.

¹⁵Barney, “Laos,” 147.

¹⁶Bogvad, “Nepheline Syenite;” Jørgensen, “Charles Lewis Giesecke.”

¹⁷Rappaport, Pigs for the Ancestors.

¹⁸Gautier, “Assessment.”

¹⁹Massey, “Power-Geometry,” 66.

²⁰ www.bmp.gl.

²¹’Nothstine’‘Topics’ as Ontological Metaphor,” 156

²²See http://sermitsiaq.ag/node/120117.

²³Bjørn Aaen, Demokratisk legitimitet i høringsprocesser i forbindelse med storskala-projekter i Grønland.

²⁴Ibid.

²⁵Nuttall, “Living in a World.”