Dreams of treasures and dreams of wilderness – engaging with the beyond-the-rational in extractive industries in northern Fennoscandia

ABSTRACT

Few industries are surrounded with such drama as mining. The extractive sector is a highly contested industry that triggers strong emotional responses. Simultaneously, dreams of prosperity and of a better future have been attached to mining ventures throughout history. Nevertheless, mining is predominantly presented as a ‘rational’ space. I argue that a more comprehensive understanding is needed on the influence of what I call beyond-the-rational on modern mining conflicts. This approach is particularly relevant when examining the extractive industries in northern Fennoscandia due to various Utopian constructs having been attached to the North for centuries. Thus, current mining disputes are embedded in broader cultural dreams and they need to be examined with a long-term perspective. In this article, I discuss how being aware of the role dreams play in mining enables the opening of constructive dialogue between the opposition and proponents of mining projects and is a step towards creating more sustainable communities. Finally, I suggest, that the existence of two contrary cultural visions, of wilderness and of upcoming prosperity, is one reason behind the polarisation of discussions around northern mining projects.

KEYWORDS:

• Extractive industries
• history of mining
• resource conflict
• tourism
• Lapland
• utopia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Ey, Sherval, and Hodge, “Value, Identity and Place,” 153–4.

2. Wright, “Emotional Geographies,” 1113.

3. Ibid., 1114.

4. Wright, “Emotional Geographies”; and Ey, Sherval, and Hodge, “Value, Identity and Place.”

5. Ey, Sherval, and Hodge, “Value, Identity and Place.”

6. The part of northern Europe comprising Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The term refers to a cultural and political grouping of Finland with Scandinavia.

7. See Filer and Macintyre, “Grass Roots and Deep Holes”; Pijpers, “Mining, Expectations and Turbulent Times”; Haikola and Anshelm, “Making of Mining Expectations”; Engwicht, “It Can Lift Someone”; and Wiegink, “Imagining Booms and Busts”. These dream-like expectations appear among communities with vastly different backgrounds, from indigenous communities in Melanesia to a western Swedish municipality.

8. See, for example, Sehlin MacNeil, “Shafted: A Case, Extractive Violence”; Johnsen, “Land-Use Conflicts”; Lawrence and Larsen, “The Politics of Planning”; and Komu, “Manoeuvring Conflict”.

9. For example, see Heikkinen and others, “Challenges in Acquiring”; Tarras-Wahlberg, “Social License to Mine”; Koivurova and others, “Social License to Operate”; and Wilson and Stammler, “Beyond Extractivism”. ‘Social license to operate’ alludes to a mining company’s need to gain an unofficial social consent for their operations.

10. Lyytimäki and Peltonen, “Mining through controversies”; and Similä and Jokinen, “Governing Conflicts”.

11. Kokko et al., “Sustainable Mining”; and Suopajärvi et al. ”Social Sustainability”.

12. Finnish sister company of Northland Resources Ltd.

13. For a more comprehensive overview, see D’Angelo and Pijpers, “Mining Temporalities”.

14. Ojala and Nordin, “Mining Sápmi,” 11.

15. Naum, “Pursuit of Metals,” 785–6.

16. The Torne River Valley formed a culturally uniform area until 1809, when Finland became a part of Russia.

17. Awebro, ”Tornionlaakson ruukkitoiminnasta”, 361.

18. Kerola et al., Lapin vuoritoiminnan historiaa.

19. Awebro, ”Tornionlaakson ruukkitoiminnasta”, 366–76.

20. See note 18 above.

21. Stigzelius, Kultakuume.

22. Partanen, Sankareita, veijareita ja huijareita.

23. The construction of the railway was finished in 1973.

24. Waara et al., How People Regard the Mine Establishment.

25. Jakobsson and Waara, Demography and Social Conditions.

26. 48% of the municipality’s economy came from tourism in 2011. MTI, Matkailulla maakunta menestyy.

27. The park was established in 1938. After expansion in 2005, it became the third biggest national park in Finland. 553 000 people visited the park in 2017. Metsähallitus, ”Käyntimäärät kansallispuistoittain 2017”.

28. Similä and Jokinen, “Governing Conflicts,” 153.

29. Municipality of Kolari, Elinkeinostrategia.

30. See note 28 above.

31. The massive document, consisting of over 2000 pages, can be read in Ympäristö.fi, “Hannukaisen rautakaivoshanke.”

32. Reuters, “Iron Ore Miner.”

33. Similä and Jokinen, “Governing Conflicts,” 152.

34. An ancient loped square symbol Saint John’s Arms, Hannunvaakuna in Finnish.

35. Niskakoski and Taskinen, “Äkäslompolo”, 10.

36. Ibidem.

37. Lackman, Kommunistien salainen toiminta Tornionlaaksossa, 12; Aatsinki, “Tukkiliikkeestä Kommunismiin.”

38. Tasala, Metsäkaarti. Exactly why the support for communism was centred in the south and not in the north is not explained by the existing research literature nor could my informants give any specific reason for it.

39. There was a total of 264 656 overnight stays in the Ylläs area in 2015. Tilastokeskus, ”Ylläs elokuu 2016”.

40. Valkonen, “Lapin luontopolitiikka,” 11, 19, 196, 200.

41. Auld, Bernstein, and Cashore, “New Corporate Social Responsibility.”

42. Ballard and Banks, “Resource Wars.”

43. Ibidem., 291.

44. Naum, “Enchantment of the Underground,” 2, 19.

45. See note 28 above.

46. Awebro, ”Tornionlaakson ruukkitoiminnasta,” 362–70; and Nordin and Ojala, ”Copper worlds”.

47. Cronon, “Trouble with Wilderness,” 16.

48. The connection between the modern image of Lapland as wilderness sold by nature-based tourism and the utopian constructions of Lapland during the early modern period and the 19th century was first noted by Naum, “Between Utopia and Dystopia,” 512.

49. Hansson, “Arctic Eden”; Ryall, “In Love with a Cold,” 122, 124.

50. Naum, “Between Utopia and Dystopia,” 501.

51. Byrne, Geographies of the Romantic North, 12.

52. Hansson, “Arctic Eden”; Ryall, “In Love with a Cold,” 122, 124; Byrne, Geographies of the Romantic North, 6.

53. Hansson, “Arctic Eden.”

54. Cronon, “Trouble with Wilderness,” 8–10, 13; Byrne, Geographies of the Romantic North, 6.

55. Cronon, “Trouble with Wilderness,” 8–9, 14.

56. Arbo et al., “Arctic Futures.”

57. Harju, ”Pohjoisen kaivokset suomalaisissa sanomalehdissä.”

58. Benson and Kirsch, “Capitalism and the Politics of Resignation,” 461, 465, 471.

59. Partanen, Sankareita, veijareita ja huijareita, 3.

60. Edwards and Llurdés, “Mines and Quarries.”

61. Naum, “Enchantment of the Underground.”

62. Poelzer and Ejdemo, “Too Good to be True?” 20.

63. Trigger, “Mining, Landscape and the Culture,” 164; Naum, “Pursuit of Metals,” 785–6.

64. Moisio, Valtio, alue, politiikka, 27.

65. Suopajärvi, “Right to Mine?” 45; Persson, Harnesk and Islar, “What Local People?,” 23.

66. Enbuske, “Four Common Key Reasons,” 29.

67. Rautakoura, “Talvivaara continues.”

68. Suopajärvi, “Right to Mine?” 37.

69. Persson, Harnesk and Islar, “What Local People?,” 23.

70. Haikola and Anshelm, “Making of Mining Expectations,” 27.

71. Filer and Macintyre, “Grass Roots and Deep Holes,” 226.

72. For an in-depth look on why large-scale development projects are often marred by undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued economic development effects, see Flyvbjerg, Bruzelius, and Rothengatter, Megaprojects and Risk, 3–5.

73. Hobbs, “Performing Wilderness,” 118.

74. Naum, “Pursuit of Metals,” 786.

75. Kerola et al., Lapin vuoritoiminnan historiaa.

76. Filer and Macintyre, “Grass Roots and Deep Holes,” 224.

77. Laukkonen and Törmä, Suomen kaivosalan vaikuttavuuden kehitys, 8.

78. See note 62 above.

79. Waara et al., How People Regard the Mine Establishment, 3, 9.

80. Ey, Sherval, and Hodge, “Value, Identity and Place,” 11.

81. Wright, “Emotional Geographies of Development,” 1125.

82. Trigger, “Mining, Landscape and the Culture,” 165–6.

83. The question whether all the calculations concerning the project were valid becomes even more relevant when we know that the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis criticised the calculations concerning in-migration and job creation for the mining project in Pajala for being overly optimistic, see Haikola and Anshelm, “Making of Mining Expectations,” 16.

84. Tsing, “Inside the Economy of Appearances,” 120, 127.

85. Ibidem., 127.

86. Haikola and Anshelm, “Making of Mining Expectations,” 21, 23. Consults working for the mining company as well as government and state representatives also had a part in raising the expectations towards the mining project in Pajala.

87. Tsing, “Inside the Economy of Appearances,” 121.

88. Ibidem., 144.

89. Which perhaps explains why modern visions of great resource potential in the Arctic are placed further and further north, to the last ‘frontier’, as the North becomes more and more well known. See, for example, Haley et al., “Observing Trends and Assessing Data.”

90. These visons may have been fuelled on by the fact that the North was for centuries a source of many coveted treasures: furs, amber, ivory and magical unicorn horns. Davidson, Idea of North, 51, 24.

91. Arbo et al., “Arctic Futures,” 173–4.

92. Haley et al., “Observing Trends and Assessing Data,” 45; Arbo et al., “Arctic Futures,” 174.

93. Naum, “Between Utopia and Dystopia,” 501, 503.

94. Enbuske, “Four Common Key Reasons,” 24, 26.

95. Valkonen, Lapin luontopolitiikka, 11, 22.

96. Byrne, Geographies of the Romantic North, 7. As an example of modern projections, Matti Enbuske has noticed an inclination in contemporary history research to paint both Lapland and its inhabitants as mysterious, and to portray the history of Lapland’s settlement and land use as a unique phenomenon. Enbuske, “Lapin asutuksen ja maankäytön historia,” 213, 215.

97. Davidson, Idea of North; Byrne, Geographies of the Romantic North, 118.

98. Cronon, “Trouble with Wilderness,” 10.

99. Ryall, “In Love with a Cold,” 124.

100. While we should not assume that cultural constructions of mining do not vary around the world, this particular construction seems to occur among various different cultures, for example in Melanesia. Filer and Macintyre, “Grass Roots and Deep Holes.”

101. Similar myths can be found worldwide. For example, in contemporary Sierra Leone, diamonds are believed to belong to spiritual entities called djinns. D’Angelo, “Who Owns the Diamonds?”

102. Fors, Limits of Matter, 31–32, 35.

103. Partanen, Sankareita, veijareita ja huijareita; Kultahippu.fi, “Hippulista”; Sallinen, ”“Veljekset tekivät vuorotellen huippulöydöt”.

104. Tønset and Langørgen, “100 mill. til gulljakt.”

105. Malin, “Kaivosbuumi pelastaa Suomen korpiseudut”; Ronkainen, ”Savossa on maan alla”.

106. Often the stories convey a Christian moral lesson about the futility of pursuing the unattainable. Sarmela, Suomen Perinneatlas, 452–459.

107. D’Angelo and Pijpers, “Mining Temporalities,” 219.

108. Engwicht, “It Can Lift Someone,” 263.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland funded project ‘Understanding the Cultural Impacts and Issues of Lapland Mining: A Long-Term Perspective on Sustainable Mining Policies in the North’ and the University of Oulu Graduate School.