Can non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the state collaborate? A look into the emergence of NGOs and resource extraction in greenland

ABSTRACT

NGOs and government often try to address many similar problems within society, but often in diverging ways. Their relationship has long been both reciprocal and adversarial, with specific events continually influencing their actions. This research looks at the emerging NGO landscape in Greenland as it relates to resource development. Without an extensive history of NGOs, Greenland presents an interesting case study to identify the factors influencing apparent low levels of voluntary collaboration. Nested within scholarly discourse on NGO and government collaboration, I introduce an additional layer based on the idea of perception and the diverging ways in which the government and NGOs conceptualise the environment and approach participation. Embedded in this analysis, my research identifies the ways in which Greenlandic NGOs attempt to increase their legitimacy by way of collating and by (re)framing their central claims within a framework of human rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Greenland
• NGO
• mining
• development
• government

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Mark Nuttall for his unwavering kindness and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Marie De Rosa, “Mining in Greenland: The Science-Policy Nexus in Valuing the Environment,” (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 2014), 17.

2 Reza Hasmath and Jennifer Hsu, “Isomorphic Pressures, Epistemic Communities and State-NGO Collaboration in China,” The China Quarterly 220 (2014): 936.

3 Sara Bjorn Aaen, Democratic legitimacy in hearings processes relating to large-scale projects in Greenland, (Nuuk, Greenland: Greenland Business Association, 2012), 17; Anne Merrild Hansen, “SEA Effectiveness and Power in Decision Making: A Case Study of Aluminium Production in Greenland,” (PhD diss., Aalborg University, 2011); Mark Nuttall, “Imagining and Governing the Greenlandic Resource Frontier,” The Polar Journal 2 (2012): 114.

4 Rutherford Hubbard, “Risks, Rights and Responsibility: Navigating Corporate

Responsibility and Indigenous Rights in Greenlandic Extractive Industry Development,” International Law Review 101 (2013): 107.

5 Gorm Winther, “Democracy and Power in Greenland- The Appearance of a New Class?’ Diiper Research Series, Working Paper No. 1 (Denmark; Aalborg University, 2007).

6 Ibid.

7 Transparency Greenland, Integrity Study of the Public Sector in Greenland, Nordic Consulting Group A/S (2015).

8 Interview with Greenlandic citizen, 3 December 2018.

9 Transparency Greenland, Integrity Study, 14.

10 Interview with an environmental NGO in Greenland, 24 November 2018.

11 Anne Merrild Hansen, “SEA Effectiveness and Power,” 13.

12 Beth Gazley and Jeffrey L. Brudney, “The Purpose (and Perils) of Government- Nonprofit Partnership.’ Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 36, no. 3 (2007), 410.

13 Barbara Gray and Donna Wood, “Collaborative Alliances: Moving from Practice to Theory.’ Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 27, no. 3, 3.

14 Burton A. Weisbrod, “The Future of Nonprofit Sectors: Its Entwining with Private Enterprise and Government,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 16, no. 4 (1997): 546.

15 Beth Gazley and Jeffrey L. Brudney, “The Purpose (and Perils),” 392.

16 Maria Gerasimova, “The Liaison Office as a Tool for Successful NGO-Government Cooperation: An Overview of the Central and Eastern European and Baltic Countries’ Experiences,” International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law 7, no. 3 (2004): 1.

17 Jennifer M. Coston, “A Model and Typology of Government-NGO Relationships.’ Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, no. 27 (1998): 358.

18 Gerasimova, “The Liaison,” 3.

19 Hasmath and Hsu, “Isomorphic Pressures,” 936.

20 Jennifer Hsu and Reza Hasmath, “The Local Corporatist State and NGO Relations in China,” Journal of Contemporary China 23, no. 87 (2014): 518.

21 Ibid., 524.

22 Hasmath and Hsu, “Isomorphic Pressures,” 945.

23 Hasmath and Hsu, “Isomorphic Pressures,” 948.

24 Jennifer M. Coston, “A Model and Typology of Government-NGO Relationships,” Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 27, no. 3 (1998): 360.

25 De Rosa, “Mining in Greenland,” 22.

26 Dennis R. Young, ‘Alternative Models of Government-Nonprofit Sector Relations: Theoretical and International Perspectives,” Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 29, no. 1 (2000): 150.

27 De Rosa, “Mining in Greenland,” 24.

28 Sheila Jasanoff, “NGOs and the Environment: From Knowledge to Action,” Third World Quarterly 18, no. 3 (1997): 583.

29 De Rosa, “Mining in Greenland,” 18.

30 Ibid., 22.

31 Sheila Jasanoff, “NGOs and the Environment,” 583.

32 De Rosa, “Mining in Greenland,” 21.

33 Jennifer Hsu, “Spaces of Civil Society: The Role of Migrant Non-Governmental Organizations in Beijing and Shanghai,” Progress in Development Studies 12, no. 1 (2012): 64.

34 De Rosa, “Mining in Greenland,” 22.

35 Sheila Jasanoff, “NGOs and the Environment,” 582.

36 Ibid.

37 De Rosa, “Mining in Greenland,” 25.

38 Sheila Jasanoff, “NGOs and the Environment,” 583.

39 Michael Foucault, The use of Pleasure: The History of Sexuality (New York: Vintage, 1985), 63.

40 Ibid.

41 Interview with members of Greenlandic NGOs, 15 March 2017.

42 Interview with head of an International NGO, 15 March 2017.

43 Jennifer Hsu, “Spaces of Civil Society,” 64.

44 Leiff Josefsen, “NGOere: Sadan bor Borgerinddragelsenforbedres (own translation).’ Semitsiaq, 27 February 2014, accessed 2 November 2015, http://sermitsiaq.ag/ngoere-boerborgerinddragelsen-forbedres.

45 United Nations. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, (2008).

46 Ibid., 8.

47 Layla Hughes, “Relationships with Arctic Indigenous Peoples: To What Extent Has Prior Informed Consent

Become a Norm?” Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 21, no. 1 (2018):

20.

48 Ibid.

49 Sally Engle Merry, “Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism: Mapping the Middle,” American

Anthropologist 108, no. 1 (2006): 39.

50 Jennifer Hsu and Reza Hasmath, “The Local Corporatist State,” 518.

51 Emilie Marie Hafter-Burton, “Sticks and Stones: Naming and Shaming the Human Rights

Enforcement Problem,” International Organisation 62 (2008), 690.

52 Ibid., 690–691.

53 Hasmath and Hsu, “Isomorphic Pressures,” 950.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council (SSHRC) and by the Ashley and Janet Cameron Scholarship for Northern Research.