Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering Faroese pilot whaling
A key question in any environmental dispute is the nature of what is under discussion. 'Cosmopolitics' – political battles over the form of reality – are a feature of many environmental clashes. This article focuses on one such clash: during the summer of 2014, grindadráp – the iconic prac...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:55376faff4834dd19641440877ac2304 2023-05-15T16:10:42+02:00 Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering Faroese pilot whaling Benedict E. Singleton 2016-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.2458/v23i1.20178 https://doaj.org/article/55376faff4834dd19641440877ac2304 EN ES FR eng spa fre University of Arizona Libraries https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/20178 https://doaj.org/toc/1073-0451 1073-0451 doi:10.2458/v23i1.20178 https://doaj.org/article/55376faff4834dd19641440877ac2304 Journal of Political Ecology, Vol 23, Iss 1, Pp 26-48 (2016) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Political science J article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.2458/v23i1.20178 2022-12-31T04:24:12Z A key question in any environmental dispute is the nature of what is under discussion. 'Cosmopolitics' – political battles over the form of reality – are a feature of many environmental clashes. This article focuses on one such clash: during the summer of 2014, grindadráp – the iconic practice of driving pilot whales for meat – was the big news item in the Faroe Islands. More accurately, a conservation campaign by the controversial group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS), Operation Grindstop 2014, garnered most attention. Aiming to stop or at least disrupt the 'barbaric' and 'sadistic' grindadráp, SSCS were involved in several confrontations with Faroese authorities and publicly engaged with Faroese pro-whaling advocates in several discussions that were seemingly fruitless. Based on 3 months fieldwork during the campaign, this article describes a 'political ontology' of Grindstop 2014. What emerged was a 'hybrid' born of a clash between two fundamentally dissonant systems of ordering, which structured and were reinforced by various practices, both discursive and material. Activists on both sides were engaged in a cosmopolitical struggle to decisively enact their orderings, creating alternative stories of whales, Faroese whaling, the ocean environment and modernity. The aim is to understand what happened when these orderings met. This article argues that throughout the summer these two orderings moved apart, consequently hiding the diversity of opinion and discussion within Faroese society around grindadráp. As such, alternative orderings of grindadráp were suppressed, notably those voiced by Faroese activists arguing that the practice should cease because of the high levels of toxins in pilot whale meat. Key words: Faroe Islands, whaling, political ontology, cosmopolitics Article in Journal/Newspaper Faroe Islands Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Faroe Islands Journal of Political Ecology 23 1 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English Spanish French |
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Environmental sciences GE1-350 Political science J |
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Environmental sciences GE1-350 Political science J Benedict E. Singleton Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering Faroese pilot whaling |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Political science J |
description |
A key question in any environmental dispute is the nature of what is under discussion. 'Cosmopolitics' – political battles over the form of reality – are a feature of many environmental clashes. This article focuses on one such clash: during the summer of 2014, grindadráp – the iconic practice of driving pilot whales for meat – was the big news item in the Faroe Islands. More accurately, a conservation campaign by the controversial group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS), Operation Grindstop 2014, garnered most attention. Aiming to stop or at least disrupt the 'barbaric' and 'sadistic' grindadráp, SSCS were involved in several confrontations with Faroese authorities and publicly engaged with Faroese pro-whaling advocates in several discussions that were seemingly fruitless. Based on 3 months fieldwork during the campaign, this article describes a 'political ontology' of Grindstop 2014. What emerged was a 'hybrid' born of a clash between two fundamentally dissonant systems of ordering, which structured and were reinforced by various practices, both discursive and material. Activists on both sides were engaged in a cosmopolitical struggle to decisively enact their orderings, creating alternative stories of whales, Faroese whaling, the ocean environment and modernity. The aim is to understand what happened when these orderings met. This article argues that throughout the summer these two orderings moved apart, consequently hiding the diversity of opinion and discussion within Faroese society around grindadráp. As such, alternative orderings of grindadráp were suppressed, notably those voiced by Faroese activists arguing that the practice should cease because of the high levels of toxins in pilot whale meat. Key words: Faroe Islands, whaling, political ontology, cosmopolitics |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Benedict E. Singleton |
author_facet |
Benedict E. Singleton |
author_sort |
Benedict E. Singleton |
title |
Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering Faroese pilot whaling |
title_short |
Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering Faroese pilot whaling |
title_full |
Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering Faroese pilot whaling |
title_fullStr |
Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering Faroese pilot whaling |
title_full_unstemmed |
Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering Faroese pilot whaling |
title_sort |
love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people: ordering faroese pilot whaling |
publisher |
University of Arizona Libraries |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.2458/v23i1.20178 https://doaj.org/article/55376faff4834dd19641440877ac2304 |
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Faroe Islands |
geographic_facet |
Faroe Islands |
genre |
Faroe Islands |
genre_facet |
Faroe Islands |
op_source |
Journal of Political Ecology, Vol 23, Iss 1, Pp 26-48 (2016) |
op_relation |
https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/20178 https://doaj.org/toc/1073-0451 1073-0451 doi:10.2458/v23i1.20178 https://doaj.org/article/55376faff4834dd19641440877ac2304 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2458/v23i1.20178 |
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Journal of Political Ecology |
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23 |
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1 |
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