Arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the West and Russia
In this paper we explore howWestern scientific concepts and attitudes towards indigenous knowledge, as they pertain to resource management and climate change, differ from the prevailing view in modern Russia. Western indigenous leaders representing the Inuit and Saami peoples are actively engaged in...
Published in: | Polar Research |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Norwegian Polar Institute
2009
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2961 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v28i1.6104 |
id |
ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/2961 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/2961 2023-05-15T14:24:42+02:00 Arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the West and Russia Forbes, Bruce C. Stammler, Florian 2009-04-01 application/pdf https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2961 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v28i1.6104 eng eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2961/6588 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2961 doi:10.3402/polar.v28i1.6104 Copyright (c) 2018 Polar Research Polar Research; Vol. 28 No. 1 (2009): Special issue: Climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability in the Arctic; 28-42 1751-8369 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2009 ftjpolarres https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v28i1.6104 2021-11-11T19:13:37Z In this paper we explore howWestern scientific concepts and attitudes towards indigenous knowledge, as they pertain to resource management and climate change, differ from the prevailing view in modern Russia. Western indigenous leaders representing the Inuit and Saami peoples are actively engaged in the academic and political discourse surrounding climate change, whereas their Russian colleagues tend to focus more on legislation and self-determination, as a post-Soviet legacy. We contribute to the debate with data from the Nenets tundra, showing how different research has employed the three crucial Western research paradigms of climate change, wildlife management and indigenous knowledge on the ground. We suggest that the daily practice of tundra nomadism involves permanent processes of negotiating one’s position in a changing environment, which is why “adaptation” is woven into the society, and cosmology as a whole, rather than being separable into distinct “bodies” of knowledge or Western-designed categories. We argue that research agendas should be placed in their proper local and regional context, and temporal framework: for example, by collaborating with herders on the topics of weather instead of climate change, herding skills instead of wildlife management, and ways of engaging with the tundra instead of traditional ecological knowledge. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Climate change inuit nenets Polar Research saami Tundra Polar Research (E-Journal) Arctic Polar Research 28 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Polar Research (E-Journal) |
op_collection_id |
ftjpolarres |
language |
English |
description |
In this paper we explore howWestern scientific concepts and attitudes towards indigenous knowledge, as they pertain to resource management and climate change, differ from the prevailing view in modern Russia. Western indigenous leaders representing the Inuit and Saami peoples are actively engaged in the academic and political discourse surrounding climate change, whereas their Russian colleagues tend to focus more on legislation and self-determination, as a post-Soviet legacy. We contribute to the debate with data from the Nenets tundra, showing how different research has employed the three crucial Western research paradigms of climate change, wildlife management and indigenous knowledge on the ground. We suggest that the daily practice of tundra nomadism involves permanent processes of negotiating one’s position in a changing environment, which is why “adaptation” is woven into the society, and cosmology as a whole, rather than being separable into distinct “bodies” of knowledge or Western-designed categories. We argue that research agendas should be placed in their proper local and regional context, and temporal framework: for example, by collaborating with herders on the topics of weather instead of climate change, herding skills instead of wildlife management, and ways of engaging with the tundra instead of traditional ecological knowledge. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Forbes, Bruce C. Stammler, Florian |
spellingShingle |
Forbes, Bruce C. Stammler, Florian Arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the West and Russia |
author_facet |
Forbes, Bruce C. Stammler, Florian |
author_sort |
Forbes, Bruce C. |
title |
Arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the West and Russia |
title_short |
Arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the West and Russia |
title_full |
Arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the West and Russia |
title_fullStr |
Arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the West and Russia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the West and Russia |
title_sort |
arctic climate change discourse: the contrasting politics of research agendas in the west and russia |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2961 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v28i1.6104 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change inuit nenets Polar Research saami Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change inuit nenets Polar Research saami Tundra |
op_source |
Polar Research; Vol. 28 No. 1 (2009): Special issue: Climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability in the Arctic; 28-42 1751-8369 |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2961/6588 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2961 doi:10.3402/polar.v28i1.6104 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2018 Polar Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v28i1.6104 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
28 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766297139199082496 |