78°N The imaginaries of an uncertain future –Longyearbyen a place of change : 78°N Visioner om en osäker framtid — Longyearbyen, en plats i förändring
We live in an ever-changing environment: globalisation is moving forward rapidly; the effects of Climate Change can be felt worldwide, anthropogenic resource extraction is ongoing and global pandemics are bringing up unexpected challenges. Evidence of these changes are everywhere, but significantly...
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KTH, Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö
2021
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ftkthstockholm:oai:DiVA.org:kth-310189 2023-05-15T14:56:54+02:00 78°N The imaginaries of an uncertain future –Longyearbyen a place of change : 78°N Visioner om en osäker framtid — Longyearbyen, en plats i förändring Timm, Caroline 2021 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-310189 eng eng KTH, Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö TRITA-ABE-MBT 2235 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-310189 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Longyearbyen Svalbard Arctic Structural Change Climate Change Community Imaginaries WPRapproach Strukturomvandling Klimatförändringar Samfund Visioner WPR-analys History of Technology Teknikhistoria Student thesis info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis text 2021 ftkthstockholm 2022-08-11T12:33:46Z We live in an ever-changing environment: globalisation is moving forward rapidly; the effects of Climate Change can be felt worldwide, anthropogenic resource extraction is ongoing and global pandemics are bringing up unexpected challenges. Evidence of these changes are everywhere, but significantly the polar regions are dramatically affected and aspect of geopolitical interest. Until now, little emphasis has been put on understanding Arctic communities’ transformations and their livelihoods due to those accelerating changes.One of these polar regions is the northernmost town of the world, Longyearbyen, on the Archipelago of Svalbard, governed through Norway under the ‘Svalbard Treaty’. The town is transforming from a mining-based community towards a service-based community, focusing on tourism, research and education. As Norway only holds sovereignty over the Archipelago but all signatory countries of the Treaty hold equal commercial rights over the island, the place is caught between geopolitical visions and local reality. The thesis at hand questions how the future of Longyearbyen is imagined in the face of accelerating global and local challenges. Based on the theoretical framework of imaginaries and explicitly Arctic imaginaries, the research uses a form of discourse analysis to investigate those. The discursive approach by Bacchi called “What’s the problem represented to be?” (WPR) was applied as a method to simplify the critical analysis of public policies. The latest policy on Svalbard’sfuture development, “The White Paper for Svalbard” from 2016, was critically examined, which presentsa clear governmental imaginary to maintain Norwegian communities on the Archipelago. Following the WPRapproach, it has further been analysed how that governmental imaginary has historically come about. In the last step, an extensive media analysis was conducted to examine how the governmental imaginary has developed, been questioned or disrupted by other emerging local imaginaries. This research portraits the common ... Bachelor Thesis Arctic Climate change Longyearbyen Svalbard Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm: KTHs Publication Database DiVA Arctic Svalbard Longyearbyen Norway |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm: KTHs Publication Database DiVA |
op_collection_id |
ftkthstockholm |
language |
English |
topic |
Longyearbyen Svalbard Arctic Structural Change Climate Change Community Imaginaries WPRapproach Strukturomvandling Klimatförändringar Samfund Visioner WPR-analys History of Technology Teknikhistoria |
spellingShingle |
Longyearbyen Svalbard Arctic Structural Change Climate Change Community Imaginaries WPRapproach Strukturomvandling Klimatförändringar Samfund Visioner WPR-analys History of Technology Teknikhistoria Timm, Caroline 78°N The imaginaries of an uncertain future –Longyearbyen a place of change : 78°N Visioner om en osäker framtid — Longyearbyen, en plats i förändring |
topic_facet |
Longyearbyen Svalbard Arctic Structural Change Climate Change Community Imaginaries WPRapproach Strukturomvandling Klimatförändringar Samfund Visioner WPR-analys History of Technology Teknikhistoria |
description |
We live in an ever-changing environment: globalisation is moving forward rapidly; the effects of Climate Change can be felt worldwide, anthropogenic resource extraction is ongoing and global pandemics are bringing up unexpected challenges. Evidence of these changes are everywhere, but significantly the polar regions are dramatically affected and aspect of geopolitical interest. Until now, little emphasis has been put on understanding Arctic communities’ transformations and their livelihoods due to those accelerating changes.One of these polar regions is the northernmost town of the world, Longyearbyen, on the Archipelago of Svalbard, governed through Norway under the ‘Svalbard Treaty’. The town is transforming from a mining-based community towards a service-based community, focusing on tourism, research and education. As Norway only holds sovereignty over the Archipelago but all signatory countries of the Treaty hold equal commercial rights over the island, the place is caught between geopolitical visions and local reality. The thesis at hand questions how the future of Longyearbyen is imagined in the face of accelerating global and local challenges. Based on the theoretical framework of imaginaries and explicitly Arctic imaginaries, the research uses a form of discourse analysis to investigate those. The discursive approach by Bacchi called “What’s the problem represented to be?” (WPR) was applied as a method to simplify the critical analysis of public policies. The latest policy on Svalbard’sfuture development, “The White Paper for Svalbard” from 2016, was critically examined, which presentsa clear governmental imaginary to maintain Norwegian communities on the Archipelago. Following the WPRapproach, it has further been analysed how that governmental imaginary has historically come about. In the last step, an extensive media analysis was conducted to examine how the governmental imaginary has developed, been questioned or disrupted by other emerging local imaginaries. This research portraits the common ... |
format |
Bachelor Thesis |
author |
Timm, Caroline |
author_facet |
Timm, Caroline |
author_sort |
Timm, Caroline |
title |
78°N The imaginaries of an uncertain future –Longyearbyen a place of change : 78°N Visioner om en osäker framtid — Longyearbyen, en plats i förändring |
title_short |
78°N The imaginaries of an uncertain future –Longyearbyen a place of change : 78°N Visioner om en osäker framtid — Longyearbyen, en plats i förändring |
title_full |
78°N The imaginaries of an uncertain future –Longyearbyen a place of change : 78°N Visioner om en osäker framtid — Longyearbyen, en plats i förändring |
title_fullStr |
78°N The imaginaries of an uncertain future –Longyearbyen a place of change : 78°N Visioner om en osäker framtid — Longyearbyen, en plats i förändring |
title_full_unstemmed |
78°N The imaginaries of an uncertain future –Longyearbyen a place of change : 78°N Visioner om en osäker framtid — Longyearbyen, en plats i förändring |
title_sort |
78°n the imaginaries of an uncertain future –longyearbyen a place of change : 78°n visioner om en osäker framtid — longyearbyen, en plats i förändring |
publisher |
KTH, Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-310189 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Longyearbyen Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Longyearbyen Norway |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Longyearbyen Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Longyearbyen Svalbard |
op_relation |
TRITA-ABE-MBT 2235 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-310189 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
_version_ |
1766328953099780096 |