Arctic challenge

About the research project

Nordland Research Institute (NRI) Norway, Brown University (Brown), USA and The Ilisimatusarfik/ University of Greenland (UoG)

This project will investigate the increased need for energy as a major challenge to society, and therefore to politics, in our time, and the effects on local lives in communities in the Arctic.

Research questions

This project will significantly increase our understanding of the complexities embedded in securing a viable future at the local level in the Arctic, by focussing on local, culturally based perceptions of petroleum development and climate change in shaping such security. This will be addressed through one overall research question:

In which ways can petroleum resources be understood as assets and limitations to reaching the goals of communities, industries and decision-makers in the High North for a viable future?

This main research question will be supported by the following sub-questions:

• How do the drivers of change induced by petroleum development affect the possibilities for communities and individuals in terms of safeguarding a viable, meaningful existence for themselves and their communities (indigenous and non-indigenous) in the Arctic?
• What other societal and environmental factors affect local perceptions of relevant knowledge and to what extent are they taken into account in policies concerned with petroleum development?
• What are the local adaptive strategies that influence broadened and culturally embedded (ontological) security situation of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in the High North?
• What factors/drivers explain the differences and similarities between peoples’ perception of ontological security in communities studied in Norway, the United States and Greenland?

A mixed-method and multi-level approach in four work packages is designed to answer these research questions.