Publikationer

Research | Forskning - peer review

Greenland is a self-governing part of the Danish realm with an institutional system in transition from colonisation to further independence. Greenlandic governance institutions currently represent a mix of Greenlandic and Danish governance systems rooted in the Danish constitution and a Scandinavian… Greenland is a self-governing part of the Danish realm with an institutional system in transition from colonisation to further independence. Greenlandic governance institutions currently represent a mix of Greenlandic and Danish governance systems rooted in the Danish constitution and a Scandinavian universal welfare model. Denmark and other Nordic countries with similar governance systems and welfare models have high levels of generalised trust strongly correlated with institutional trust. No research has however been carried out in Greenland regarding generalised or institutional trust and their correlates – a research gap which this article seeks to remedy. The study is based on data from the Greenland Perspectives survey of 2018 and finds that generalised trust in Greenland is significantly different from the Danish average and the levels of other Nordic countries. Institutional trust positively and significantly correlates with generalised trust in line with theories of institutional trust as a driver of generalised trust. Greenlandic identity is negatively correlated with generalised trust contrary to theories of identity and majority/minority dynamics. The correlations between generalised trust, institutional trust, and identity are surprisingly not confounded by education or income, contrary to success and well-being theories of generalised trust. The study concludes that institutions and identity clearly matter, but in a different way than theories predict. The results raise an important question for further research of how institutions and identity come to matter in Greenland – especially how institutional quality is created under the complex bureaucratic and social conditions of the post-colonial microstate. Læs mere

Research | Forskning

Five and a half years after its first appearance as a printed book in 2014, the transdisciplinary anthology The Postcolonial North Atlantic: Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, edited by Professor Lill-Ann Körber (Aarhus Universitet) and Associate Professor Ebbe Volquardsen (Ilisimatusarfik),… Five and a half years after its first appearance as a printed book in 2014, the transdisciplinary anthology The Postcolonial North Atlantic: Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, edited by Professor Lill-Ann Körber (Aarhus Universitet) and Associate Professor Ebbe Volquardsen (Ilisimatusarfik), came out in an open-access second edition today. Stored on the document server of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the book can from now on be downloaded free of charge by anyone. Whereas a new preface, written by the editors, has been added, the articles in the volume have not been changed or amended since the first edition, and thus reflect the state of the art of the first half of the 2010s. Yet, the texts remain relevant and topical in that they provide fundamental insight into negotiations of the postcolonial status of the North Atlantic nations, and into manifestations of their interconnected, often competing, histories in literature, language, politics, art, fashion, and public discourse. They invite to comparative investigations into the region’s past and present as seen from its diverse and distinct viewpoints, and to explorations of this part of the Nordic region from a joint critical postcolonial perspective. It is the editors’ hope that The Postcolonial North Atlantic will find many curious new readers and re-readers among students, scholars, and the broader public; and we look forward to continued discussions and North Atlantic journeys. Læs mere

Research | Forskning

Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have in common their history as Danish dependencies within a historically and geographically coherent region. The complex aftermaths of Denmark’s sovereignty over its North Atlantic territories and their ongoing nation building processes lie at the core of th… Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have in common their history as Danish dependencies within a historically and geographically coherent region. The complex aftermaths of Denmark’s sovereignty over its North Atlantic territories and their ongoing nation building processes lie at the core of this book. Today, we are witnessing region building processes beyond bilateral links to Denmark. How do the countries position themselves, individually and collectively, vis-à-vis the European metropolitan centres, a larger transcontinental North Atlantic region, the 'hot' Arctic, and global histories of colonialism and decolonisation? By examining the region from cultural, literary, historical, political, anthropological and linguistic perspectives, the articles in this book shed light on Nordic colonialism and its understanding as 'exceptional', and challenge and modify established notions of postcolonialism. Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands are shown to be both the (former) subjects as well as the producers of cultural hierarchisations in an entangled world. Læs mere

Research | Forskning - peer review

The Uttermost Part of the Earth: Islands on the edge ... and in the centre of the North Atlantic

The Shetland Islands are a good example of what island cultures and societies can tell us about the construction and maintenance of national identities, as well as the way in which historical perspectives and internalised ideas influence how we locate parts of Britain. How do these - other islands b… The Shetland Islands are a good example of what island cultures and societies can tell us about the construction and maintenance of national identities, as well as the way in which historical perspectives and internalised ideas influence how we locate parts of Britain. How do these - other islands become part of the national mental map? And how do islanders themselves incorporate - Britishness into their cultural identity? For the ―Northern Isles‖ of Orkney and Shetland, their geographical position has historically meant being an outpost of the British Isles, at its Northern ―edge,‖ as noted by Sandy Cluness, Convenor of the Shetland Islands Council, in an interview with The Journal: ―We are on the periphery and have all the higher costs that come with that and not many of the advantages. This chapter demonstates that the cultural heritage of the Scottish Northern Islands actually insists on being ―other, often resisting, and sometimes opposing, the dominant, national historical and political narratives. The Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland are therefore of real interest in terms of exploring the complex and adaptable nature of representing ―otherness‖ within British identity, and the way islanders actively utilise their economic, political and cultural-historical environment to create a multiplicity of localised island identities within the national narrative. Læs mere

Research | Forskning

Grönland Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts: Ein koloniales und von Machtasymmetrien geprägtes Land. Zeitgleich mit den ersten Ausbildungsreisen junger Grönländer nach Dänemark kann sich in der bis nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg abgeriegelten dänischen Kolonie eine eigene Romanliteratur herausbilden. Ebbe Volq… Grönland Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts: Ein koloniales und von Machtasymmetrien geprägtes Land. Zeitgleich mit den ersten Ausbildungsreisen junger Grönländer nach Dänemark kann sich in der bis nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg abgeriegelten dänischen Kolonie eine eigene Romanliteratur herausbilden. Ebbe Volquardsen begibt sich auf die Spur der Vertreter einer frühen grönländischen Bildungselite, der die Autoren angehören. Er fragt: Wie kann literarisches Schreiben und Publizieren in dieser Konstellation gelingen? Welche Machtmechanismen müssen Grönländer umgehen, um sich als Akteure im literarischen Diskurs zu etablieren? Der Autor analysiert die ersten vier zwischen 1914 und 1938 erschienenen Romane grönländischer Autoren und stellt sie in einen kulturhistorischen Kontext. Welche Bedeutung kommt diesen Romanen im Diskurs um Nationsbildung und Identitätsfindung zu? Læs mere

Communication | Formidling

I talked with journalist Walter Turnowsky about the revitalization of cultural practices and mental decolonization in Greenland for the Nordschleswiger-podcast (in German). Der Nordschleswiger is the newspaper of the German minority in Southern Jutland.