Resources, Social and Cultural Sustainabilities in the Arctic

This book focuses on the understudied social and cultural dimensions of sustainability in the Arctic. More specifically, it explores these thematics through paying attention to resources in different definitions and forms and the ways in which they entangle in the realities and expectations of social and cultural sustainability in the region. The book approaches resources as socially and culturally constructed and also draws attention to social, human and cultural capabilities and the roles they have in making and shaping the imaginaries of sustainability. Together, this volume and its case studies contribute to a broadened understanding of the interplay of natural and material resources and social and cultural capabilities as well as their discursive framings. This multidisciplinary text includes contributions from political sciences, sociology, gender studies, regional studies, economics and art research. With its wide range of conceptually informed case studies, the book is relevant for researchers and professionals as well as advanced students and for institutions and organizations offering education in Arctic affairs.

Monica Tennberg, a research professor, conducts research about Arctic political economy: that is, about connections between wealth, power and well-being. She has recently contributed to the book Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic - Perspectives from the Barents Area (2017). Hanna Lempinen is a university lecturer in political science at the University of Lapland, Finland, and a visiting senior researcher at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. Her research interests include social and cultural aspects of sustainability, especially in the context of Arctic large-scale energy and industrial development. Her book Arctic Energy and Social Sustainability was published by Palgrave in 2018. Susanna Pirnes is a doctoral candidate in political science. Her research interests are related to the Russian Arctic, Arctic identities, memories and history politics.

1. Sustainabilities in the resourceful North; Part I Entangled resources and sustainabilities; 2. Greenland and the elusive better future: the affective merging of resources and independence; 3. Promise and threat: living with nuclear in the Finnish context; 4. Untied resource as a threa/-t/-d for social fabric(ation); 5. "Prudent development:" the (r)evolution of the Arctic energy concern in the 2007-2017 Arctic Energy Summit Reports; 6. Socially Responsible Investments (SRIs) in the European Arctic: new pathways for global investors to outperform conventional capital investments?; 7. Resources on the Arctic border: views of the Finnish municipalities and the EU`s cross-border program; Part II Whose imaginaries?; 8. The political ecology of northern adaptation: power, nature and knowledge; 9. Arctic expertise and its social dimensions in Lapland; 10. When gender matters: equality as a source of Arctic sustainability?; 11. Sámi cultural heritage and tourism in Finland; 12. History as a resource in Russian Arctic politics; 13. The resourceful North: divergent imaginaries from the European Arctic; Index