An articulation of geopolitics otherwise? Indigenous language‐use in spaces of Arctic geopolitics

Abstract

This paper takes up the call for political geographers to engage more directly with Wittgenstein's later philosophy of language, namely his emphasis on language as activity and practice. In particular, it considers his approach to linguistic demonstration over representation, whereby the reader is not ‘told’ but ‘shown.’ This arguably instructive conceptualisation of the functioning of language is here applied to a space of geopolitics, focusing on the political potentialities of articulating an Arctic otherwise through selective bilingualism and language‐use. More specifically, the paper centres on the particular use of North Sámi language in a conference space otherwise dominated by English and Norwegian. The act of ‘articulating otherwise’ is not here an act of defiance but rather an invitation for re‐conceptualisation. In making Indigenous voices heard on their own terms, it is not only the words but even more so the act of their utterance that carries political power. The paper therefore argues that political geographers ought to (re)direct attention to language‐use and the socio‐political practices of linguistic world‐making. By drawing on Wittgenstein's approach to language‐use, what here becomes clear is that geopolitical questions too are negotiated not through given answers but rather through the interactive process of reaching these together – insights that in turn allow us to consider how agency and change may play out through language‐use, potentially articulating geopolitics otherwise.

Revocalising human geography: Decolonial language geographies beyond the nation-state

“…There have in more recent years been calls for geographers to move beyond this reduction of language to a vague form of ‘cultural representation’ and to engage more creatively with the material affects and aspirations of languages as they are actually used. Focussing on the geopolitics of language diversity and multilingualism in Sámi contexts in the Arctic, for example, Ingrid Medby (2019, 2020, 2021) has drawn on Wittgenstein’s later philosophy of language to outline the ‘ample scope for more sustained critical geopolitical engagement with language and language-use’ (2021: 12). She moves against the tendency of some nonrepresentational theories to dismiss language as a rarefied system of representation and advocates instead for a ‘conceptualisation of language that recognises that this too exceeds representation’ (2021).…”

Controlling the narrative: Critiquing the geopolitical narratives of US environmental impact assessments and exclusion of Indigenous communities

“…The focus of this article is on two often separate—but occasionally related—geopolitical topics: Indigenous geopolitics and environmental geopolitics. The existing literature on Indigenous geopolitics often centers on issues of territory, identity, and sovereignty, particularly of Indigenous communities faced with the challenges of erasure by settler colonial societies (Gibson, 2013; Medby, 2021; Velednitsky et al, 2020). On the contrary, environmental geopolitics literature is widespread as environmental features are increasingly entangled in geopolitical issues including concerns over climate change, conservation, resource supply chains, and much more (Dalby, 2014; Gray et al, 2020; Le Billon and Shykora, 2020; O’Lear and Dalby, 2015).…”

Words beyond ‘data’: Managing small talk and positionality in North Norway

“…Considering the insights from discourse analysis – for example as employed in the study of Critical Geopolitics (Dodds, 2001) – and attention to the linguistic (Jagessar, 2020), I have argued elsewhere that geopolitical meaning is co‐constructed in moments of relating (Medby, 2022b). One thing discursive analyses have in common is an interest in meanings and meaning‐making beyond the surface level of communication, paying attention to the structures and norms that shape people's practices and worldviews.…”