Brokers of hope: Extractive industries and the dynamics of future-making in post-colonial Greenland

Abstract

In the ambitious strategy of Greenland to attract foreign companies to engage in extractive industries as a means to create increased national independence the question of minerals emerges as pivotal. The article investigates how two prominent Greenlandic premiers (2009–2014) translated hard rock into soft human welfare in a complex post-colonial context. The article develops the concept of “brokers of hope” which points the analytical attention to the entrepreneurial activities of future- and people-makers in a dense field of indigenous politics. By linking this concept to the idea of “resource materialities” it becomes possible to see resources as relational assemblages that are in a constant state of becoming and also to examine how different engagements with substances can make certain political struggles and political systems legitimate. Furthermore, the article investigates how these “brokers of hope” use the Chinese interests, and ideas of new cooperation with Chinese partners to underpin the intrinsic motivation to create new beginnings and thus to transform existing asymmetrical relations between Denmark and Greenland. This process is conceptualised as “double orientalism”. The article points out how hope and promise in two quite different ways are creatively used to make the future work in the present and how people and nations are made up in that process.

Stories, emotions, partnerships and the quest for stable relationships in the Greenlandic mining sector

“…In analysing the stories told at PDAC, a certain version of Greenland as a place of mining was communicated which demanded a certain interpretation of the past and may even demand a repression of certain aspects of the past to make room for visions of the future. In effect, to be so engaged in the time to come and the imagined paths is a delicate process because future-making can end up colonising the present (see also Sejersen, 2019) and circulating and evoking suppressed emotions and feelings.…”

“…The literature on extractivism is extensive (Kirsch, 2014;Veltmeyer & Petras, 2014) and yet, it sometimes overlooks the Arctic region (Kadenic, 2015;Kröger, 2019;Keeling & Sandlos, 2015) (and, most of all Greenland). Just recently, academic work has been published on the tensions and societal aspects of Greenlandic mining (see Ackrén, 2016;Jørgensen 2017;Hansen, Vanclay, Croal & Skjervedal, 2016;Nuttall, 2015;Thisted, 2019;Tiainen, 2016;Sejersen 2019). In the newly published Arctic Council Assessment (AACA, 2017, p. XI), the global demand for resources is identified as an important driver of change in the Arctic.…”

Affective Approaches

“…Greenland extractivism has constantly been promoted as a pathway to welfare (Hastrup & Lien, 2020;Sejersen, 2020), and many assessments and consultations have been pursued. Public consultation processes in Greenland have been analyzed and described, for example, from the perspective of social science (Aaen, 2012;Hansen, 2014;Sejersen, 2015;Ackrén, 2016;Heinämäki, 2020;Johnson, 2020;Nuttall, 2013Nuttall, , 2015, law (Basse, 2014), and planning and engineering (Hansen & Kørnøv, 2010;Olsen & Hansen, 2014;Hansen & Johnson 2019).…”

L’essor des activités économiques en Arctique : impact des changements climatiques et de la mondialisation

“…Ces cours mondiaux, oscillant à un niveau relativement modéré, sont cependant suffisants pour que le gouvernement russe, tout comme pour ses gisements d'hydrocarbures, soutienne la mise en valeur de nouveaux sites d'exploitation, ou que les meilleurs sites suscitent à nouveau un intérêt des investisseurs. Le marché régional du charbon en Asie (Kumon, 2017), tout comme celui du gaz (Vivoda, 2014), est durablement plus élevé que d'autres marchés; et les cours mondiaux oscillent désormais dans des fourchettes supérieures au cours antérieurs à 2005, permettant la mise en valeur de bons sites miniers (Jones, 2019), parfois avec l'appui des gouvernements autochtones locaux désireux de relancer l'économie, comme au Nunavut (Ragsdale, 2019) ou au Groenland malgré d'importants débats de société au sein de ces communautés (Bjørst, 2016;Gray, 2016;Milne, 2019;Sejersen, 2020).…”