The Paradox of Svalbard

Climate Change and Globalisation in the Arctic

Zdenka Sokolíčková (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

224 Seiten

2023
Pluto Press (Verlag)
978-0-7453-4740-0 (ISBN)

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Climate change has meant that the future of the Arctic is important to the future of the world. This book is a glimpse into the changes affecting a community within the Arctic circle.

The town of Longyearbyen in the high Arctic is the world's northernmost settlement. Here, climate change is happening fast. It is clearly seen and sensed by the locals; with higher temperatures, more rain and permafrost thaw. At the same time, the town is shifting from state-controlled coal production to tourism, research and development, rapidly globalising, with numerous languages spoken, cruise ships sounding the horn in the harbour and planes landing and taking off.

Zdenka Sokolíčková lived here between 2019 and 2021, and her research in the community uncovered a story about the conflict between sustainability and the driving forces of politics and economy in the rich global North. A small town of 2,400 inhabitants at 78 degrees latitude north on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, Longyearbyen provided a unique view into the unmistakable relationship between global capitalism and climate change.

The Paradox of Svalbard looks at both local and global trends to access a deep understanding of the effects of tourism, immigration, labour and many other elements on the trajectory of climate crisis, and whether anything can be done to reverse them.

Zdenka Sokolíčková is a researcher at the University of Hradec Králové, Czechia, and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Her research in Longyearbyen was hosted by the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo, Norway. Thomas Hylland Eriksen is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and former President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). He is the author of numerous classics of anthropology, including Small Places, Large Issues, Ethnicity and Nationalism and What is Anthropology?

Figures

Abbreviations

Series Preface

Acknowledgements

Foreword by Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Introducing the Fieldwalk: Field, Companions and Path

Part I: Fluid Environments

1. Fairy Tales of Change

2. Once Upon a Time - So What? Why and How Changing Environments Matter

3. The Viscosity of the Climate Change Discourse

Part II: Extractive Economies

4. The Art of Taking Out: From Extracting Coal to Extracting Knowledge and Memories

5. Big Powers and Little People: Scaling Economic Change

6. Sustainability with a Footnote: Leaving out Justice

Part III: Disempowered Communities

7. The Trouble with Local Community

8. In the Neighbourhood

9. 'Make Longyearbyen Norwegian again': Denying Superdiversity

Conclusion: The Paradox of Svalbard

Afterword by Hilde Henningsen

References

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	21.07.2023
Reihe/Serie	Anthropology, Culture and Society
Vorwort	Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Zusatzinfo	1 Maps; 3 Figures
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	140 x 216 mm
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
	Wirtschaft
ISBN-10	0-7453-4740-1 / 0745347401
ISBN-13	978-0-7453-4740-0 / 9780745347400
Zustand	Neuware