Dale B., Bay-Larsen I., Skorstad B. (Eds.) The Will to Drill - Mining in Arctic Communites

Springer, 2018. — x, 228 p. — (Springer Polar Sciences). — ISBN 978-3-319-62610-9.This volume is the main result from the project The Arctic as a Mining Frontier (ARCTICFRONT), financed by the Norwegian Research Council’s Miljø 2015 — programme. The project started in 2014, in a period where nations and investors look to the Arctic for resources and prosperity. The high prices on minerals made mining strategies pertinent and prospects for the industry were positive. During the 3-year project period, the prices dropped, but the global attention on the arctic still prevailed. The studies in this book illustrate the complexity and uncertainty Arctic communities face when mining projects are concerned, and thus how demanding it can be to remain focused on securing sustainable development. This anthology is a selection of chapters on social, political and environmental challenges connected to mining in the arctic. The chapters are tied together with an overall introductory chapter and a theoretical chapter, and finally with a summarizing chapter at the end.
The main part of the volume is however made up of ‘Arctic stories’ told by the researchers — based on their fieldwork and analysis of meetings with individuals and communities and their relationship to mining activities. As the Arctic experiences with mining differs, we thus find in this volume stories from communities with long mining traditions, others with hopes of becoming just that, and also communities where concerns about what mining activities could bring overshadows the potential benefits from mining. The chapters all reflect upon too how mining companies, managers and politicians seek — successfully or not — developments that may ensure sustainability.
The purpose of the book is to be both informative, critical and analytical. The book as a whole can be read as one complex and multifaceted analysis of the arctic as a mining frontier, or as separate single in-depth case analysis. We also firmly believe the volume will also be suitable as a textbook in social and environmental studies.I. Bay-Larsen, B. Skorstad, B. Dale. Mining and Arctic Communities.
B. Skorstad, B. Dale, I. Bay-Larsen. Governing Complexity. Theories, Perspectives and Methodology for the Study of Sustainable Development and Mining in the Arctic.
A. Gjertsen, V. Didyk, R. Ole Rasmussen, G. Kharitonova, L. Ivanova. Institutional Conditions in Arctic Frontiers: The Case of Mining in Greenland, Russia and Norway.
S. Goes, B. Skorstad. Legitimizing Business?: Environmental Awareness in the Norwegian Mining Industry.
F. Bjørgo. Metagoverning the Interdependence of Municipalities and Mining Companies in the Scandinavian Arctic.
V. Didyk, I. Bay-Larsen, H. Sandersen, L. Ivanova, L. Isaeva, G. Kharitonova. Sustainability and Mining: The Case of the Kola Peninsula.
R. Ole Rasmussen, A. Gjertsen. Sacrifice Zones for a Sustainable State? Greenlandic Mining Politics in an Era of Transition.
H. Dannevig, B. Dale. The Nussir Case and the Battle for Legitimacy: Scientific Assessments, Defining Power and Political Contestation.
T. Magnussen, B. Dale. The Municipal No to Mining. The Case Concerning the Reopening of the Biedjovaggi Gold Mine in Guovdageainnu Municipality, Norway.
A. Gjertsen, C. Risvoll. Coexistence in Mountain Landscapes: A Local Narrative of Hope and Uncertainty.
B. Dale, I. Bay-Larsen, B. Skorstad. The Will to Drill. Revisiting Arctic Communities.