<TITLE: Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 1: Northernness and the 'Arctic' - a Construction with Consequences
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: humanities
DISCIPLINE: cultural studies
EVENT TYPE: conference presentation
FILE ID: CPRE01B
NOTES: continued in CDIS01C, session also includes presentations CPRE01A/C (CDIS01A-B and CDIS01D are part of the same conference), poor sound quality

RECORDING DURATION: 16 min 45 sec

RECORDING DATE: 1.7.2002

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 29

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 1

S2: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Swedish; ACADEMIC ROLE: unknown; GENDER: female; AGE: 24-30>


<S2> <START MISSING> how this extends to the fact that this extends to the (xx) the actual border we have a a er in most contexts (xx) the actual hierarchic order and how (xx) is now international (xx) state people because the northern parts of USA and finland er of greenland iceland northern northern canada alaska and russia of course and what i'm going to do is compare the views of of northernness in some of these regions . the fact is that and if one looks at current descriptions of what the international arctic is one finds a sort of real strange er view of what the people are and what the people are in need of and this is from an international report that claims to describe er (xx) focus to people in in this arctic region er it's described as an area where people live close to the environment and they want to live (xx) or the most important food source you know people who live from subsistence would mainly live from from hunting and fishing and then quite sort of surprising i guess it's (also) problematic er the populations are young the birth rate is high erm and there is and this seems to indicate er there is unemployment and lack of access to (upper form) schooling and i was reading these views of what is an arctic (xx) and what are the arctic problematics and i was starting to wonder but where where d- where does this come from because the view on the northern at the northern nordic or the northern (xx) finland is i mean what are said these periphery problematics of these are quite quite different and it's for the for an access to er well economic or (doing these) jobs maybe so this will be my focus i i've read quite a lot this arctic literature because these (xx) PhD (xx) like this erm and i found that mainly this derives from a canadian suggestions in the arctic regions or the canadian <SIC> problematic </SIC> is is the source of conceptualisations erm in in canadian suggestions in the arctic council so so this is what we ought to compare the northern canada and the north in in europe and pretty much my conclusion is that one can't speak about one north or compare areas in terms of northernness as in that the northern is one thing everywhere it it really much derives one can't compare north (any essential way) er apart from social geographic and political all these social factors , oh yeah and then especially i suggest why it has been er this way . why the problems are so different in in northern europe and then the northern well united states and canada er pretty much i suggest that this (accounts) very very different time scales the north americas follow frontier development were recently er developed er the administration and we'll get to this the administration of the northest territories was set up only in 1967 which is 30 years ago it's recent social development administration erm it's pretty much a new world old world er difference whereas (pe-) people here for or in in the nordic can't (xx) years (xx) interacted and the main argument is that while the focus in north american discourse is on the pure (xx) as the speaker said in in the last session er the wilderness where there are no peoples the wilderness here is a wilderness with people it's it's something else it has developed all along the time er (the US) traditional and the indigenous is not as clear-cut because if people moved up into the northernmost parts of canada and then the administration was set up only some 50 years ago erm and this means that one can actually speak of who were who have been there er who who are the real indigenous and i'm i just suggest that to use ethnicity and traditionality (having also the own) environment are not as clear cut in in the nordic countries or especially in the northernmost finland so that's the main claim . and we saw a f- a few maps here's one more @@ and this is the reason to your what countries are (xx) arctic in this cooperation aim which i think <NAME> referred , this is the area that's seen as arctic in canada according to this which is getting to be some sort of consensus (they have) made a definition which draws down to 60 degrees north which is an intra- er (national) definition of the arctic and historically (traceable) and and here well and this would in the times when (xx) northern europe taking almost all of all of (xx) it's clearly a different ideas different times and and that the arctic is seen as in north europe taking in the parts above the arctic circle arctic circle <CHANGING TRANSPARENCIES, P:07> then what is so different between these areas this sort of discussion which is motivated by this international development this recent international development in arctic council and arctic international region , er well very many factors have to go through this geographic historical domestic international first geographically erm er there are very few very few peoples (xx) to nordic situations in northern canada remain of the canadian residence i'm comparing with canada because the canadian initiatives towards the arctic have been the absolute majority they took the initiative to towards the arctic council and were leading in this and so on and they arrive in this conception i showed you before er also the canadian population a large majority lives just by the southern border which is the 49th degree which is very south so same in here and you actually have these large true wilderness areas or we have areas with no people , 89 per cent of canada have no permanent habitants this of course is re- is related to the historical development the old world new world difference of course the nations or states and so on has changed in in the northern europe but here the actual legal immigration or colonalisations , relate (xx) er has had this er largely not conflictual recent historical development , and it all took place against what was seen as a northern frontier 'cause the US and canada has this or conception of the frontier (is) division between as we heard in the last session the the true wilderness and then what people the frontier is conceived of as a difference between or the meeting point between true wilderness we might possibly have american indians because this is also it's conceived as part of the wilderness and i have made a tra- a lot a lot of tracing on this indian human (xx) and the meeting between this and civilisation but it's actually in the in the times of this er conceived as civilisation and wilderness , and of course the (xx) like that , because it took place so recently (when) the state was largely developed , erm while the territories in northern canada were still (image) for the multi family (xx) hunting groups it was a large cultural clash erm there are still traces of it in the canadian federal system where there are lesser self-governing powers for the northern territories and there's difference between territories and provinces erm and this as i as i said before erm administration in some areas administration and government is quite recent only in in 1967 was the most recent government (xx) set up , and this has has resulted in a special <SIC> problematic </SIC> mixed (xx) change problems low life expectancy and also population growth (xx) rates and this i claim is a particular <SIC> problematic </SIC> even though it is often described as a northern <SIC> problematic </SIC> this is what we're problematising here . then simultaneously there is the question why has this been seen as as northern instead of er domestic or a frontier <SIC> problematic </SIC> and this might one might trace to that , er can these issues and philosophy be seen as the northern and the arctic which are largely used interchangeably and the north in this sense has had a large importance (xx) national identity actually it was and in the frontier conception it was the focus of er of diefenbaker actually winning a er an election campaign in 58 and it's actually i think (xx) he said it in a speech in his election campaign won by (xx) that united (xx) was taking place (xx) their imagination and frontier development recent new imagination of the arctic a new frontier is very clearly built on his thought . erm and we just bought to that idea since 1958 , for example (xx) (gratefulness) , and you can read arctic sort of , statement and this these ideas of the north as the land of purity or a mythified land in in natural geology has led to these er largely pro- problematic conceptions a difference between the myth north naturalist of the great north and the actual social problems in it and the the suggestion i have of course is that this is not related to north that it's related to the particular historical and geographic social changes or the situation actually in the north nor- north of america which also erm has taken place not just because of a late (loss) or the late settlement but because it has been seen as a frontier development erm and this is still traceable i think this is why one speaks about the arctic as wilderness area er one speaks about only traditional only indigenous only environmental because that is the only thing conceivable as existing beyond the frontier so i think (xx) of the american settlement discourse erm which is not surprising i can see it work even now someone who wrote on the internet as er seeing the north america as a new frontier that and the continuous american or north american need for new frontiers or it is a largely it's a it's a living discourse the way we see (how it works) . <CHANGING TRANSPARENCIES> and then the conclusion of the canadian ideas of of canada i think it is actually construed it's not about the north really it's the understanding of oh sorry . (xx) understanding the north has been given it is it has all created a special rift which is described geographically unnecessary this result of specific processes and of frontier mythology then if this is the case in north america then well and this is a short part because i assume we know a bit more on there's lots of nordic peoples here , erm well i think this might suffice (was i) (xx) with the time , er what differs in the nordic countries and especially my case is northern always meaning finland and iceland er greenland is a different thing er because it has had a a development more like to canada that's because (xx) frontier sort of , (they are) not always using this term in denmark but these four countries where difference is both a discourse on the north and dy- and dynamics in the areas the actual problematics which are also seen as arctic historically , in the north in er the nordic countries and this is such an entire nordic has largely been a bi-product a- administrative setup or bi-product of the cold war five small states uniting against the (xx) of US use of (xx) even if there were ideas of clim- climatic similarity this was in the 1800s the actual idea of north since has been as a administrative , (xx) action north climate some some similarity for cautions (i'll show it) this stage has been a si- has been seen as a particularly modern , er part of the old world , pulling you see pulling things away i guess made an offer for (xx) representation of parliament so the situation is actually comparable the north and south parts and er (xx) for visiting which have (xx) take up of last session other thing of that it's critical because you (destroy) traditional in many many saga or in the in the non-traditional occupations (you can't really) delineate what is sami the same way you can delineate who is inuit as clearly or as concisely , (xx) times as in north as in north america , then i'll just flash these ones past , there has been reactions to this description this arctic label it has been in literature giving view of the arctic with one example (xx) in the canadian context , nor to that well in time in recent shift there has been discovered sort of frontier mythology (but it is found only in the nordic) discussions about generally on on the frontier and this person on the rocks is (forwarding) the ideas of the (north) as a frontier for the the rest of the nordic countries for norway sweden and finland and this has been discussed now with it refutes that this will this will be traditional areas as distinct from the modern , and as conflicts in the areas as well which (of course it was) discussed last last session erm about what is traditional what is traditional occupation , and what is a traditional livelihood which are not as clear in er in nordic countries . i'm pressed for time so i'll just flash this stuff past <SIGH> anyway the 20 people can't see all themselves as of of (xx) or possible to strike down as clear , as in in a north american discourse (xx) an (amplification) relate to place it's the (nordic) polyethnicity so all in all this refusal of er er the that the cat- that the category of the pure (xx) it it is the traditional as understanding of the arctic can be placed on northern europe it's and it's confused in literature it's discussed piece also and (that which) a north american arctic discourse can be placed in northern europe too , and it's generally a caution against using the the idea of the north as erm a as the central concept which would then not be linked to the cultural historical whatever ideas and it's (xx) stand on the concept of a northern is qualified so that it that often it it is seen still as a myth and one should be careful with what one actually puts into it it's even seen as symbolising it can be seen as symbolising a function instead of an actual thing the international need for a space in which to place (thoughts and beings) and quite literally , the fundamental reason we find most of these themes in the future is probably a straightforward lack of (xx) knowledge about arctic conditions , erm and unlike (xx) it seems as though the (xx) is the strongest as- aspects is the strongest aspect in the appreciation of the north and the new sort of exorcism a half (xx) the least and you can't (xx) , so by that i (xx) </S2>
