Mistra Arctic Futures Annual Report 2011 (pdf)

ASSESSING ARCTIC FUTURES
Voices, Resources and Governance
In the project Assessing Arctic Futures: Voices,
Resources and Governance, we are analyzing past
projections of the region’s future in order to better understand
the Arctic futures scenarios that are continuously
being produced today. This research is intended to reveal
processes through which certain – but not all – voices are
heard, and from those processes to derive tools that allow
us to listen more carefully and act more wisely.
CONTACT:
Sverker Sörlin, project leader, Divi sion of History of Science and
Technology, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm:
sorlin@kth.se
Nina Wormbs, co-leader, Divi sion of History of Science and
Technology, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm:
nina@kth.se
”The Arctic is hot,” Sweden’s Arctic Ambassador Gustaf Lind
recently observed. His comment referred not to the physical
climate, which has received so much attention, but to rapid
changes in the political climate. Until recently, the Arctic was
the prerogative of organizations interested in specific scientific
research projects, military-strategic control, or the direct
administration of northern citizens. As the Arctic has become
more firmly embedded within the global political-economic
system – and its residents perceived as active stakeholders
in decision-making – interest in its present and future has
spread rapidly among NGOs, associations of indigenous Arctic
peoples, international organizations like the EU and the UN,
and geographically distant states such as China, Korea, India,
and Malaysia. Expertise in the social sciences has consequently
become essential to understanding the present and future of the
Arctic.
Our research project is located at the core of this ongoing
change. We embrace the challenge to build the competencies
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