Locating Indigenous Agencies in Climate Policies of the Arctic : Positionalities of Indigenous People(s) and Traditional Knowledge in the Science-Policy Discourse of Climate Change
Abstract: Indigenous people in the Arctic are recognized as being on front line of confronting the effects of changing climate as well as of the global measures taken for its management, however, remaining marginalized under the conventional ways of governing. This thesis examines the positionalities of indigenous people(s) and traditional knowledge in the science-policy discourse of climate change. Three separate discursive platforms will be examined with the understanding that all actors fill the domain with meaning. Focus on the regional area of the Arctic is constructed through case studies of the Sámi in Finland and the Inuit in the Kingdom of Denmark. The theoretical framework draws from the post-structural debate on agency and structure and is further connected to the Neo-Gramscian concept of hegemony. Through this International relations theorization, power distributional aspects of climate governance are presented, and the domination of the western scientific framework (IPCC) is questioned. Post-colonialism is utilized to highlight the unwished potential of reinforcing outcomes of western and non-western oppositionalities. By utilizing post-structural discourse analysis with a Foucauldian understanding of discourse, this thesis concludes that both indigenous peoples and their intellectual contribution remain constructed around recognition under the framework of western institutionalism.
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