Svalbard and the Humanities: Paper Abstracts

Svalbard and the Humanities: Paper Abstracts

(UiT – The Arctic University ofNorway, 27-28 November 2017)

Thor BjørnArlov (NTNU & UNIS)

“Maps and geographical names as tokens of national interests – The Spitsbergen vs. Svalbard case”

The treaty of 9 February 1920 granted Norway full sovereignty over the ’Archipelago of Spitsbergen’, by which name this Arctic territory was known at the time. Assuming sovereignty five years later Norway altered the official name to ‘Svalbard’. To what extent was the name-change a token of national interests or even blatant nationalism? This paper outlines the origin and usage of the place-names Spitsbergen and Svalbard as well as the history of mapping and nomenclature in the area with an emphasis on national bias. It discussed the different practices and principles of geographical naming and the process of compiling the current reference work “The Place-names of Svalbard”. The thesis proposed in this paper is that the transition in official nomenclature from Spitsbergen to Svalbard in 1924-1925 was partly due to justifiable practical considerations, but primarily a political act to construct national bonds to the new-won territory.

John Ash (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)

“Protein, Pirates and Arctic Politics: Svalbard and Conflict in a Changing Climate”

Svalbard is a geographical confluence of factors that provide the potential for conflict. The purpose of this presentation is to explore those factors, identifying approaches to the evaluation of their associated risk. The emphasis will be on biomarine resources, which at present constitute the most likely casus belli. Other issues linking Svalbard and potential conflict will also be considered; not the least the catalytic effects of climate change.

Conflict in the Arctic is nothing new. Given the political progress that has been achieved recently, the most likely situation for an intense interstate conflict in the short term is one that spreads to the Arctic, rather than one igniting within it. However, as the century progresses, dormant problems relating to the Svalbard archipelago will combine with environmental, economic and political trends to exacerbate conflict risk. Traditionally, armed conflict has been viewed as a phenomenon that cannot be predicted. This view is identified as dangerously misleading. Using a risk based approach and noting advances in analytical techniques, the presentation examines representative scenarios in which conflict may occur, and prospective methods of risk management.

Dag Avango (KTH)

“Industrial Heritage Sites on Svalbard: A Resource for Communities in Transition?”

One of the characteristics of the mining industry, in the Arctic and elsewhere, is its sensitivity to fluctuations in world markets’ prices and demand, and sometimes also to changing intentions of state actors. In any case, what the history of the extractive industries tells us is that eventually all mines come to an end. Therefore, across mineral-rich areas in the Arctic are the environmental and societal imprints of more than a hundred years of mining, legacies from the past that linger on in the present, posing challenges to residents and other stakeholders.

Legacies of mining are interpreted differently in different contexts, though. While some will understand them as unwanted imprints of an unjust past, others may appreciate them as cultural heritage, resources for tourism or as structures that can be used for new purposes. In two closely related research projects within REXSAC – Resource Extraction and Sustainable Arctic Communities – we explore under which circumstances mining legacies can become a resource beyond the end of mining.

In this paper, I will compare two of the case studies of this project with a focus on Svalbard, with comparisons to the Norrbotten iron ore fields in northernmost Sweden. Both these regions are in a state of transition in which the legacies of past mining activities are used in different ways to create new values for stakeholders. At Svalbard, after one hundred years of mining, a de-industrialization process is currently taking place. Several mines, operated by the Russian Trust Arktikugol and the Norwegian Store Norske, have been closed or are in the process of closing and different actors, from state policy makers and officials, to scientists, former employees and mining and tourism companies, are seeking ways to build a post-industrial future for the former mining settlements. At Norrbotten, the leading mining companies are in the process of eradicating and re-building towns they once built in order to extract more iron ore, a process generating tensions in which competing actors use narratives about the past as well as built environments from the industrial history of these towns. Based on interviews with stakeholders, studies of public history, and of heritage processes, I will seek to answer the following questions: what roles do the material and immaterial legacies of past mining operations play in different future visions in the European Arctic and why? Can the legacies of mining become a resource for post-mining futures and in that case how, for whom and why? Which lessons can be drawn from de-industrialization and heritage processes at Svalbard for other parts of the Arctic?

Jan Martin Berg (Galleri Svalbard)

“Galleri Svalbard”

Galleri Svalbard was founded in 1995 and was the first fine art institution on Svalbard at the time. It was founded due to the need for housing and displaying collections relevant to the place, but has since expanded its field, and for the last twenty years also included a residency for visiting artists.

I will look into art practices in the area from before the establishment of the gallery up until today. Some artists work in a mode that would be considered by certain theoretical standpoints an appropriation of a place, whereas others choose to stay over time to look at the place in-depth. Local initiatives will be explored, as well as various strategies utilized by artists when entering their «journey» into what to many of them still has a romantic taint of the unknown. The question rather being: when the fascination of the «exotic» character of the place has worn off (as Svalbard gains increasing international attention), how do artists turn to new points of inspiration?

Leonid Chekin (AIRO-XXI, Moscow)

“Islands and Peninsulas of the Arctic in Medieval Texts and Cartography”

The Arctic was out of reach of most travelers for most of the Middle Ages. Medieval geographers provided descriptions of circumpolar areas within one of the two major contexts, while either discussing the history of human salvation or establishing the relationship between the celestial sphere and the terrestrial globe. In both contexts, the ideas about the Arctic in Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Northern Russia developed in tension between the pressure of mainstream schools and local variants. This paper describes competing visions of the Eurasian northern periphery, which were the result of this development and which at some point could accommodate “Svalbard” and other medieval and early modern discoveries.

Julia Gerlach(FreieUniversität Berlin) & Nadir Kinossian(IFL-Leipzig)

“Cultural landscape of the Arctic: ‘recycling’ ofSoviet imagery in the Russian settlement of
Barentsburg, Svalbard (Norway)”

The paper analyzes the contemporary cultural landscape of theArctic, using the example of Barentsburg, a Russian mining townlocated on the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. The study usescurrent debates on urban cultural landscape, heritage, andidentity to explain the endurance of Soviet imagery in thecontemporary cultural landscape. The article argues that Sovietheritage has not been ‘left over’; instead, it has been purposefully‘recycled’ to serve its claimants under new economic andgeopolitical conditions. By maintaining its presence on Svalbard,Russia asserts its Arctic nation status and adds the Arcticdimension to its identity project in the making. The latterinstrumentalizes selective aspects of the Soviet past that fit wellwith political discourses in contemporary Russia, including thoseof power, space, and otherness.

Elin Kristine Haugdal (UiT)

“Photographs of Barentsburg and Pyramiden, 1950s–1970s”

In the decades after World War II, the people in both the Norwegian and the Soviet settlements on Svalbard shared common ground – the harsh climate, sparse contact with the outer world, work related to the mines, life in company towns etc. But due to the Cold War, the borders between the settlements were accentuated and made more insurmountable than sea ice, negative degrees and differences in languages and national cultures. Behind the iron wall, however, there were taken photographs which recently have been made publicly available. Most of these pictures were shot during official visits between the representatives of the two states (the Governor and the Consul), in the contexts of sports and cultural exchanges, and later on tourist exchanges, arranged for the inhabitants in Barentsburg, Pyramiden, NyÅlesund and Longyearbyen. Taking pictures in the Soviet settlements was considered suspicious activity and subject to strict restrictions. The Austrian photographer living in Longyearbyen, HertaGrøndal, was one of the few welcomed on her own, but her motifs were controlled, and she only moved where she explicitly was allowed to. This paper focus on the photographs recorded in the Soviet settlements from the mid-1950s to the 1970s, mainly those taken by HertaGrøndal. What do these pictures tell us about the Soviet self-representation? What kind of motifs attract the photographer’s interest? And what meaning do the pictures themselves reveal to the contemporary viewer – way beyond the Soviet Consul's, as well as the photographer's, control?

SiljeSolheimKarlsen (UiT)

“Coming of Age through Svalbard Adventures”

A typical feature in children´s books in the 1930s-1970s was that nature functioned as an educational exercise-arena for boys from higher social levels, with the purpose of preparing them for the demanding male roles they were to assume in modern society (Slettan 2010). The female protagonists on the other hand were offered quite different roles, as most of girls´ books in the same period are romantic stories. As a large number of Norwegian books for children and young adults published between 1930 and 1980 take place on Svalbard, this article will examine how the Arctic nature has a didactic function in literature for boys and girls from the 1930s to the 1970s. As for traditional coming of age-literature, the storyline or plot in these book series involve an adjustment to society: both girls and boys are to be educated into the current conventions and norms and the action “becomes a process of learning, which prepare and qualify the children for the homecoming […]” (Bache-Wiig 1996: 56).

Interestingly, the Arctic setting seems to bring forward an innovative twist regarding the adjustment and the homecoming, not focusing merely on the civilized society but to a greater degree on the journey in the uncivilized Arctic environment. Perhaps are not the main goals to educate boys to become civilized men and the girls to become good wives? Reading titles such as Fanny Fangstjente(EstridOtt: 1947) and Siri fra Svalbard (EstridOtt: 1939), Sverrepå Svalbard (Magnus Moen: 1950) and OperasjonArktis (Leif Hamre: 1971), this paper will examine how the Svalbard journey provide the girls and boys with an alternative space and other limitations and possibilities.

Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT)

«Recent Russian Documentaries about Spitsbergen in the Context of Feature Films on the Soviet Exploration of the Arctic»

The borderlinebetweendocumentary and feature films is oftenporous. Manydocumentarieshave beenfusingfact and fiction sincetheearlydaysofcinema. Staged scenes (unmarked as such), as well asaltering real-lifeevents to advance a particular agenda, havebeen regular traitsofdocumentaryfilmmakingworld-wide. In thecontextoftheSovietexplorationofthe Arctic, suffice it to mentionDvaokeana / Two Oceans (1933; dir. Vladimir Shneiderov) and GeroiArktiki / Heroesofthe Arctic (1934; dir. IakovPosel’skii), bothofwhich, dealingrespectivelywiththeSibiriakov and Cheliuskinexpeditions, skilfullymanage to turn ”failureintotriumph” (Sarkisova, ScreeningSovietNationalities, p. 79). The ”story oftheSovietexplorerssuccessfullymasteringthe elements” (ibid., p. 74) has beenadditionallyreinforced by thefeature filmsSemerosmelykh / The Seven Brave Ones (1936; dir. Sergei Gerasimov) and Krasnaiapalatka / The Red Tent (1969; dir. Mikhail Kalatozov). Bothportraythe Arctic as a ”harsh and resourcefulfrontierthat provides a liminalspace for testing individual qualities” and showcase ”Soviet-bred bravery and mastery over the Far North” (ibid., pp. 65, 73). My paperexplores in whatwaytherecentprize-winnningdocumentaries by Ivan Tverdovskii, Grumant: Ostrovkommunizma / Grumant: An Island ofCommunism(2014) and VelkomtuPiramida / Welcome to Pyramiden(2017), relate to thewell-established and still relevant Soviettraditionofglamorizingthe(domestic) Arctic explorationonscreen.

DrUlrike Spring (UiO)

«Tourism and Adventure: Cruises to Svalbard in the Late XIX Century»

In the 1890s, cruise tourism to Spitsbergen became popular, with German-speaking Central Europeans constituting a major group of travellers. Sources speak of several hundred people embarking on modern and luxurious steamers to the North. At the same time, journeys to the North were expensive, and only the wealthy few could afford them. Visiting Spitsbergen thus was both an exclusive experience and a sign of early mass tourism.
Early cruise tours were situated in an ambivalent space between risk (the unknown Arctic) and safety (trusted modern transport). They thus shared features with today’s adventure tourism, a form of special interest tourism that has become popular in recent decades. A major focus in scholarly debate on adventure tourism has been the paradox that tourists want to have a ‘safe adventure’, with little actual risk. I would like to take this discussion as a starting point and examine to which extent early cruise tourism to Spitsbergen applied practices known from today’s adventure tourism. I will investigate this by focusing on two sources from the last decades of the 19th century: the travel narratives of cruise tourists and the marketing strategies of travel agents. The paper thus will contribute to a deeper understanding of the concepts of risk and adventure in early mass tourism, and of tourist perceptions and conceptions of the Arctic in general and Svalbard in particular. Arguably, early tourism to the North lay the foundation for Arctic tourism as we know it today.

GeirUlfstein (UiO)

«Nationalisation and Internationalisation in the Light of the Svalbard Treaty»

The discovery of Svalbard by Willem Barents in 1596 resulted in conflicts about the archipelago’s legal status. But during the 19thcentury there was general agreement that Svalbard was terra nullius, i.e. no man’s land. An international conference before World War I discussed the continued terra nullius status, but subject to governance by Norway, Sweden and Russia. No agreement was reached. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 establishes Norwegian sovereignty, but subject to preservation of former terra nullius freedoms in the form of non-discriminatory access to and activities by other treaty parties. My presentation will show how Norway has sought to ensure its national control while confronting several challenges: governmental ownership of real property; the substantive scope of non-discrimination, especially civil aviation; continued coal mining; and whether the Svalbard Treaty applies to fisheries in the 200-mile zone and snow crab and oil activities on the continental shelf.

AndrianVlakhov (RAS Institute of Sociology, Moscow)

“Russian settlements on Svalbard in transition:A longitudinal community study (2013–2017)”

Svalbard, the Arctic archipelago of Norway, has been an important ground for international Arctic research for many decades, mainly due to its geographical position, natural diversity and unique legal status. However, most academic publications concerning Svalbard belong to natural sciences, while the human dimension of the archipelago remains poorly known. That is especially true for the social sciences: the structure of the local communities and the relevant social practices were rarely studied by scholars, and the Russian settlements were nearly always overlooked due to cultural and language barrier.

My research project carried out since 2013 aims to bridge that gap by systematically describing the Russian community (or, to be more accurate, communities) in Svalbard. I have been using participant observation, in-depth interviews, social networks monitoring and media analysis to trace and capture the process of post-industrial transition taking place in Barentsburg and Pyramiden during the last few years.

In this paper, I present the provisional outcomes of my research project. I argue that Barentsburg is a unique type of Arctic industrial settlement as compared to company towns and shift villages. I also analyze the structure of the local community, its take on the town development, and the strategies of industrial and non-industrial futures used by actors at different levels.

Urban Wråkberg (UiT)

“Tourism Initiatives on Svalbard: A Cultural Perspective”

The visitor’s experiences emphasized in North-Norwegian tourism promotion today are placed under the heading “nature-based tourism” and declared to adhere to the likewise somewhat ambiguous criteria of “sustainability”. This approach is central also in regional university training of northern guides and operators. Cultural contents of course anyhow appear in northern guide-work, most consciously so in the anecdotal format of “fortellinger”/stories as part of a guide-set drawn from individual readings or by attending a lecture series in Arctic history.