Arctic Geopolitics, Media and Power

Arctic Geopolitics, Media and Power provides a fresh way of looking at the potential and limitations of regional international governance in the Arctic region. Far-reaching impacts of climate change, its wealth of resources and potential for new commercial activities have placed the Arctic region into the political limelight. In an era of rapid environmental change, the Arctic provides a complex and challenging case of geopolitical interplay. Based on analyses of how actors from within and outside the Arctic region assert their interests and how such discourses travel in the media, this book scrutinizes the social and material contexts within which new imaginaries, spatial constructs and scalar preferences emerge. It places ground-breaking attention to shifting media landscapes as a critical component of the social, environmental and technological change. It also reflects on the fundamental dilemmas inherent in democratic decision making at a time when an urgent need for addressing climate change is challenged by conflicting interests and growing geopolitical tensions. This book will be of great interest to geography academics, media and communication studies and students focusing on policy, climate change and geopolitics, as well as policy-makers and NGOs working within the environmental sector or with the Arctic region.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9780367189822 has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

'This book is a must read for all interested in the development of the Arctic. Investigating international media and how they frame the understanding of a region that few people have first hand experience of, the analysis adds an often overlooked dimension to the discussion. The Arctic has caught the media's attention as a global narrative, focused on climate change, the 'race for resources' and security, making it difficult for local perspectives that do not fit with preconceived ideas of the region and indigenous peoples to make themselves heard. The book makes its readers aware how this affects the possibility to actually understand the Arctic, which is not first and foremost a region, but a lot of very different localities with each their history and visions for the future.' — Professor Kirsten Thisted, University of Copenhagen, Denmark"With rising temperatures and mounting tension over oil drilling and military expansion, the Arctic is increasingly becoming a geopolitical hotspot. This timely book provides a fascinating account of the complex interlinkages between global economic and political systems and the changing communications landscape. Christensen and Nilsson provide an excellent, much needed, analysis of the role of international media in mediating a diversity of different voices and contested perspectives on the region. The book shows how dominant global frames tend to draw upon old colonial narratives and indigenous local voices often go unheard. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars in Human Geography, Politics, and Media and Communication Studies, as well as those working in the policy field." — Professor Alison Anderson, University of Plymouth, UK, 'This book is a must read for all interested in the development of the Arctic. Investigating international media and how they frame the understanding of a region that few people have first hand experience of, the analysis adds an often overlooked dimension to the discussion. The Arctic has caught the media's attention as a global narrative, focused on climate change, the 'race for resources' and security, making it difficult for local perspectives that do not fit with preconceived ideas of the region and indigenous peoples to make themselves heard. The book makes its readers aware how this affects the possibility to actually understand the Arctic, which is not first and foremost a region, but a lot of very different localities with each their history and visions for the future.' — Professor Kirsten Thisted, University of Copenhagen, Denmark"With rising temperatures and mounting tension over oil drilling and military expansion, the Arctic is increasingly becoming a geopolitical hotspot. This timely book provides a fascinating account of the complex interlinkages between global economic and political systems and the changing communications landscape. Christensen and Nilsson provide an excellent, much needed, analysis of the role of international media in mediating a diversity of different voices and contested perspectives on the region. The book shows how dominant global frames tend to draw upon old colonial narratives and indigenous local voices often go unheard. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars in Human Geography, Politics, and Media and Communication Studies, as well as those working in the policy field." — Professor Alison Anderson, University of Plymouth, UK

Annika E Nilsson is a researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Her work focuses on the politics of Arctic change and communication at the science–policy interface. Nilsson was previously at the Stockholm Environment Institute.Miyase Christensen is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Stockholm University and is an affiliated researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Christensen’s research focuses on environmental communication; technology-social change; and politics of mediation.