Saqqummersitaq

The long-term economic performance of Greenland has been shaped by factors like climate change and global commodity prices but more importantly by the change and persistence of economic and political institutions. This chapter discusses the combination of these factors ranging from natural-resource transitions, historical legacies, and state developmental policies. It provides a general overview to understand the interplay of endogenous and exogenous factors that have influenced the historical evolution of the Greenlandic economy.

The chapter introduces a method of qualitative analysis which builds on socialpsychological theory about structures and relations in social practice. Conditions-, meanings- and reasoning analysis integrates societal and institutional structures in the conduct of everyday life of the citizens and in professional practice. The purpose of the analysis is to show the connections between institutional practice and the citizens’ everyday conduct of life with e.g. health problems, how the different practices influence each other, and what opportunities and challenges they include. By the use of examples from empirical research in patients’ perspectives on health practice in Greenland, it is shown how the method of analysis can be used on empirical material, what forms of knowledge and practice it analyses, and what kind of knowledge and action possibilities it generates.

According to the narratives transmitted through media and political discourse, climate change reduces the ice coverage in the Arctic and enhances shipping and other forms of maritime activities. Especially, expectations of an increasing level of transit shipping between Asian, especially Chinese, ports and ports in Europe and North America is dominant. Evidence, however, tells that the numbers of transit shipping through the Arctic Ocean are very limited, and dominated by European shipping companies. For Greenland, political expectations have also been high, since Greenland has been seen as "strategically" situated in relation to new shipping routes in the Arctic, But, again, the actual development has been moderate and not related to international transits but conditions in Greenland itself.

Reindeer herding and husbandry in Greenland has a short history. While the hunting tradition is much older and has always been part of the Greenlandic tradition (specifically, the hunting of indigenous Greenlandic caribou), reindeer husbandry was first established in mid-west Greenland and later in southern Greenland in the 1950s. The introduction of semi-domestic reindeer from Norway was established in 1952 due to a drop in the indigenous reindeer population throughout the 1920s to 1940s. This chapter outlines the story of reindeer herding in Greenland and its failures and relative successes.

I denne tekst vil der blive taget afsæt i en beskrivelse af udendørs udstillinger af fotoportrætter i Atammik og Maniitsoq i august 2019. Denne beskrivelse vil føre til refleksioner over disse udstillinger og præsentere et udkast til en teori om betydningen af dem som fællesskabende æstetiske processer. Jeg vil starte med overvejelser omkring portrættet. Dernæst vil jeg reflektere over portrætternes særlige betydning som fællesskabende set i lyset af udvalgte teorier om fotografi.

Artiklen her er en del af forskningsprojektet Kunst og Fællesskab: Synlighed, Oprejsning, Udsyn, der handler om at undersøge betydningen af kunst mht. at skabe fællesskaber i grønlandske byer og bygder. Gennem projektet vil vi undersøge, hvordan kunst kan skabe refleksion og åbne nye perspektiver gennem fælles oplevelser – og dermed give konkrete visioner for at fremme det fællesskab og den samhørighed, som man i lokalsamfundene ønsker at videreføre og udvide på en kulturskabende og bæredygtig måde.