What is it about?
How can we explain Russian politics in the Arctic? While it has become a popular approach to frame Arctic politics in terms of attempts to secure and monopolize resources as well as to maximize power, the article argues that attention should be given to cultural explanations as well. The article develops a framework called geopoetics that highlights how understandings of space are culturally embedded. The article then analyses Soviet literature and film from the 1920s onwards to show that scientific exploration, heroism and conquest of nature through technology have mattered even a century ago.
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Why is it important?
It is important to understand that space is a cultural phenomenon and policies are shaped and legitimized through particular understandings. Simplistic explanations that identify "power" as the main motive for action are insufficient.
Perspectives
The article makes the case that action has multiple sources of motivation but that they are rooted in how one understands the world.
Dr Hannes Hansen-Magnusson
Cardiff University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Arctic geopoetics: Russian politics at the North Pole, Cooperation and Conflict, November 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0010836718815526.
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