Aarhus University Seal

Project Objectives

Using the notion of the biosocial this project contributes to understanding the many ways in which so-called biological and social worlds are not demarcated, but co-constituted; to anthropological theorization about human-animal relations within and beyond Anthropocene realities; and to the development of a conceptual understanding of fluctuations, change, and resilience in small Arctic communities. Finally, the project ethnographically tests the notion and limits of the biosocial as an analytical concept. All aspects are important to the understanding the growing complexities and nuances of sustainable human-and-animal life in the Arctic.

 

The project carries out long-term ethnographic fieldwork using participant observation and interviews in three different communities in West, North, and East Greenland, taking part in, and following the everyday lives of hunting families, including retired and aspiring hunters. The project shall also work with biologists and specialists in wildlife ecosystem management - in academic settings and if possible, also in the field. We shall collaborates with hunters and their families, using inclusive and multimodal methods, for instance mobile phone camera and video, thus giving opportunity to hunters and their families to document their own practices, and, using this material as catalyst for the co-creation of knowledge and dissemination.

 

This project seeks to bridge the growing chasm between oft-called hunters' and biologists' forms of knowledge in the management of living resources in Greenland. Rather than seeing knowledge as static and exclusive, this project aims build new foundations for dialogue and sharing of knowledge, for new collaborative practices in science, and for working towards identifying and testing new and sustainable means of monitoring and managing ecosystems from the bottom-up. The project will also contribute to Greenland policy making with in-depth knowledge about various issues pertaining to the sustainability, security, and survival of hunting communities into Greenland's future.