Contesting Svalbard: Navigating Arctic Futures

Abstract

Svalbard is an archipelago built on an irreducible plurality of interests and Arctic design traditions. Norway has sovereignty over the island group. Contesting Svalbard combines a granular understanding of the spatial implications of multinational occupation in Svalbard with a critique of the Norwegian nationalism underlying the Svalbard project. The Svalbard Treaty grants all 46 signatory states equal rights to conduct commercial and scientific research activities on the archipelago. This results in an intricate mix of interests and stakeholders and a unique foundation for design experimentation, collaboration, and speculation in an Arctic context. Norway is, however, tightening its grip on Svalbard, impacting the idea of Svalbard as an Arctic common imagined and designed by many nations and people groups. Five distinct challenges in Svalbard’s built environment are identified as fertile ground to inject a range of alternative futures, catalyzing the archipelago’s multinational character. A participatory and scenario planning approach based on design research is central to such an endeavor. This study, therefore, deals with and speculates about a cross-cultural, fluid, and plural set of issues and actors in an increasingly contested Arctic common. This study results in (i) adaptations to The Svalbard Treaty addressing climate change, the empowerment of minority groups, and the increasing diversity of interests in the region; (ii) design recommendations and scenarios foregrounding Thai and other Asian-Arctic interests in Svalbard’s built environment; (iii) a proposal for new material assemblies promoting the entanglement of multiple—existing and speculative—Arctic design traditions found in Svalbard; (iv) the introduction of a new transnational organization, The Central Arctic Ocean Design Agency, streamlining inclusive knowledge exchange across the Arctic and guiding alternative futures for Svalbard; and (v) a baseline condition where Norwegian dominance on Svalbard continues in the form of a new company town proposal. This dissertation is geared toward an international design audience. It acts as a body of actionable knowledge to inform future development on Svalbard while curating and expanding the scope, practice, and literature on urbanism within Arctic contexts. This study also aims to supplement natural and social sciences on Arctic topics, challenge dominant literary histories, and unfold new spatial orders by transversing multiple nation-states, looking beyond the old polarities of hegemony.