Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
Date October 24, 2017
All News

Dale and colleagues releases new edited volume, The Will to Drill

Visiting scholar Brigt Dale has authored a new book, The Will to Drill—Mining in Arctic Communites, just out from Springer Publishing.

Qaqortoq, South Greenland
Qaqortoq, South Greenland, where new mining activities in the region might secure town growth.

"In the book, we investigate the will to drill in Arctic communities, how it differs and why," says Dale.

Dale and coauthors include multiple case studies from various locations in the Arctic region that detail local practices regarding and opinions of mining, as well as ongoing sustainability considerations.

Kvalsund, Norway
An old fishing shack in Kvalsund, Norway. Here, the future is insecure. Mining offers new possibilities; it is also a potential threat to landscapes, ecosystems, and traditional ways of life.

"The book fills a lacuna in the literature on mining in this part of the Arctic," he says. "Sustainability discussions concerning mining often conflate the interrelatedness between industrial development and environmental concerns. We therefore scrutinize the way concepts such as 'sustainability' and 'sacrifice zones' are utilized when mining activities and their economic, ecological and social footprints are analyzed, as well as how political and scientific processes make mining activities possible."

Dale and coauthors hope that the book will inform ongoing debates concerning the impacts of extractive industries on communities, both in the Arctic and elsewhere.

For more information about the book, see the Springer website.