The assessed arctic: How monitoring can be silently normative

Abstract

The Arctic is an assessed region. Scientific assessments are becoming larger in number. Evaluations of the state of the art in the Arctic are made based on monitoring and data gathering. As reports are followed up by new ones, comparison is possible and change can be analyzed. Finally recommendations for action are made and put to the members of the Arctic Council. Hence, the task is really to give directions for the future. This chapter argues that this growing business of assessments, which have their correspondence in other areas, are in many ways good since they enlarge our knowledge. At the same time attention should be paid to how the produced knowledge might function in different areas of policy. If they are to function as recommendations on how to change societies and people’s behavior for the future, the basis cannot be only natural science but need to be broader. However, moving value-laden recommendations on human societies and economic development into the realm of science might work as a way of de-politicizing policy for the Arctic.