Entangled Futures: Geoengineering, Youth, and Indigenous Futures in the Arctic

The Arctic is warming four times as fast as the global average. Worried about the impact on their lives and the Earth's climate system, a group of Finnish youth environmental activists formed the geoengineering focused organization Operaatio Arktis (OA). OA has divided scientists and activists alike due to the latter's' fears over the unpredictable impacts geoengineering might have on the Earth system, for distracting the focus from other forms of climate action, and the colonial legacy of past geoengineering experiments.

My PhD research will involve ethnographic fieldwork with OA on their attempts to add nuance to the geoengineering "debate". My research questions are threefold. (1) How does OA orient and validate their practices through adherence to particular visions about the future and how are these visions informed by multispecies or intergenerational justice? (2) How does proximity to the Arctic shape the climatic visions for the future of OA's members through emotions such as eco anxiety and empathy? (3) How does OA address the colonial legacy of past geoengineering experiments and incorporate indigenous people's (especially Sámi youth) visions of the future into their advocacy?

An additional element of my proposed project involves producing a series of experimental ethnographic film shorts that bring to life the visions for the future of my research participants. Mindful of power imbalances, my research and films will centre the involvement of Sámi people in the design, framing, and data collection phases of my project, especially youth.

The main tools for my PhD research will be interviews and observations of OA's day-to-day operations as a fellow member over the course of 12 months, and I will also follow OA to international events to observe how OA interacts with groups less proximate to melting Arctic ice. My research seeks to address the lack of academic literature analysing the role of civil society engaged in geoengineering conversations.

The Finnish government and experts rely on groups like OA to educate and represent the views of the public for informed and consensual decision making. Civil society in turn has the responsibility to represent the views of and educate the public, which is extremely difficult around a topic that is so controversial and potentially dangerous. These considerations make it crucial to understand the public discourses circling around geoengineering as well as the assumptions lying behind these discourses, least of which because geoengineering may be one of the best solutions for climate change.

Cody proposes multi-sited ethnographic field research in Finland and Iceland for this project. He already has a very solid base in Iceland, and has had some provisional interviews with youth environmentalists in Finland where he intends to conduct long-term participant observation and ethnographic research. The plan for studying Finnish is sensible and feasible.

While most of his interlocutors will be fluent in English, he will be able to access nuanced facets of this cultural world with additional language training.