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SUMMARY:Strategies of Similarity and the Movement of Governance Knowledge:
  Region-Building\, Indigenous Identity and International Development in th
 e Circumpolar North - Dr Elana Wilson (Norwegian Institute of Internationa
 l Affairs)
DTSTART:20061102T161500Z
DTEND:20061102T173000Z
UID:TALK5668@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:4217
DESCRIPTION:A common myth about globalization is that ideas and knowledge\
 , like money\, can now circulate freely. This is not always the case. Know
 ledge and ideas are embedded in particular places and societies and do not
  lend themselves straightforwardly to export. In this presentation\, I exa
 mine how governance knowledge was moved across cultural and political boun
 daries during a development project designed to promote Canadian-style nat
 ural resource management and economic development models in the Russian No
 rth. This project\, one of many cooperative endeavors involving Arctic ind
 igenous peoples and governments\, was based in the belief that relevant kn
 owledge should be shared across the state boundaries that transect the Cir
 cumpolar North. In order to legitimate the transfer of knowledge from the 
 Canadian North to the Russian one and to overcome historical\, cultural\, 
 and political differences between Canada and Russia\, the Canadian develop
 ment team relied upon 'strategies of similarity\,' namely assumptions abou
 t 1) a common Arctic space and 2) a shared Arctic indigenous identity. Dra
 wing upon over thirty qualitative interviews and my participation in the p
 roject itself\, I demonstrate how and why rhetoric about Arctic region bui
 lding and discourses of indigenous unity\, which often resonate well in th
 e realm of international politics\, did not serve as unproblematic mechani
 sms for knowledge transfer on a level closer to home. The limited reach an
 d efficacy of these strategies of sameness indicate that the movement of k
 nowledge cannot rely upon the real or imagined imposition of commensurabil
 ity between peoples and places.
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Department of Geography\, Downing Site
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