Arctic Yearbook 2014 | Page 270

270 Arctic Yearbook 2014 impacts on Greenland, where experiences from e.g. Canada and Alaska point to the need to counter the marginalization of local communities due to the growing social problems and disruptions of families and communities that have been shown. This puts demands on the way the Greenland government sets its societal targets in the changes to come and how public consultation must include issues of social change and new ways of organising everyday life for the potential workforce. This goes beyond the mere training of miners and consultations framed by given single projects. Instead, it must include much broader questions of competence building and new ways of organizing work in mines not leaving behind the security and competence demands that result from potentially complex and dangerous work situations. Recently the Greenlandic government has announced that potential Greenlandic labour can only be expected to provide transport to and from the mine from a major city, while they themselves must pay for any transportation to smaller settlements, and the government encourages people to move towards the major cities. This illustrates that the government at the outset has a rather narrow approach to the social challenges, and has operated from the assumption that the separation of habitat and work place and migrant working conditions is not to be questioned. New Perspectives for Governance There is a great need for more research as well as development of dialogue and planning tools in this area, involving a systematic exploration of experiences from similar projects in areas with indigenous peoples within and outside the Arctic. It is essential to explore how the local population can be involved constructively in the Greenlandic mineral extraction projects, and how work can be organized so that it will not undermine the existing cultural context, but will be included as a positive element in sustainable development dynamics. In this context, it is necessary to analyse the socio-cultural implications of establishing settlements with an expected service life limit, and how the settlements can be soundly closed when livelihoods are exhausted. Already in the start-up phase, it should be assessed whether the site has other potentials that can enable a long-term establishment and continued run of the settlements or parts thereof. The culture of the Inuit is originally a nomadic culture, and parts of the population have maintained a high mobility. It should therefore be examined to what extent the general mobility can be included as a positive factor in the establishment of settlements of a temporary nature. In addition, an assessment of the individual mines’ socio-economic potentials under different operating modes is needed, including a much broader analysis than just the financial return for the mining company. Finally, there are a number of technical challenges to the establishment of settlements, which are expected to have a limited lifespan, so that most elements can be reassembled and reused at another settlement, and so that the settlement can also be environmentally sustainable in the operation phase, and that there may be an environmentally sound dismantlement. Hendriksen, Hoffmann & Jørgensen