Leiden University Student Repository

Brouwers, Juliëtte (2021)

Unexpectedly Urban – Fragile Future: The case of Greenland: who leads urbanisation, and what is urbanisation leading to?

Bachelor thesis | Urban Studies (BA)

The Arctic region is often portrayed as consisting of pristine, unspoiled nature, small settlements with indigenous communities detached culturally from the rest of the world. In Greenland, and in other Arctic regions, the opposite is closer to reality. Greenland has been transformed and is transforming into an urban society, not without problems. Post-WII policies that sought to industrialise and modernise Greenlandic societies employed urbanisation as a key method, but left behind a history of trauma related to the forced relocation out of settlements, into an alienating urban society. This thesis argues, that there is a similar pattern unfolding at the moment and that the rationale behind urbanisation in Greenland did not change: it is the economic promise of affluence cities are considered to hold that drives politics of relocation. More lights need to be shed on urbanisation in Greenland, including its drivers and societal implications, as it can pave the way for full...Show moreThe Arctic region is often portrayed as consisting of pristine, unspoiled nature, small settlements with indigenous communities detached culturally from the rest of the world. In Greenland, and in other Arctic regions, the opposite is closer to reality. Greenland has been transformed and is transforming into an urban society, not without problems. Post-WII policies that sought to industrialise and modernise Greenlandic societies employed urbanisation as a key method, but left behind a history of trauma related to the forced relocation out of settlements, into an alienating urban society. This thesis argues, that there is a similar pattern unfolding at the moment and that the rationale behind urbanisation in Greenland did not change: it is the economic promise of affluence cities are considered to hold that drives politics of relocation. More lights need to be shed on urbanisation in Greenland, including its drivers and societal implications, as it can pave the way for full independence and could thus initiate the final state of decolonisation.Show less

Greenland

urbanisation

postcolonialism

arctic

Author

Brouwers, Juliëtte

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Kefford, A.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en