Introduction: Alternative Lenses on the Arctic

This introduction discusses the historical and current blindness of social scientific research in and on the Arctic and underscores the potential of critical research to open up new perspectives. The way in which the Arctic social world becomes “known” is partial and in many ways still influenced by its legacy of expeditions. Despite the increasing volume of Arctic social sciences, many gaps remain. Through discussing critical research—forays into problematization and critique—the chapter elaborates on the relevance of critical approaches for bringing to light Arctic issues and questions that we are currently blind to. To this end, the chapter groups the contributions of the book into three thematic strands: novel angles on questions of order, explorations of heretofore unacknowledged sites of power, and perspectives on studying Arctic pluralities. The introduction, and the volume as a whole, invites the reader to problematize that which appears self-evident in the Arctic and to explore alternative approaches.