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Short abstract:

Both academia and economic development promote the same misconception about the Arctic: that it is a geographical/biological frontier. In my article, I argue that these misconceptions reproduce colonial narratives deployed in the conquest and underdevelopment of Africa, those of Arctic as Eden.

Long abstract:

Building on my previous research in Sweden's sub-arctic Lapland/Sápmi, I present a provocation in which I reframe the Arctic as a site of recursive and resurgent narratives of frontier conquest and settlement in the fields of both academia and economic development. I propose that the central interest in the Arctic is that it is perceived as an Eden: rich in resources for both study and plunder, and simultaneously 'empty' of communities reliant - physically and socially - on those resources. Using historical precedent from Africa, North America, and Sweden, I deploy a modified (after Colin Sterling, 2021) concept of hauntology as a study of recursive narratives of extractivism, applying them to ongoing issues in the Arctic. Reframing scientific engagement in the Arctic as facilitating an 'Arctic as Eden' imaginary, positioning scientific endeavour as a mode of extractivism akin to the practice of economic development. Furthermore, I propose that the interest in the Arctic is not solely dependent on it being a space of potential economic growth, but that it is a site of discontinuous indigenous ownership and governance that can be exploited to gain access to resources such as land, minerals, oil, and research funding.