The issues facing the Arctic represent the coalescing of three major global commons: the polar regions, the global ocean, and the atmosphere. The Arctic is undergoing changes because of global warming more rapidly than the rest of the planet. The impact of climate change on autochthonous Arctic species like the polar bear has captured the public imagination worldwide through viral videos. Unfortunately, these global implications often overshadow those most directly impacted by climate change: the circumpolar peoples. Many Indigenous Arctic communities face challenges generated by activities outside the Arctic, but they can draw on generations of experience adapting to the changing environment. Understanding and addressing emerging Arctic challenges is a shared responsibility between Indigenous communities and Western science. In the past, the lack of equitable engagement with Indigenous knowledge has led to distorted and unscientific understandings of the natural and social systems of the Arctic and their dynamics. In this context, the governance of knowledge production in the Arctic must be shared between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems in a way that co-produces true and holistic representations of the transforming Arctic, while ensuring equity, sustainability, and investment in local capacities in the Arctic communities. This panel brings together Indigenous and Western scholars to discuss the current state and future perspectives of knowledge co-production. In particular, the panel will focus on the collaborative and co-productive governance of the scientific enterprise in the Arctic with respect to research priorities, methodologies, and practical applications.

CAPACITY: Unlimited

Silke Helfrich will introduce the first Pattern Language of Commoning (PLC) as a powerful tool for analyzing and designing commons. The PLC is comprised of 33 patterns organized according to their cultural, organizational, and economic dimensions. Participants will learn about the patterns methodology, which is based on a relational and processual understanding of the world.

Special attention will be paid to the concept of “relationalized property” that recognizes dynamic forms of governance of shared wealth which the prevailing epistemology of property law cannot apprehend. Some concrete forms of “relationalized property” – matsutake commoning in Japan and the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, New York – will be discussed. Since “relationalized property” unfolds its potential only with other patterns, participants will learn to navigate the pattern-network that describes key features of commoning in different cultural contexts.

Silke Helfrich, Author, Activist

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Throughout millennia Indigenous communities of the Arctic have been developing a vast body of knowledge and common understandings of human, non-human, and nature relations. Along with the diverse Indigenous communities, this body of knowledge is comprised of multiple complex knowledge systems that are informed by the environment and it incorporates generational and contemporary observatory data. The concepts of sharing, reciprocity, and moral obligations are foundational in the traditional governance systems and well-being of traditional economies. Although common-pool resources are a western concept, their understanding parallels Indigenous communal land use and complex relations between human and non-human entities. In the Indigenous worldview, commons are historically managed collectively based on rules in use and norms that define processes of collective governance.

This talking circle will bring together Indigenous knowledge holders from different Arctic regions to share their visions on human, non-human, and nature relations. Stories rooted in Indigenous wisdom and shared through Indigenous means of communication will help better understand the nature of the commons as seen by people who live on the land and therefore could be exceptionally useful in the discussions of the future of the Arctic commons.

No additional registration required.