Northern Development: Modernization with Equality in Greenland

Abstract

Over the past few years, northern development has become a major issue in all countries who territories extend beyond the Arctic Circle. This fact is in part of a result of the discovery of new resources and the technological means of developing them, but also reflects the aspirations, expectations and growing self-awareness of the native peoples concerned. Though each northern area is different from every other in regard to available natural resources as well as ethnic character and cultural traditions, some common characteristics of northern development may be identified. Most natives in the North desire modernization, i.e. some form of adaptation to the conditions prevailing in the southern, developed parts of their respective countries, which may be referred to in brief as the "southern model". There is no northern model for development; natives see their forms of society in relation to the past, not the future, and therefore regard change as a threat and endeavour to preserve their own values and culture in the process of adaptation to the southern model. The natives, however, desire parity of material condition and esteem with the peoples in the southern areas, and modernization is seen by them as a means of achieving this equality. The desired modernization with equality must, of course, be sought in relation to some compromise between centralization and decentalization of government and employment. The foregoing concepts are discussed in the present paper with reference to Greenland, the development of which has for over a hundred years been the subject of considerable documentation - albeit until quite recently mostly in Danish - and so is amenable to systematic studies such as are not possible in respect of other northern territories.