Arctic Contributions to Social Science and Public Policy (1993) / Chapter Skim
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2 Arctic Social Science and Public Policy
2 Arctic Social Science and Public Policy
Pages 4-11
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From page 4... ...
Three examples illustrate the links among current affairs, social science theory, and arctic research. Dramatic changes in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have led social scientists to test and revise theories about the organization of production.
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From page 5... ...
The Arctic offers a rich array of economic arrangements that social scientists can use to test theories about outcomes arising from different structures of property rights. For example, indigenous economies feature systems of common property in which the use of natural resources on the part of individuals is subject to culturally defined rules.
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From page 6... ...
Studies conducted in Alaska indicate that process benefits associated with subsistence activities make them more attractive to many individuals than available forms of wage employment. Process benefits that account for the attractiveness of subsistence activities, especially to Inupiat men include social interaction, personal challenge, opportunities for individual achievement, time spent away from village living, and reinforcement of cultural and religious values.
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From page 7... ...
Also, research on aboriginal societies has made it clear not only that common property arrangements do not necessarily lead to the destructive outcomes envisioned in the tragedy of the commons metaphor but also that preindustrial modes of economic organization can, under certain conditions, afford protection against destructive misallocation or overexploitation of subsistence resources. This has stimulated a renewal of interest in culturally defined rules and informal norms as mechanisms for controlling the behavior of individual users of common property resources (Berkes, 1989; McCay and Acheson, 1987; NRC, 1986; Ostrom, 1990~.
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From page 8... ...
The Arctic is also the scene of a longstanding debate about the relative merits of two divergent systems of managing wildlife and other natural resources: the "state system," with its emphasis on Western scientific knowledge and regulatory control mechanisms, and the "indigenous system," with its reliance on aboriginal knowledge and informal or culturally defined rules (Usher, 1987~. In the Arctic there is evidence both for and against the claims made on behalf of each system.
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From page 9... ...
More generally, governments have shown a growing interest in devising systems of restricted common property to control the human use of natural resources as an alternative to privatization or conventional command-and-control regulatory arrangements. Here, too, studies of arctic practices have contributed significantly to our understanding of the potential of restricted common property as contrasted with private ownership or public ownership of natural resources.
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From page 10... ...
Further research may improve appreciation of the dynamics of living cultures in which individuals can alter their social practices in response to environmental changes without undermining their sense of belonging to an ongoing cultural community whose essential features remain intact. The modern history of the Arctic's indigenous cultures offers many opportunities to study the circumstances determining the degree of success this adaptation meets.
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From page 11... ...
to predict the human consequences of large changes in the natural environment or in the content of public policies, such as the effects of climate change or fundamental changes in policies governing access to or allocation of natural resources (Craig and Tester, 1982~. In the cross-cultural setting of the North, SIA has advanced well beyond its origins in cost-benefit analysis, economic assessment, and social indicators research.
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