Permafrost Politics: Toward a Relational Materiality and Design of Arctic Ground

Permafrost-continuously frozen ground for more than two years-is one of the defining landscape elements in the Arctic. In the U.S., its development as an idea has parallelled mid-twentieth-century territorial struggles in Alaska and is inextricably linked to permafrost science and frontier engineeri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLandscape research Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 25 - 35
Main Author Cho, Leena
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 02.01.2021
Subjects
Alaska
arctic landscape
Arctic region
cold
engineering
frozen ground
landscape architecture
landscapes
Permafrost
politics
risk
science
Alaska
Arctic region
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Summary:Permafrost-continuously frozen ground for more than two years-is one of the defining landscape elements in the Arctic. In the U.S., its development as an idea has parallelled mid-twentieth-century territorial struggles in Alaska and is inextricably linked to permafrost science and frontier engineering. Permafrost is more than a scientific category and engineering risk subject to correction and control; it is a foundation for dynamic socioecological and cultural expressions in arctic landscapes. In response, a relational approach is taken to examine permafrost's cold, vibrant and plural materialities, with an aim of generating design possibilities that are attuned to these dynamics. In the Arctic where science continues to play a central role in determining putative futures, the article further suggests to creatively instrumentalise scientific forms of landscape inquiry, highlighting thermo-material interactions and multiplicities of arctic ground.
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ISSN:0142-6397
1469-9710
1469-9710
DOI:10.1080/01426397.2020.1831461