Projectdetails

The geographical discoveries in the polar areas have made it possible for individuals and companies to penetrate into the polar areas. The discoveries led not only to further exploration and exploitation of natural resources but also to the development of scientific research. In both cases, settlements and stations were built to facilitate the work and to lodge the people. These settlements and stations play an important role in the coordinating LASHIPA-NL project. Together with the written sources the settlements/stations are the main source of information to address the principal research question of the coordinating LASHIPA-NL project:

Why, how and under what economic circumstances were the natural resources in the Polar Region explored and exploited, what was the role of the settlements/stations in this process? What were the economic results and what were the consequences of these activities for the natural environment, the geopolitical situation, and the development of the international law.

For practical and methodological reasons the LASHIPA research will concentrate on two selected areas: Green Harbour on Spitsbergen and the Antarctica peninsula including South Georgia. Both areas have had a very similar and comparable economical development.

LASHIPA-NL, the Dutch part of the international project will concentrate on the exploitation of the natural resources in Green Harbour in Spitsbergen.

The aim of the post-doc project is to produce a broad synthesis, in general terms explaining the development of polar industries and its consequences from a comparative, bi-polar and international historical perspective. The synthesis not only will draw on the research within the two PhD-projects of LASHIPA-NL in Green Harbour in Spitsbergen, but also on the results of the other LASHIPA projects in the Antarctica Peninsula region and previous research in polar history of science, industry and geopolitics ? research often published in Scandinavian languages and therefore not accessible to the broader international community.

In order to synthesize and address the principal question of the LASHIPA-NL project, the post-doc project will focus on the driving forces behind the exploitation of the natural resources, the technological systems used by the companies, the social organisation of the workers, the control of the area and the natural resources, the geopolitical and international law consequences and the approach of the natural resources. These six different but interrelated themes, cover the four periods studied within the LASHIPA project; the whaling periods in the Arctic (1550-1982) and Antarctic (1904-1982), the mining period in the Arctic (1870-present), fisheries and tourism (1900-present) and the oil industry period in the Arctic (1900-present).

Artikelen

• (2008). Europese walvisvaarders en Russische jagers in Green Harbour, Spitsbergen. Paleoaktueel. pp. 210-215
• (2008). The history and heritage of natural resource exploitation in the Arctic and Antarctic: the LASHIPA project. Patrimoine de l'industrie. pp. 7-16

Bijdragen aan boeken

• (2008). . in: Arbetes hjältar? Skildringar av liv ovh arbete i Arktis under tidigt 1900-tal. : . pp. Chapt. 2, pp. 37-88