Heidi Konttinen

Since the earliest colonial encounters in Greenland, place-based Inuit knowledge of seal skin processing has been applied and regenerated within a web of regional, national, and global relations. These relations have not only affected methods, materials and designs, but also shaped the societal role of women practicing these skills. This article examines contemporary kalaallisuut (West Greenlandic regalia) making by studying the experiences of its makers and identifying the everyday challenges affecting current practice. Nine semi-structured interviews and a review workshop revealed three main challenges: a lack of appropriate space in which to process seal skins; insufficient compensation; and knowledge-sharing issues. These challenges are examined by scrutinising their root causes, which are frequently connected to colonialism and coloniality; gender, racial, and class inequities; and economic challenges to nation-building. Ultimately, participants envisioned a communal space as a potential response to all three challenges.

Research on extractivism has rapidly proliferated, expanding into new empirical and conceptual spaces. We examine the origins, evolution, and conceptual expansion of the concept. Extractivism is useful to analyze resource extraction practices around the world. ‘Global Extractivism’ is a new conceptual tool for assessing global phenomena. We situate extractivism within an ensemble of concepts, and explore its relation to development, the state, and value. Extractivism as an organizing concept addresses many fields of research. Extractivism forms a complex of self-reinforcing practices, mentalities, and power differentials underwriting and rationalizing socio-ecologically destructive modes of organizing life-through subjugation, depletion, and non-reciprocity.