For the common good of mankind – and Finnish cold weather technology

• In Event: Science, Technology and Society in the Polar Regions

Abstract

In 1988 the first Finnish research expedition was sent to Antarctica. This was preceded by the country signing the Antarctic Treaty in 1984. Both developments had principally been motivated by officials in the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. These officials argued that the world would at some point in the future run out of natural resources. At this time the global markets would turn to Antarctica and start extraction there. This extraction would take place with technology that “does not exist yet”. Before this technology was a reality, the resource potential of the continent would need to be further analyzed through increased research missions. The officials also predicted that the developing states that were seeking prestige and recognition in the world stage would, following India’s example, invest into the increased exploration of Antarctica. All these events were seen as a golden opportunity for market expansion for Finnish cold weather technology. Because of these expectations the emergence of the Finnish Antarctic Programme offers one example of what Wyatt (2008) calls actor-based justificatory technological determinism in action. The end result of the simultaneous negotiations for the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities illustrates how the ideology of technological determinism in this context was eventually overrun by an environmental one. Both events and their narration in contemporary polar history exemplify how technological determinism is used in the creation and re-creation of boundaries between science, technology and environment in policy – and how easily these expectations are forgotten.

Author

• Justiina Dahl, KTH Royal Institute of Technology