Digital technologies and ILK in the Arctic: In search of epistemological pluralism

Highlights

• Indigenous knowledge systems rely on a sensitive engagement with their environment.

• Digital solutions compete with in-the-field knowledge and indigenous transmission experience.

• Participatory research projects using digital technologies may contribute to this competition rather than empower ILK holders.

• Epistemological pluralism could better address the challenges for sustainability than digital revolution promises.

Abstract

The digital revolution is profoundly challenging to Indigenous societies in their relationships with non-humans. To guide research that involves Indigenous communities and digital technology, we analysed the impacts of such technologies on Indigenous knowledge systems from the perspective of environmental ethics and anthropology. Using the example of Sámi reindeer husbandry in Sweden, we found that digital technologies, rather than relying on sensitive ways of understanding and experiencing nature, potentially reinforce a Western worldview of reindeer husbandry, instead of valuing a Sámi ontology. Therefore, they have the potential to compete with Indigenous ways of interacting with humans and non-humans. Our analysis also underlines that research with Indigenous people using digital technology in participatory research projects may contribute to this competition rather than empower the Indigenous knowledge system. Based on these findings, we distinguish two ethical directions – co-construction and strong epistemological pluralism – that can be followed to address concerns about the effects of the development of digital technologies on the diversity of knowledge systems in the Arctic, and elsewhere.

Introduction

Indigenous and local societies are regularly brought to the fore because of the inextricable link between biological and cultural diversities, and to emphasize the role of Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) in sustaining nature’s benefits to people (IPBES, 2019). While there is evidence that cultural diversity is currently as threatened as biological diversity (Sutherland, 2003, Gorenflo et al., 2012), addressing this issue calls for a broader integration of ILK into science (Rosa et al., 2017) and, at the same time, for a maintaining of a pluralistic perspective of the relationship between human and non-human (Hill, 2020, Pascual et al., 2021). We believe that the introduction of digital technologies in Indigenous contexts, often jointly developed with research programs, illustrates this antagonism and raises some important challenges to be tackled rapidly, considering the current pace of technological changes in different knowledge systems, including ILK and science.

In this essay, we concentrate on the Arctic regions, where Indigenous communities have adopted a wide range of digital devices and services over the last 25 years in spite of obvious connectivity gaps: portable global positioning system (GPS) receivers, geographic information systems (GIS), mobile and later smartphones, were all adopted early on (Aporta and Higgs, 2005, Stammler, 2009). Social media platforms are extensively used (Castleton, 2018, Cocq and Dubois, 2020) and now drones are becoming one of the standard tools. More generally, the Internet and digital apps contribute to the strengthening of Indigenous identities outside of the Indigenous communities, to the fostering of pan-Indigenous identities, and to increasing communication about environmental battles on their lands (Niezen, 2009, Schillo and Turin, 2020). While they have different histories of introduction and usage across circumpolar regions, all these technologies share the potential to influence not only social relationships but the various ways individuals interact with nature and the knowledge generated through human – non-human interactions.

On a global scale, digital advances offer many promises (Sachs et al., 2019) but also generate serious criticism of their environmental and social impacts (Williams, 2011). However, in science, they are also a source of great optimism because they promise more data, faster processing or improved communication (Arts et al., 2015). In nature conservation, particularly in environmental monitoring where the interest and the need for multiple knowledge systems and participatory approaches to science are continuously increasing (Raymond et al., 2010, Tengö et al., 2014), the advent of digital, often mobile, devices has also the potential to reinforce this trend toward environmental sciences being more participatory and inclusive (Newman et al., 2012, Brammer et al., 2016, Andrachuk et al., 2019). This is particularly true in Indigenous, often remote, territories where such technology gives the opportunity to capture information previously inaccessible to scientists and even, sometimes, to Indigenous communities (Gearheard et al., 2011, Heath, 2020). The use of digital technologies has also a political dimension for ILK holders who can see a way to legitimatize their knowledge and management for greater recognition and empowerment.

The central question behind this work goes beyond the somewhat limited scope of this article and is, ultimately, a classical question when it comes to the introduction of a new technology: does it improve or depreciate the pre-existing knowledge, and empower or weaken the knowledge holders to face their social and environmental problems? For knowledge systems that strongly rely on the continuous and innumerable interactions with the rapidly changing natural environment, understanding the consequences and eventually what is lost or threatened by digital technologies is thus necessary. Equally important is, perhaps, the need to examine the promises they convey and the justifications they endorse, especially when science and researchers are also involved in the development of digital platforms which can gather together scientists and ILK holders. To guide research that involves Indigenous communities and digital technologies, we analysed the various forms taken by the digital revolution in Indigenous people’s interactions with nature. We also investigated the potential for transformations that result from the introduction and adoption of digital technologies in Arctic communities, using Sámi reindeer husbandry in northern Sweden and the range of digital devices that have become part of standard tools of reindeer herders as the main examples. We then focus on the role of the researcher in these changes and provide a framework for a digital ethic for research in an Indigenous context.