Tiril Vold Hansen
Affiliation: Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Bodø, Norway
Power and interests in Norwegian Svalbard politics: what interests prevail and why?
In this PhD project in sociology I investigate what interests prevail in Norwegian Svalbard politics and why. The aim is to contribute to increased knowledge of the political processes of Norwegian Svalbard politics. The project is a qualitative case study, where the three cases are 1) the phase-out of coal, 2) the new environmental regulations (the proposed amendments to the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act and associated regulations) and 3) the host role of the Norwegian Polar Institute in the research community Ny-Ålesund.
I take a closer look on how the political processes are constructed, how different actors are involved to promote their interests, and how different considerations and factors influence the political processes and their outcomes. I am interested in what these cases can reveal about what Norwegian Svalbard politics is and what power in this context is.
I conducted my fieldwork on Svalbard August-September 2022.