Invigorating the far north: foreign images, cultural turns and alternative knowledge production

Abstract

This article is concerned with the possibility of a political and cultural revitalization of the far north. It is argued that such a revitalization requires alternative knowledge production. First, the two academic disciplines discussed in the article, Human Geography and International Studies, have to critically investigate their own methodological approaches. Secondly, academic isolation from one another has to be replaced by cross-fertilization in order to capture the social totality of the north. Thirdly, the cultural turn in both disciplines seems to offer a promising starting-point for a negotiation of prevailing forms of domination and marginalization in the north. Yet, both disciplines have not yet taken advantage of all the possibilities that the cultural turn has to offer. The article tentatively suggests alternative academic approaches to the far north including the re-contextualization of hegemonic discussions and the composition of alternative theories from starting points radically different from those of the centres of knowledge production.