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Unequal exchange: western economic logic and Inuit/Qablunaat research relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2013

April Dutheil ,
Frank Tester  and
Jordan Konek
April Dutheil
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, University of British Columbia, 2080 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V61 1Z2, Canada (frank.tester@ubc.ca)
Frank Tester
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, University of British Columbia, 2080 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V61 1Z2, Canada (frank.tester@ubc.ca)
Jordan Konek
Affiliation:
P.O. Box 107, Arviat, Nunavut X0E 0E0, Canada
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Abstract

For some time, Inuit have made it clear that they wish to play a more substantial role in research with implications for themselves and their territory. To understand how researchers communicate and relate to each other, cultural analysis is often employed. Although cultural differences are relevant to understanding problems in the conduct of research, limiting differences to these realities is overly deterministic and essentialist. Many differences arising in the research process are products of social constructions found in Canadian culture and, increasingly, in Inuit communities. The paper re-examines the complexities of cross-class relations, focusing on how different relations to money, as a proxy for other relations characteristic of the capitalist mode of production, consumption and commodification, impact Inuit interaction with western-educated researchers. Using the Nanisiniq Arviat History Project in the community of Arviat, Nunavut Territory Canada, as a case study, the paper is a qualitative analysis of miscommunication resulting from cross-class differences. The Nanisiniq project was a two-year participatory action research project bringing Inuit youth and elders together to rediscover, interpret and apply knowledge of their history and culture to contemporary social issues affecting them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 140 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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