Energy Futures of the High North: A New Approach to the Study of Experts, Institutions, and Forms of Knowledge that Guide Arctic Hydrocarbon Development

该奖项支持一个与欧洲和俄罗斯开展长期互利研究合作的项目，以研究创造北极能源未来的能源顾问。北极能源的未来是详细的期望，吸引了金融赞助者的注意，以刺激议程设置过程，并通过他们的权威外表在监管参与者方面发挥强大的作用。这些未来的预言维度引起了人们对顾问如何看待资源管理以及将本土知识系统与西方设备整合的功效的关注。研究人员假设，咨询顾问是中介专家，有三种实践可以将北极能源未来可视化，将行业利益提升为可操作的观点：集合、动员、执行。通过在四家咨询公司和十二个关键网络活动中收集四种类型的数据，研究人员将调查中介专门知识，目的是确定塑造北极能源未来的顾问的活动：(a)收集关于公司内部实践的民族志数据，以解决专家如何收集知识，以便制定中介知识的经验特征；(b)从公司和在联网活动中收集的人工数据，以说明专家如何为工业调动知识，以便形成条件类型（事实、情景）；(c)对公司在联网活动中的外部做法进行观察研究，以探讨如何执行中间专门知识，以便确定专门知识颁布的性质；(d)半结构化面谈，以特别通讯为重点，补充(a)至(c)期间收集的数据。该提案采用了文化人类学和科学技术研究方法，这些方法是由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的《北极能源开发协调评估》（EAGER evaluation Coordination on Arctic Energy Development）开发的，其目标是为参与金融和专业知识人类学的学者扩展一个专业知识文化框架，将其与科学技术研究相关的谱系联系起来，并以通过政治技术研究北极潜在石油和天然气资源的能源地理学家的工作为基础。能源开发是依赖中介行为者的几个行业之一，了解这种依赖的结果将有助于揭示整个社会的一个更普遍的现象。该提案将在北极国家之间开展长期互利的研究合作，研究北极能源未来的专业知识，为决策社区、早期职业研究人员、土著居民和学生提供在不同国家背景下就类似主题建立联系的机会。该提案结合了科学出版物和年度会议报告，以及国际推广计划，以广泛可访问的格式展示研究成果，记录民族志实践，包括参与研究的各种作者。进一步的拓展包括参加大学和学院的课程、研讨会和活动。在资助期结束后，与合作伙伴进行长期合作的可能性很大，重点将放在建立工作项目上，这些项目将有助于通过多学科视角了解除能源之外的环境流动，如水和粮食安全。拟议的研究将增加对北极资源管理和地缘政治问题相关关键主题的认识，这些主题与美国北极研究和政策法案的关键要素相一致。

This award supports a project that develops long-term and mutually beneficial research cooperation with Europe and Russia for the study of energy consultants who create Arctic energy futures. Arctic energy futures are detailed expectations that attract attention from financial sponsors to stimulate agenda-setting processes and play a powerful role in policing actors through their appearance of authority. The prophesy dimensions of these futures raise concerns about how consultants perceive resource management and the efficacy of integrating Native knowledge systems with Western apparatuses. The investigators hypothesize that consultants are intermediary experts with three practices for visualizing Arctic energy futures that elevate the interests of industry into actionable views: assembling, mobilizing, performing. Through four types of data collection at four consulting firms and at twelve key networking events researchers will investigate intermediary expertise with the objective of identifying activities of consultants who shape Arctic energy futures: (a) Ethnographic data gathered on the internal practices of firms to address how experts assemble knowledge in order to formulate an empirical characterization of intermediary knowledge; (b) Artefactual data gathered from firms and at networking events to address how experts mobilize knowledge for industry in order to develop a typology of conditions (facts, scenarios); (c) Observation studies on the external practices of firms at networking events to address how intermediary expertise is performed in order to develop a characterization of enactment of expertise; (d) Semi-structured interviews to supplement data gathered during (a) through (c) by focusing on ad hoc communications.The proposal employs cultural anthropology and Science and Technology Studies approaches developed from the NSF EAGER Assessing Coordination on Arctic Energy Development, with the goal of expanding a Culture of Expertise framework for scholars involved in the anthropologies of finance and expertise, linked to Science and Technology Studies-related genealogies and builds on the work of energy geographers who study Arctic potential oil and gas resources through political technologies. Energy development is one of several industries reliant upon intermediary actors and understanding the results of this reliance will shed light on a more general phenomenon across society. The proposal will develop long-term and mutually beneficial research cooperation among Arctic countries in the study of expertise of Arctic energy futures, providing policy-making communities, early career researchers, Indigenous populations, and students opportunities for networking on similar topics in separate national contexts. The proposal combines scientific publications and annual conference presentations, with international outreach programs presenting research findings in broadly accessible formats chronicling ethnographic practice including various authors as participants in research. Further outreach includes participation in university and institute courses, seminars, and events. The high likelihood of long-term collaborations with partners after the end of the funding period will focus on building work programs that contribute toward understanding environmental flows besides energy, such as water and food security through multi-disciplinary perspectives. The proposed research will increase knowledge of the Arctic on key topics relevant to resource management and geopolitical issues in the Arctic that align with key elements of the United States Arctic Research and Policy Act.