Science and Politics in the Polar Regions: Translating Worldviews Amid Geopolitical Challenges

Climate Change has become one of the biggest challenges of our generation and the polar regions have played a pivotal role for understanding its development: it is on the receding ice of the Arctic and the Antarctic where rising temperatures cause most impact. But at the core of climate change as a phenomenon to be understood – and of the polar regions as a place for its observation - there is a deep reliance on scientific research. Nonetheless, science is interspersed by geopolitical worldviews, a feature not easily recognisable by the scientific community. Commonly limited by scientists as ‘science communication’ or ‘science diplomacy’, the extent in which polar science is embedded in geopolitical worldviews can be observed throughout the scientific practice. From the societal challenges which define the funding criteria for research projects, to the preferences for specific partners in international cooperation agreements; the porous boundary between science and politics in the polar regions provide a privileged hindsight to reflect on the main challenges that environmental stewardship and international politics pose. Therefore, in this panel, different scholars from Arctic and Antarctic social science gather to discuss the relationship between science and politics within the specific framework of the Polar regions, and its implications to the near future of the Anthropocene.