Le discours des Sciences Sociales sur l’Arctique. Analyse lexicale des résumés de l’ICASS

Abstract

Overall, the high latitudes remain little visited by the general public. However, they are the subject of widely shared social representations (the image of a race for the Arctic resources, or a polar flora and fauna under the threat of global warming...). These representations are co-constructed in a process in which the media play a demonstrated role but so do scientists. Abstracts of the scientific presentations at the International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS) constitute first-hand material that has never been analyzed. Its exploration through textual analysis based on ALCESTE software clearly shows topics focused on by social sciences and humanities and networks of researchers in the Arctic, such as the quality of life, to be placed in the context of the young network on Health and well-being in the Arctic. It also shows an under-representation of both, Russian Arctic terrains and research on the polar city. The analysis of the last editions of the congress reveals a modernity-tradition dichotomy that raises questions about the normative dimension of measurement mechanisms that open the way for a binary thinking.

Keywords

• textual analysis
• Arctic
• social sciences and humanities
• discourse