Abstracts
Abstract
In Nunavut, Canada’s largest, youngest, and northernmost territory, gravel, asphalt, and concrete determine much of daily life. Airport runways’ materialities dictate the types of aircraft that can land in each of the 25 fly-in communities and with them the cargo-carrying capacity, passenger mobility, and frequency of intercommunity connections. The last jet capable of landing on gravel was recently phased out of commercial service in Nunavut, a move that further limits access to communities and works counter to desires voiced by residents to increase jet access. Temporality, an immaterial concept, becomes intimately articulated through the physical realities of transport infrastructure in Nunavut. I examine the interplay of residents’ imagined futures for their communities and the on-the-ground reality of developing, operating, and maintaining gravel and paved runways in Nunavut as points of friction, following Anna Tsing. I argue that the divergent development of communities can be partially attributed to the accessibility of transport infrastructure in each location. In conclusion, I question the idea of infrastructure as a promise of a “future perfect” (Hetherington 2016) and attempt to refocus the processes of Nunavut’s transport infrastructure development onto Nunavummi-centred solutions.
Keywords:
- Canadian Arctic,
- transport infrastructure,
- materiality,
- friction,
- future,
- Nunavut,
- aviation
Résumé
Au Nunavut, le territoire le plus vaste, le plus jeune et le plus septentrional du Canada, le gravier, l’asphalte et le béton déterminent en grande partie la vie quotidienne. Les matériaux utilisés pour les pistes d’aéroport définissent les types d’avions pouvant atterrir dans chacune des 25 communautés desservies par avion, ainsi que la capacité de transport de marchandises, la mobilité des passagers et la fréquence des liaisons intercommunautaires. Le dernier avion à réaction capable d’atterrir sur du gravier a récemment été retiré du service commercial au Nunavut, une décision qui limite encore davantage l’accès aux communautés et va à l’encontre des souhaits exprimés par les résidents qui souhaitent augmenter l’accès aux avions à réaction. La temporalité, un concept immatériel, s’articule intimement avec les réalités physiques des infrastructures de transport au Nunavut. J’examine l’interaction entre l’avenir imaginé par les résidents pour leurs communautés et les réalités concrètes du développement, de l’exploitation et de l’entretien des pistes en gravier et en asphalte au Nunavut comme sujets de discorde, à la suite d’Anna Tsing. Je soutiens que le développement divergent des communautés peut être partiellement attribué à l’accessibilité des infrastructures de transport dans chaque endroit. En conclusion, je remets en question l’idée que les infrastructures sont la promesse d’un « futur parfait » (Hetherington 2016) et tente de recentrer les processus de développement des infrastructures de transport du Nunavut sur des solutions centrées sur les Nunavummiut.
Mots-clés :
- Arctique,
- infrastructure de transport,
- matérialité,
- friction,
- avenir,
- Nunavut,
- aviation
Appendices
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