Whaling in the 21st century is a contentious topic. On one hand, centuries of industrial whaling nearly decimated whale population globally, driving several species to and over the brink of extinction. On the other hand, whaling also represents an age-old practice etched into the cultural, social and economic fabric of various indigenous communities. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has balanced a multitude of interests during its nearly 80-year long existence, governing both industrial and Indigenous whaling. In her work, Sonja Åman examines the history and politics of the governance of Indigenous whaling.
Åman’s work traces the colonial legacies of international policymaking and reveals the unequal power relations at play in environmental governance. She asks what the rationale behind the IWC’s Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling policy is and what kind of impact the policy has had on whaling communities in the past four decades. Analysing how whaling and whalers are governed, Åman argues that greater multivocality and recognition of the principles of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination are sorely needed for generative policymaking in the age of the current environmental crisis.
Sonja Irene Åman successfully defended her dissertation on 12 December 2023.
Trial lecture
Designated topic: “Introduce the concepts of decolonization and governance systems and their connection. Then discuss how institutions such as the IWC could decolonize its governance system and how this could affect Aboriginal whalers' resource rights and culture.”
Evaluation committee
- Professor Ryan Tucker Jones, University of Oregon (first opponent)
- Associate Professor Camilla Brattland, UiT the Arctic University of Norway (second opponent)
- Professor John Ødemark, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
- Professor Jacob Høigilt
Supervisors
- Professor Aike Peter Rots, University of Oslo
- Professor Britt Kramvig, UiT the Arctic University of Norway