2: Responsibility of and for Structural (In)Justice in Arctic Governance

Wood-Donnelly, Corine

The Arctic is a political landscape in development, and it is subject to multiple and often competing claims of sovereignty. Although situated at the margins of territorial governance of the Arctic states until recent decades, the region has experienced rapid transformations, not least in its governance arrangements. The region continues to be perceived as a zone for economic development, and meanwhile it has been identified as ground zero for global climate change. In this, the Arctic is defined as a material landscape and frameworks of sovereign property rights smooth its integration into the global economy. Its political landscape is coupled with the material landscape and the exercise of authority over decision-making for the region through its governance structure is notable for power asymmetries. Focusing on core features of rules, interests, and agents from the International Relations theory of Social Constructivism, this chapter interrogates the asymmetric relationship between states, Indigenous groups, and non-Arctic states in the context of governance via claims to sovereignty through Iris Marion Young’s (IMY) four features of social-structural processes and the five faces of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence (1990). It will also discuss the responsibility for structural justice within the structure of Arctic governance, with specific reference to the Arctic Council.

Notions of structural justice first emerge in John Rawls’s veil of ignorance and the premise of fair relations needed for social cooperation in the social contract between citizen and state for an ideal structural justice to exist (Rawls, 1971). This perspective is common across conversations of structural (in)justice where the impacts and differences of relative social position result in consequential and often negative effects as a result of membership in a particular social group (Powers and Faden, 2019; McKeown, 2021). While relative positions and even the structures themselves can change or evolve, legacies of the differentials of power and advantage have an enduring impact on social capabilities (Nussbaum, 2013). This has been frequently discussed in domestic analyses of structural injustice, but it is IMY that first analyzed structural injustice as a product of global and transboundary impacts resulting from unjust structural arrangements (Powers and Faden, 2019; McKeown, 2021). Structural injustice is found within the governance structures which are shaped by the repetition of processes established through accepted norms and the co-constituted rules that elevate the interests and preferences of agents with power.

Structural injustice exists when ‘processes enable others to dominate or to have a wide range of capabilities available to [them]’ (Young, 2011, p 52). It is caused by social processes that put groups of people ‘under systemic threat of domination or deprivation of the means to develop and exercise their capabilities’ (Young, 2011, p 52) and is directly ‘attributable to the specific actions and policies of states or other powerful institutions. (Young, 2011, p 45). It largely takes place ‘within the limits of accepted rules and norms’ and simply ‘as a consequence of many individuals and institutions acting to pursue their particular goals and interests’ rather than as a consequence of purposeful, targeted harm (Young, 2011, p 52). The evidence for structural injustice can be found in relational inequality ‘where the more powerful agents, in following their preferences, discount the weight of legitimate claims of the less powerful agents’ (Heilinger, 2021, p 187). The results of structural injustice are ‘the disempowerment of members of particular social groups’ by ‘systematically thwart[ing] their access to resources, opportunities, offices, and social positions normally available to other groups’ (Ypi, 2017, p 9).

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