{"id":{"repo_id":"cambridge","oai_identifier":"oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/377426"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cambridge/oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/377426","repository":{"repo_id":"cambridge","name":"Cambridge University","base_url":"https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The Map Is Not the Territory: Indigenous Climate Sovereignty in the Age of Apocalypse","abstract":"This thesis grapples with two distinct but interrelated issues: Indigenous climate sovereignty and the imagination of climate apocalypse. It is particularly concerned with how these two themes intersect in the High North, a landscape continually constructed as a periphery and frontier. In the pages that follow, I explore the misalignments between colonial projections of the land and its people, and the lived experiences of climate change and colonialism as I encountered them in two Alaska Native villages. This thesis is rooted in a multisited ethnography in Norton Sound, in Western Alaska. The ethnographic object of this study is not Alaska Native communities, but rather the forms of politics that connect rural Indigenous governments to colonial centres of power in the United States Federal government. In that sense, the research presented here is as much a political ethnography as it is an environmental one. The conclusions presented in this thesis are fourfold. 1) Marginalised Alaska Native communities face a neo-colonial pressure whereby, in order to receive assistance, they are required to adopt the bureaucratic forms and logic of their colonisers; 2) the manner in which the Arctic has been enlisted to support popular apocalyptic climate discourse echoes the modernist role the region played in 19th- and 20th-century constructions, as a mirror for urban humanity; 3) social scientists and humanities scholars have broadly neglected the importance of situating knowledge about climate change and ecological futures, and instead resort to sweeping, planetary gestures; and 4) urban narratives of climate apocalypse offer a potent antidote to political alienation.","abstract_html":"This thesis grapples with two distinct but interrelated issues: Indigenous climate sovereignty and the imagination of climate apocalypse. It is particularly concerned with how these two themes intersect in the High North, a landscape continually constructed as a periphery and frontier. In the pages that follow, I explore the misalignments between colonial projections of the land and its people, and the lived experiences of climate change and colonialism as I encountered them in two Alaska Native villages. This thesis is rooted in a multisited ethnography in Norton Sound, in Western Alaska. The ethnographic object of this study is not Alaska Native communities, but rather the forms of politics that connect rural Indigenous governments to colonial centres of power in the United States Federal government. In that sense, the research presented here is as much a political ethnography as it is an environmental one. The conclusions presented in this thesis are fourfold. 1) Marginalised Alaska Native communities face a neo-colonial pressure whereby, in order to receive assistance, they are required to adopt the bureaucratic forms and logic of their colonisers; 2) the manner in which the Arctic has been enlisted to support popular apocalyptic climate discourse echoes the modernist role the region played in 19th- and 20th-century constructions, as a mirror for urban humanity; 3) social scientists and humanities scholars have broadly neglected the importance of situating knowledge about climate change and ecological futures, and instead resort to sweeping, planetary gestures; and 4) urban narratives of climate apocalypse offer a potent antidote to political alienation.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lezak, Stephen"],"institution":"University of Cambridge","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Powell, Richard"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-05-10","date_published":"2024-05-10","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:23:54Z","subjects":["Climate change","Alaska","Indigenous","Adaptation","Apocalypse","Governance","Bureaucracy","Colonial"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/5c16a5bf-387f-4497-a280-994c72389544/download","https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:creator.authoridentifier","label":"Author Identifier","values":["0000000186440805"],"render_values":[{"text":"0000-0001-8644-0805","href":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8644-0805","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.114245","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.doi"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Powell, Richard"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.sponsor","label":"Sponsor","values":["Gates Cambridge Trust; Scott Polar Research Institute"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lezak, Stephen"]},{"key":"dc:creator.authoridentifier","label":"Author Identifier","values":["0000000186440805"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2024-05-10"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cambridge"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/377426"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Climate change","Alaska","Indigenous","Adaptation","Apocalypse","Governance","Bureaucracy","Colonial"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/5c16a5bf-387f-4497-a280-994c72389544/download","https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/"]},{"key":"dc:rights.embargodate","label":"Dc Rights Embargodate","values":["2025-12-23"]},{"key":"dc:rights.embargotype","label":"Dc Rights Embargotype","values":["embargo"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.114245"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/62260e48-e688-4e89-aa77-cd500d332077/download"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This thesis grapples with two distinct but interrelated issues: Indigenous climate sovereignty and the imagination of climate apocalypse. 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