Carina Ren & Rasmus Kjærgaard Rasmussen
This article explores how Arctic Winter Games 2016 (AWG), held in Nuuk, Greenland, enacted possible futures through specific policies and practices pertinent to societal innovation in contemporary Greenland. We see the event as a futuring device which engenders possible futures and ties in with current and emerging political and societal agendas. We use the two-year preparation phase of the AWG to explore how it created effects beyond the event proper. Drawing on various discourses and practices of the event, we analyze three central sites where it i) rehearses capacity building and upskilling models, ii) showcases Arctic competences and iii) attempts to mobilize a new culture of volunteering. We argue that the AWG 2016 can be seen as “future games” playing out an Arctic nation in the making, thus adding a new understanding to events as a locus of societal innovation.
