ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the two main shipping routes in the Arctic: the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage. It examines the indigenous people living along these routes and how their development may impact their ways of life. The chapter discusses the fragmentation and weakening of industrial intra-Arctic transportation networks due to political and economic shifts. It suggests some alternative ways of mapping the Arctic that might push back against visions of the region's development that are centered on long-distance shipping routes. In mapping Arctic shipping, more attention should also be paid to the three types of distortions mentioned at the outset of this chapter: scale, projection, and symbolization. The portrayal of Arctic shipping routes like the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and Northwest Passage (NWP) as seamless shortcuts is problematic because it suggests the Arctic is a tabula rasa onto which long-distance shipping routes can be developed without harming anyone's mobility.
