ABSTRACT

This chapter attempts to derive in return, through ethnographic practice, some intimation for discussions in emotional geography. It contributes to debates on emotional practices by revisiting a tradition of Arctic ethnography that of play. However, it does so by widening out the communities of practice involved in Arctic social life to include various emotionally competent beings, such as environmental scientists, bush pilots, and, especially here, base support staff. The chapter deploys an unconventional stance towards Arctic play by focusing on the social ordering of a scientific research base. The site in question is the research base of the Government of Canada's Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP) at Resolute, Nunavut. The corporeal rigours involved in ethnography, the need to understand, interpret and empathize with emotional codes, sensitize the analyst to allow sensible theoretical discourse regarding emotions. The practice of ethnography has always had a difficult relationship with the discipline of geography.