Digital Challenges in the Arctic: The Impact and Maintenance of MitID in Greenland
Authors
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2024
Submitted on
2024-06-06
Pages
79
Abstract
Digitalisation is advancing in Greenland and globally, with services like MitID, a solution for safe and digital personal identification, exemplifying this trend. When MitID was introduced in Greenland, it faced significant challenges due to the country's unique cultural, historical, and geographical context. This report explores these challenges through fieldwork in Nuuk and Ilulissat. Our findings reveal that MitID's implementation in Greenland has encountered substantial issues relating to lingering artefacts from the Danish context that it was designed for. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from Susan L. Star in infrastructure studies and Denis & Pontille in maintenance and repair studies, it is argued that MitID and its surrounding infrastructures are upheld by invisible work and maintenance and repair. Digitalisation can hold great value for a vast country like Greenland, which struggles with its large distances and remote communities. However, MitID's functionality hinges on underlying work done to secure connectivity, both digital and social, across this expansive terrain. Inspired by Marianne de Laet and Annemarie Mol’s ethnographic work on the Zimbabwe Bush Pump, we incorporate the Inuit concept of Sila and its cultural significance to emphasise that future digital solutions must be embedded in Greenland's unique context to promote inclusivity and avoid marginalisation.
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