Transformative Futures: Exploring the Socio-Climatic Imaginaries Shaping the Climate Governance Landscape of the Faroe Islands

Abstract

The escalating consequences of the climate crisis expose the limitations of existing hegemonic climate governance for addressing complex and interconnected social, political, economic, and ecological challenges, and highlights the urgent need for transformative change. Socio-climatic imaginaries, which are the collective visions of possible, desirable or undesirable, futures, are increasingly recognised as deep leverage points for transformation. Yet, meaning-making frameworks such as imaginaries often remain unexamined, operating in the background of climate governance, shaping, reinforcing, and privileging certain values, strategies, and visions of the future. Additionally, existing literature on climate imaginaries has tended to focus on state-led perspectives, raising important questions about whose visions are excluded or included in the governance process. In light of these gaps, this thesis investigates the climate governance landscape in the Faroe Islands, a unique case study for examining how imaginaries shape the transformative direction of climate governance. The context of the Faroe Islands is in a way paradoxical: it is a wealthy small-island nation with high emissions per capita, and at the same time particularly vulnerable to climate change due to its unique social-ecological interdependencies, geographical isolation, and sub-arctic nature. By employing multi-method approach and a thematic analysis informed by four elements that narrate imaginaries (images, figures, forms, and doings) this research maps out the climate objectives and five actor groups, namely industry, government, inter-municipal, research organisations, and civil society, underpinning the climate governance landscape of the Faroe Islands. Sequentially, four overarching narratives that articulate the socio-climatic imaginaries are identified, which I term: ‘optimistic green growth,’ ‘technological vanguard,’ ‘pragmatic fossil-dependent transition,’ and ‘eco-embedded transition.’ These imaginaries are critically evaluated in relation to three incumbent paradigms, which are a materialistic culture and growth, control and autonomy of humans over nature, and expert knowledge and specialisation. The findings indicate that the ‘optimistic green growth’ and ‘fossil-dependent transition’ imaginaries largely reinforce dominant paradigms, perpetuating growth-oriented and technocratic approaches to climate governance. In contrast, the ‘eco-embedded,’ and to a lesser extent, the ‘technological vanguard’ imaginary, articulate more relational and systemic alternatives, emphasising the risk of prioritising growth over ecological well-being. The research demonstrates that imaginaries in the Faroe Islands are dynamic, coexisting, and contesting, with certain ways of knowing and being privileged through dominant narratives. Furthermore, the context of islands introduces nuances, as tightly coupled social-ecological systems can foster hybrid strategies that challenge the dominant imaginaries while defying simplistic binaries. These insights underscore the importance of culturally and place-based transformative approaches that recognise the plurality of imaginaries as essential for enabling transformations for just and sustainable futures.