The Economics of Imagination: Perceptions of the Arctic and Antarctic Landscapes.
This essay will argue that, as was the case with the descriptions of Pytheas, perceptions of the Arctic and Antarctic are governed by a mingling of the imaginative and the economic. In general, the economic perception tends to dominate with the closer proximity to the pole. Thus, it will be argued that European and Canadian views of the Arctic have historically been dominated by a mingling of economic and imaginative factors. In contrast, the distant (from Europe) Antarctic has been a realm dominated by the imagination as much, or more so, than by economic interests. 7 pgs. 16 f/c. 6b.
