Arthur Mason
Om
Arthur Mason (BA, Anthropology, Columbia University; MA, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; PhD, Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley) is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim. He also holds appointments as Visiting Senior Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Research Affiliate with the Centre for Energy Ethics at the University of St Andrews. At NTNU, he is co-founder of Anthropologies of Sustainability Research Group and a founding member of NTNU Energy's Team Society.
His recently completed Routledge trilogy, Inside the Energy Salon, theorizes expert performance as a central mechanism of late-liberal governance, examining how energy futures are made legible, investable, and morally persuasive within policy and investment networks. He is currently co-editing The Corridor of Impact (with Michael Watts), to be presented at Energy Ethics 2026, which reconceptualizes infrastructure corridors as dynamic socio-technical formations shaped through governance, expertise, and contestation. His forthcoming project, The Future of the Promenade: A Climate-Changed Form, examines how climate change is reshaping leisure geographies and urban planning through the northward migration of the beach promenade, following the experts designing its future.
Arthur has held funded visiting positions in the Department of Anthropology at Rice University, the Energy and Resources Group at University of California Berkeley, and the Department of Anthropology at University of Calgary. His research has been supported by U.S. National Science Foundation Exploratory and Standard grants, as well as J. William Fulbright research awards through the Fulbright US-Norway program, Fulbright US-Russia program, and Fulbright US-Canada program. Additional recognition includes awards from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup Fellowship, and the European Research Council Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship. (ORCID & ResearcherID: I-3946-2014).
Research and Teaching Interests in Extractive Industries
- Anthropology of surfaces and curated interactions
- Environmental futures, global inequality, and Anthropocene visuality
- Cultures of energy expertise and futurity
- Neo-aristocracy, aesthetics, and Arctic late industrialism
Books
- The Corridor of Impact (with Michael Watts, forthcoming).
- Heritage in Southwest Alaska: Indigenous Becoming in Arctic Late Industrialism. London: Routledge, 2026.
- Energy Images: Aesthetics of Resemblance and Form. London: Routledge, 2026.
- Consulting Energy: From Judgment to Decision-Making. London: Routledge, 2025 (with a Foreword by Dominic Boyer, images available at Consulting Energy)
- Energy Capitol: The Waning of Regulatory Form. London: Routledge, 2024.
- Arctic Abstractive Industry: Assembling the Valuable and Vulnerable North. London: Berghahn Press, 2022.
- Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2016 (with Michael Watts and Hannah Appel).
In the Media
- Seminar lecture at SOAS: Continuous Clarity: Strategic Knowledge without Falter
- Review of Arctic Abstractive Industry by Marta Gentilucci
- Movement and Meaning for Oil and Gas Data Vendors. Allegra Lab
- Advocating Slow Policy on Deep Sea Mining in the Svalbard Archipelago: Reflections on the Making Use of Arctic Science Workshop. Beyond Hot Air
- En bærekraftig fremtid for Svalbard. Svalbardposten
- Anthropology in Norway: Directions, Locations, Relations. Norway Anthropology Journal
- Assembling the Valuable and Vulnerable North. Society for Cultural Anthropology
- Anthropology of Fleeting Phenomena. Paparazzi Ethnography
- Making Use of Arctic Science. StudioPolar
Paparazzi Ethnography
Dr. Mason’s forthcoming book, Paparazzi Ethnography: An Anthropology of Surfaces and Curated Interactions (also referred to as The Excursions Project), develops a visual and methodological framework for analyzing the performative staging of expertise in elite energy politics. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2010 and 2017, and supported by the National Science Foundation, Fulbright, and Wenner-Gren Foundation, the project examines how authority is produced through surfaces, images, and managed encounters. The book serves as a conceptual and methodological precursor to Mason’s 2024–2026 trilogy, Inside the Energy Salon, which investigates how consultant experts shape global governance through visual, performative, and affective forms of authority.
Publikasjoner
2025
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2025)
Consulting Energy: From Judgment to Decision-Making.
Routledge
Routledge
Vitenskapelig monografi
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2025)
Movement and Meaning for Oil and Gas Data Vendors.
Allegra Lab
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2024
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2024)
Energy Capitol: The Waning of Regulatory Form.
Routledge
Routledge
Vitenskapelig monografi
2023
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2023)
Empathy for the Graph.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2023)
Synnøve K. N. Bendixsen and Edvard Hviding: Anthropology in Norway: Directions, Locations, Relations.
Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift
Anmeldelse
-
Carson, Siri Granum;
Munro, Bjoern Jenssen,;
Johnsen, Geir;
Mason, Arthur.
(2023)
En bærekraftig fremtid for Svalbard
– er utvinning av dyphavsmineraler
en del av svaret?.
Kronikk
2022
-
Mason, Arthur;
Hepsø, Vidar.
(2022)
Timescaping the Arctic with Real-Time Data. Challenges for Fishing and Oil Interests.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
Arctic Late Industrialism: Extracting Value through Abstraction.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
Representation Without Resemblance: Graphical Expression in Hydrocarbon Industry.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
Arctic Abstractive Industry: Assembling the Valuable and Vulnerable North.
Berghahn Books
Berghahn Books
Vitenskapelig antologi/Konferanseserie
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
From Northern Lights to Fluorescent Lights.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
Deluxe energy: Newly commodified regimes of luxurious energy.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
2019
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2019)
Consulting virtue: from judgement to decision-making in the natural gas industry.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2018
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2018)
Consulting Arctic Energy.
Faglig kapittel
2016
-
Mason, Arthur;
Watts, Michael;
Appel, Hannah.
(2016)
Oil Talk.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2016)
Arctic Abstractive Industry: Assessing the Valuable and Vulnerable North.
Cultural Anthropology Hot Spots
Populærvitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur;
Watts, Michael;
Appel, Hannah.
(2016)
Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas.
Cornell University Press (CUP)
Cornell University Press (CUP)
Vitenskapelig antologi/Konferanseserie
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2016)
Arctic energy image: hydrocarbon aesthetics of progress and form.
Polar Geography
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2016)
Events Collectives: The Social Life of a Promise-Disappointment Cycle.
Faglig kapittel
2015
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2015)
Growth Imperative: Intermediaries, Discourse Frameworks, and the Arctic.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2015)
Naming an Endless Process of Indigenization.
Current Anthropology
Anmeldelse
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2015)
Inside the Energy Salon: Installation and Illusions of Finality.
Journal of business anthropology
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2013
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2013)
Cartel Consciousness and Horizontal Integration in Energy Industry.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2013)
Homo Energeticus: Maturity, Inheritance, Identity.
Environmental Research Letters
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2012
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2012)
Natural Gas Industry Restructuring as Ethnographic Present.
The Polar Journal
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2012)
Corporeality of Consultant Expertise in Arctic Natural Gas Development.
Journal of Northern Studies
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2011
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2011)
Forms of Time in Alaska Natural Gas Development.
Polar Record
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2010
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2010)
Whither the Historicities of Alutiiq Heritage Work are Drifting.
Faglig kapittel
2008
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2008)
Vanguard Alutiiq Heritage Practice and the Import of Expertise.
Études Inuit Studies (EIS)
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2008)
Neglected Structures of Governance in US-Canadian Cross-Border Relations.
American Review of Canadian Studies
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2008)
Of Enlightenment and Alaska Early Moderns.
Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2007
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2007)
Rise of Consultant Forecasting in Liberalized Natural Gas Markets.
Public culture
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2006
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2006)
Images of the Energy Future.
Environmental Research Letters
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2005
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2005)
The Condition of Market Formation on Alaska’s Natural Gas Frontier.
Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2005)
Registering Discontinuity in Energy Market Analysis.
Knowledge, Technology and Policy
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2004
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2004)
Modernity and Decay of Alaska's Natural Gas Pipeline.
University of California Berkeley
University of California Berkeley
Doktorgradsavhandling
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2004)
Arctic Natural Gas: Reserves and Production.
Faglig kapittel
2002
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2002)
The Rise of an Alaska Native Bourgeoisie.
Études Inuit Studies (EIS)
Vitenskapelig artikkel
1996
-
Mason, Arthur.
(1996)
In a Strange Turn of Events: How Alutiiq Cultural Pride became a Commodity.
University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Mastergradsoppgave
Tidsskriftspublikasjoner
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2025)
Movement and Meaning for Oil and Gas Data Vendors.
Allegra Lab
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2023)
Synnøve K. N. Bendixsen and Edvard Hviding: Anthropology in Norway: Directions, Locations, Relations.
Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift
Anmeldelse
-
Carson, Siri Granum;
Munro, Bjoern Jenssen,;
Johnsen, Geir;
Mason, Arthur.
(2023)
En bærekraftig fremtid for Svalbard
– er utvinning av dyphavsmineraler
en del av svaret?.
Kronikk
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2019)
Consulting virtue: from judgement to decision-making in the natural gas industry.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2016)
Arctic Abstractive Industry: Assessing the Valuable and Vulnerable North.
Cultural Anthropology Hot Spots
Populærvitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2016)
Arctic energy image: hydrocarbon aesthetics of progress and form.
Polar Geography
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2015)
Naming an Endless Process of Indigenization.
Current Anthropology
Anmeldelse
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2015)
Inside the Energy Salon: Installation and Illusions of Finality.
Journal of business anthropology
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2013)
Homo Energeticus: Maturity, Inheritance, Identity.
Environmental Research Letters
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2012)
Natural Gas Industry Restructuring as Ethnographic Present.
The Polar Journal
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2012)
Corporeality of Consultant Expertise in Arctic Natural Gas Development.
Journal of Northern Studies
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2011)
Forms of Time in Alaska Natural Gas Development.
Polar Record
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2008)
Vanguard Alutiiq Heritage Practice and the Import of Expertise.
Études Inuit Studies (EIS)
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2008)
Neglected Structures of Governance in US-Canadian Cross-Border Relations.
American Review of Canadian Studies
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2008)
Of Enlightenment and Alaska Early Moderns.
Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2007)
Rise of Consultant Forecasting in Liberalized Natural Gas Markets.
Public culture
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2006)
Images of the Energy Future.
Environmental Research Letters
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2005)
The Condition of Market Formation on Alaska’s Natural Gas Frontier.
Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2005)
Registering Discontinuity in Energy Market Analysis.
Knowledge, Technology and Policy
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2002)
The Rise of an Alaska Native Bourgeoisie.
Études Inuit Studies (EIS)
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Bøker
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2025)
Consulting Energy: From Judgment to Decision-Making.
Routledge
Routledge
Vitenskapelig monografi
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2024)
Energy Capitol: The Waning of Regulatory Form.
Routledge
Routledge
Vitenskapelig monografi
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
Arctic Abstractive Industry: Assembling the Valuable and Vulnerable North.
Berghahn Books
Berghahn Books
Vitenskapelig antologi/Konferanseserie
-
Mason, Arthur;
Watts, Michael;
Appel, Hannah.
(2016)
Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas.
Cornell University Press (CUP)
Cornell University Press (CUP)
Vitenskapelig antologi/Konferanseserie
Del av bok/rapport
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2023)
Empathy for the Graph.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur;
Hepsø, Vidar.
(2022)
Timescaping the Arctic with Real-Time Data. Challenges for Fishing and Oil Interests.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
Arctic Late Industrialism: Extracting Value through Abstraction.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
Representation Without Resemblance: Graphical Expression in Hydrocarbon Industry.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
From Northern Lights to Fluorescent Lights.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2022)
Deluxe energy: Newly commodified regimes of luxurious energy.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2018)
Consulting Arctic Energy.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur;
Watts, Michael;
Appel, Hannah.
(2016)
Oil Talk.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2016)
Events Collectives: The Social Life of a Promise-Disappointment Cycle.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2015)
Growth Imperative: Intermediaries, Discourse Frameworks, and the Arctic.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2013)
Cartel Consciousness and Horizontal Integration in Energy Industry.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2010)
Whither the Historicities of Alutiiq Heritage Work are Drifting.
Faglig kapittel
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2004)
Arctic Natural Gas: Reserves and Production.
Faglig kapittel
Rapport
-
Mason, Arthur.
(2004)
Modernity and Decay of Alaska's Natural Gas Pipeline.
University of California Berkeley
University of California Berkeley
Doktorgradsavhandling
-
Mason, Arthur.
(1996)
In a Strange Turn of Events: How Alutiiq Cultural Pride became a Commodity.
University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Mastergradsoppgave