Participants of the Grant ‘Governance, Community and Ecology: Responding to Challenges of Resource Development in the Circumpolar North’ Went on an Expedition to Kirkenes (Norway)

The main aim of the expedition, which took place from May 11 to 14, 2015, was to study the international experience of how municipal authorities solve the environmental, economic, and social problems related to intensive resource development in Arctic regions.

Participants of the expedition included: Carol Leonard, head of the grant, Professor, PhD, Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of Regional Studies and Urban Planning (IRSUP); Irina Iliyna, Professor, Doctor of Sciences, Director of IRSUP; Alexander Minin, Doctor of Sciences, Chief Research Fellow of IRSUP; Olga Khoreva, Associate Professor, Candidate of Sciences, Deputy Head of the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences School of Public Policy Department for Spatial Development and Regional Studies; Vera Smorchkova, Professor, Doctor of Sciences, RANEPA Institute of Public Service and Administration; Olga Talovskaya, Research Intern at the Institute; Film Director Alexandra Marchenko; Film Camera Operator Alexey Filippov. The expedition included working meetings with municipal administration, the local academic community, public organizations and businesspeople.

On May 11, an introductory seminar was organized for expedition participants by the University of Tromsø Barents Institute (Kirkenes branch) researchers, representatives of Barents Secretariat, and professors of the University of Tromsø School of Business and Economics.

The meeting was opened by Marianne Neerland Soleim, Director of the branch, who spoke about the Institute and the key areas of its research, as well as current and prospective projects. These key areas of studies at the Institute include research of the Circumpolar North and bordering regions, its history, international policy, geopolitics, international relations, economics, and sociology.

Viktoria Tevlona, Professor of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University Department of Social Work and Social Security, and Senior Research Fellow at the Barents Institute, spoke about comparative studies of Russia and Norway in a historical perspective in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Yury Nikiforov, deputy head of the International Barents Secretariat, gave a presentation about the foundation of the secretariat. According to him, the International Barents Secretariat is the youngest and smallest in the system of Barents cooperation.

Interns of the Barents Secretariat, Morgan Ip Alexander from Canada and Carolina Banul from Poland, spoke about their research projects. Morgan’s project is aimed at involving local residents in the process of urban spatial development as well as looking for new methods of planning arctic cities. Carolina Banul spoke about her participation in the ARCSUS (ARCtic Urban SUStainability in the High North) project. Her key aims as part of this project are to detect the level of Arctic urbanization, to evaluate the changes in the settlement system over the last two decades, and to assess the level of Arctic settlement sustainability by means of evaluating living standards while also looking for planning practices in order to improve their sustainability.

Representatives of the Russian delegation spoke about the interim results of the MacArthur Foundation grant. Professor Carol Leonard spoke about the project, Irina Iliyna presented a comparative analysis of socio-economic development in Russia’s Arctic regions, and Vera Smorchkova spoke about the indigenous peoples of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region.

On May 12, the expedition members met with Cecilie Hansen, Mayor of the Sør-Varanger community.

Cecilie Hansen spoke about the community’s relations with the main employer of the town, about the hard times that came after the mine was closed in the mid-1990s, how the town was restored after the crisis, mining was resumed, and how the difficult decision was made to sell the public enterprise to private owners.

On May 13 there were meetings with Tuuli Ojala, an environment expert at International Barents Secretariat, Ørjan Stubhaug, an urban planner, Arve Tannvik, who initiated the creation of an industrial park, and Andreas Hoffman, head of a public organization for cultural projects.

The experts’ presentations were always followed by a discussion, with the expedition participants inquiring about social policy issues, specifics of taxation and business administration, environment protection, climate change, relations with the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, and many other topics. The results of the research will be presented at an international conference in autumn 2015.

Prepared by Olga Talovskaya, IRSUP Research Assistant and participant of the expedition to Norway