Beyond Normality: Features of the Structure of Economic Activity in Arctic Cities and Settlements
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17059/ekon.reg.2024-2-7Keywords:
Arctic, remoteness, Arctic urbanisation, urban development, Far North, diversification, transport accessibility, transport costs, isolationAbstract
High transportation costs and the narrowness of the local market limit the development of Arctic cities, especially remote ones. However, specific demand for unique goods and services (including the so-called development services) and production of goods and services that are impractical/impossible to deliver from more southern areas (especially in the early stages of development) due to transport isolation contribute to the economic diversification of Arctic cities. The article aims to identify special mechanisms for the formation of economic activity in remote settlements. The study solves the following tasks: 1) theoretical substantiation of economic development factors in Arctic cities; 2) selection of indicators to assess the diversity of economic activities in remote settlements of the Russian Arctic; 3) analysis of the obtained results. The variety of economic activities of small settlements depends on the distance to the nearest larger settlement. Some remote towns and villages of Yakutia, Chukotka, etc., with a population of about 5,000 inhabitants (or even less) are characterised by a moderately increased diversity of economic activities in terms of both the total number of enterprises and organisations per 1,000 inhabitants and the number of types of economic activity (OKVED codes) per 1,000 inhabitants. According to the study, small settlements in remote conditions perform urban functions typical of larger cities in normal conditions, acting as economic and socio-cultural centres of the surrounding areas, in fact, as the base settlements of the Arctic. The expansion of the functions of small remote settlements plays an important role in the development of the urban network of the Arctic and the North. The findings can be used to create public policy measures in relation to the base settlements of the Russian Arctic.
References
Agranat, G. A. (1970). Zarubezhnyy Sever: opyt osvoeniya [Foreign North: experience of development]. Moscow: Nauka, 414. (In Russ.)
Baburin, V. L., & Zemtsov, S. P. (2015). The evolution of urban settlements and the dynamics of natural and socio-economic processes in the Russian Arctic. Regionalnye issledovaniya [Regional studies], 4 (50), 76–83. (In Russ.)
Badina, S. V. (2017). Quantification of Russia Arctics socio-economic potential vulnerability in the zone of permafrost degradation. Regionalnye issledovaniya. [Regional studies], 3 (57), 107–116. (In Russ.)
Dankin, M. A., Zamyatina, N. Yu., Zaytsev, A. A., Nikitin, B. V., Poturaeva, A. V., & Ivlieva, O. D. (2022). Opornye naselennye punkty Rossiyskoy Arktiki: materialy predvaritelnogo issledovaniya [Base settlements of the Russian Arctic: materials of a preliminary study]. ANO “Information and Analytical Center of the State Commission for the Development of the Arctic”, ANO “Institute of Regional Consulting”, 246. (In Russ.)
Fauzer, V. V., & Smirnov, A. V. (2018). The Russian Arctic: From Ostrogs to Urban Agglomerations. EKO [ECO], (7), 112–130. (In Russ.)
Glomsrød, S., & Aslaksen, I. (Eds.). (2008). The economy of the North. Statistics Norway.
Goncharov, R. V., Dan’kin, M. A., Zamyatina, N. Yu., & Molodcova, V. A. (2020). Cathedrals the Desert or Strongholds? The Typology of the Settlements in the Russian Arctic by Their Interconnections with the Surrounding Territory. Gorodskie issledovaniya i praktiki [Urban Studies and Practices], 5 (1), 33-56. https://doi.org/10.17323/usp51202033-56 (In Russ.)
Hamelin, L.-E. (1979). Canadian Nordicity: It’s Your North, Too. Montreal: Harvest House, 373.
Hansen, K., Rasmussen, R., & Weber, R. (Eds.). (2013). Proceedings from the First International Conference
on Urbanisation in the Arctic. Nordregio Working Paper No. 6. Ilimmarfik, Nuuk, Greenland, 28–30 August 2012, 218.
Hemmersam, P. (2021). Making the Arctic City: The History and Future of Urbanism in the Circumpolar North. London, New York, Dublin: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
Huskey, L. (2017). Alaska’s Economy: The First World War, Frontier Fragility, and Jack London. Northern Review, (44), 327–346. https://doi.org/10.22584/nr44.2017.014
Huskey, L., & Morehouse, T. A. (1992). Development in remote regions: What do we know? Arctic, 45 (2), 128–137. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic1384
Huskey, L., & Taylor, A. (2016). The dynamic history of government settlements at the edge. In: Settlements at the Edge. Remote Human Settlements in Developed Nations (pp. 25-48). Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784711962.00009
Jеngsberg, L., Turunen, E., Heleniak, T., Wang, Sh., Ramage, Ju., & Roto, J. (2019). Atlas of population, society and economy in the Arctic. Nordregio Working Paper 2019: 3, 78. https://doi.org/10.30689/WP2019:3.1403–2511
Larsen, J., & Fondahl, G. (Eds.). (2015). Arctic Human Development Report: Regional Processes and Global Linkages. Copenhagen: Nordisk Ministerrеd.
Orttung, R. (2020). Urban Sustainability in the Arctic: Measuring Progress in Circumpolar Cities. New York: Berghahn Publishers, 310. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781789207354
Pilyasov, A. N. (2011). Towns of the Russian Arctic: comparison of the economic indicators. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 5: Geografiya [Moscow University Bulletin. Series 5, Geography], (4), 64-69. (In Russ.)
Pilyasov, A. N. (2020). Predprinimatelstvo v Arktike: Problemy razvitiya malogo i srednego biznesa v Arkticheskoy zone, ili chem arkticheskie predprinimateli pokhozhi na belykh medvedey? [Entrepreneurship in the Arctic: Problems
of development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Arctic zone, or how are Arctic entrepreneurs similar to polar bears?]. Moscow: Krasand, 400. (In Russ.)
Rasmussen, R. O. (Ed.). (2011). Megatrends. Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen, 207.
Shakirova, D. F., Badina, S. V., & Pankratov, A. A. (2022). Approaches to the typology of Russian Arctic zone municipalities annotation. InterKarto. InterGIS [InterCarto. InterGIS], 28 (2), 69-85. https://doi.org/10.35595/2414–9179-2022-2-28-69-85 (In Russ.)
Slavin, S. V. (1961). Promyshlennoe i transportnoe osvoenie Severa SSSR [Industrial and transport development of the North of the USSR]. Moscow: Ekonomizdat, 302. (In Russ.)
Smirnov, A. V. (2020). Human Development and Prospects for the Knowledge Economy Formation. Arktika: ekologiya i ekonomika [Arctic: ecology and economy], (2), 18–30. https://doi.org/10.25283/2223–4594-2020-2-18-30 (In Russ.)
Sysoev, A. A. (1979). Economics and geographical aspects of the study of the development bases. In: K. P. Kosmachev (Ed.), Teoriya khozyaystvennogo osvoeniya territorii [The theory of economic development of the territory]. Irkutsk: In-t geografii Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka Sibirskogo otdeleniya AN SSSR. (In Russ.)
Yuen, K. K. (1974). The two-sample trimmed t for unequal population variances. Biometrika, 61 (1), 165-170. https://doi.org/10.2307/2334299
Zamyatina, N. Yu., & Goncharov, R. V. (2020). Arctic urbanization: a phenomenon and a comparative analysis. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 5: Geografiya [Moscow University Bulletin. Series 5, Geography], (4), 69–82. (In Russ.)
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Замятина Надежда Юрьевна , Кульчицкий Юрий Викторович
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
