Challenging the Obvious: Arctic Cities

Abstract

This article substantiates the exclusivity of Arctic cities as special biosocial institutions: not the significant differences between cities in the Arctic and cities of the temperate zone, but their systemic isolation. To do this, the authors use Williamson’s concept of specific assets, including location as a special type of asset, and numerous comparisons of Arctic cities with northern and global cities. For calculations of the degree of specificity of cities in the Arctic, a EIT model is proposed. “W” are the peculiarities of external relations of Arctic base cities, providing development services to the resource industries of the surrounding territories, to the traditional residences of indigenous peoples and their management, and geostrategic territories. The second “I” are the peculiarities of the internal organization of Arctic cities, which are best understood using Wilson’s biosocial approach and the Soviet legacy in ecosystem studies of the Arctic. This means destroying the wall between social sciences and natural sciences in the Arctic zone and recognizing the similarity of special features of the natural and social systems of the Arctic, that is, to see Arctic cities as an extension of the Arctic ecosystems, absorbing their main features (openness, seasonality, non-stationarity, temporality, etc.). “F” means the significant amplitude, turbulence, and even spontaneity in the existence of Arctic cities. For a comparative assessment of the role of cities in the Arctic as sources of innovation, an analysis was made of the number of registered patent applications for the 26 largest cities in the Arctic. No connection was found between the local development of resources and the innovativeness of the nearest city. In contrast to the large diversified rear bases of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, peripheral administrative centers and even large monotowns rarely act as sources of innovation for their respective territory. For all cities that are outpost bases of the Russian Arctic, there is a challenge to become true innovation centers for their territories. It is from them that the impulse for the innovative modernization of the entire Arctic economy should go to generate effects of increasing returns on new knowledge and competencies.