Institute Of The North

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Institutions; Arctic; Alaska
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/564/; https://institutenorth.org

The Institute of the North, founded by Governor Walter J. Hickel, is a leader in the study of Alaska’s unique governmental and economic system that combines a constitutional democracy, a free enterprise economy, and commonly owned lands and resources (i.e. the commons). The “commons” is an emerging academic discipline of great significance to those dedicated to eliminating poverty in community-based cultures as well as those concerned about the total environment – people, people’s needs and nature. While other scholarly centers focus on the “tragedy of the commons” in destitute and over-populated regions, the Institute of the North specializes in how to utilize and care for the resource-rich commons for the benefit of those living in and on the commons. Areas of special study include Alaska, the new Russia, the many regions of the Arctic and other areas of the world that are lightly populated and wealthy in both human cultures and natural resources.