The Limits of Everyday Digitalization in the Arctic: A Digital Security Perspective

• Main Authors: Salminen, M, Morris, L
• Other Authors: Acadia, S
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Cham 2024
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Council
• Online Access: https://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/10679/; https://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/10679/1/TheLimitsOfEverydayDigitalizationInTheArcticADigitalSecurityPerspectiveAM-MORRIS.pdf; https://link.springer.com/book/9783031547140

The digitalization of the Arctic is now an everyday phenomenon, but discussion of vulnerabilities embedded within this sociotechnical transformation remains limited and with little historic attention paid to local contexts. Since the early 2000s, the Arctic Council and the Arctic Economic Council have worked to address this situation, producing area-specific information alongside pan-Arctic perspectives on digital development. However, the security questions highlighted in this chapter have only been partially included in such discourse. Consequently, this chapter is an introduction to digital security as an everyday issue in the context of the Arctic based upon regional and national data from the five Arctic states of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Canada, and the United States. The chapter argues that digitalization generates uncertainty for individuals and communities and, therefore, requires greater attention. First, the chapter outlines the opportunities of digitalization for Arctic communities and offers a conceptual discussion of the relationships between information security, cybersecurity, and digital security. Secondly, the chapter examines Arctic digital security questions such as digital connectivity, accessibility of information and digital services, digital literacies and rights, and forms of digital abuse, while considering the role of libraries in particular detail.