Social and cultural changes in the European Arctic

This report’s overview of the region’s sociocultural landscape includes innovative and growing Arctic cities, thinning-out rural areas, demographic challenges, and dependence on extractive and primary industries. Indigenous peoples often experience these elements in distinct manners. The EU has a nu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stępień, Adam, Banul, Karolina, Scheepstra, Annette, van Dam, Kim, Latola, Kirsi, Koivurova, Timo
Format: Book Part
Language:English
Published: European Union 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/ce744cf5-e498-46fd-9b2f-ef3819fe9993
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/ce744cf5-e498-46fd-9b2f-ef3819fe9993
http://www.arcticinfo.eu/images/pdf/SADA_report.pdf
Description
Summary:This report’s overview of the region’s sociocultural landscape includes innovative and growing Arctic cities, thinning-out rural areas, demographic challenges, and dependence on extractive and primary industries. Indigenous peoples often experience these elements in distinct manners. The EU has a number of programmes that support socioeconomic development and co-operation in the North, as well as relevant transport policies and environmental regulations. When designing and carrying out relevant policies, the EU decision-makers should take into account: the region’s intra-regional and core-periphery connectivity; power structures, social conflicts and cultural diversity; human-nature interactions; as well as the state of innovation, entrepreneurship and education. An EU focus on entrepreneurship and innovation within co-operation and cohesion programmes should be continued and strengthened, with greater attention to gender issues and indigenous peoples. In particular, the activism of dynamic indigenous youth should be supported. Intra-regional accessibility and connectivity, including challenging cross-border projects, must not be neglected in the light of a focus on core-periphery connections within frameworks such as the Trans-European Transport network. The special characteristics and needs of Arctic cities and their importance for regional development need to be taken into account in EU policies and programmes.