Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends
Abstract The Svalbard archipelago is a centre of global research on climate change and also an example of a rapidly changing Arctic area with tourism replacing the traditional mining industry. We compared the different development paths of the Norwegian (Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund) and Russian sett...
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ftunivoulu:oai:oulu.fi:nbnfi-fe2023041436662 2023-07-30T04:01:39+02:00 Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends Middleton, A. (Alexandra) 2023 application/pdf http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2023041436662 eng eng Cambridge University Press info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Arctic Norwegain settlements Russian settlements Svalbard demographic trends socio-economic development info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2023 ftunivoulu 2023-07-08T20:01:22Z Abstract The Svalbard archipelago is a centre of global research on climate change and also an example of a rapidly changing Arctic area with tourism replacing the traditional mining industry. We compared the different development paths of the Norwegian (Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund) and Russian settlements (Barentsburg and Pyramida) on Spitsbergen as part of the Svalbard archipelago using demographic and socio-economic data until 2022 when available, but not focusing on the impacts of COVID-19 and changing geopolitics after 2022. We analysed strategy documents produced by Norway and Russia and by organisations connected to Svalbard. The analysis continued by scrutinising the statistical data available to ascertain if this supported the strategic goals outlined in the documents. Data collection was by direct enquiry to national statistical bureaus, agencies and institutions in Norway and Russia. Secondary data were collected from media publications and social media accounts. Statistics Norway provided very detailed data on demographics and industrial structure, turnover, investments and comprehensive statistics on employees by industry on Norwegian settlements on Svalbard. The results revealed disparities in socio-economic development, striking differences in data availability and in transparency between the Norwegian and Russian settlements. The population in the Norwegian settlements continued to grow during the period 1990–2022 with an increasing number of foreign nationals, and the population in the Russian settlements decreased by 85% at the same time period. The Norwegian settlements exemplify a diversified economy with a growing private sector, and the Russian settlements continued to rely on the town-forming Russian state unitary coal mining enterprise, Trust Arktikugol. While Svalbard presented a prime example of open data and transparency in the environmental sciences, the socio-economic and demographic statistics were lagging behind. Several practical proposals are presented for improved data ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Barentsburg Climate change Longyearbyen Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Spitsbergen Jultika - University of Oulu repository Arctic Barentsburg ENVELOPE(14.212,14.212,78.064,78.064) Longyearbyen Norway Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Jultika - University of Oulu repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivoulu |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic Norwegain settlements Russian settlements Svalbard demographic trends socio-economic development |
spellingShingle |
Arctic Norwegain settlements Russian settlements Svalbard demographic trends socio-economic development Middleton, A. (Alexandra) Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends |
topic_facet |
Arctic Norwegain settlements Russian settlements Svalbard demographic trends socio-economic development |
description |
Abstract The Svalbard archipelago is a centre of global research on climate change and also an example of a rapidly changing Arctic area with tourism replacing the traditional mining industry. We compared the different development paths of the Norwegian (Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund) and Russian settlements (Barentsburg and Pyramida) on Spitsbergen as part of the Svalbard archipelago using demographic and socio-economic data until 2022 when available, but not focusing on the impacts of COVID-19 and changing geopolitics after 2022. We analysed strategy documents produced by Norway and Russia and by organisations connected to Svalbard. The analysis continued by scrutinising the statistical data available to ascertain if this supported the strategic goals outlined in the documents. Data collection was by direct enquiry to national statistical bureaus, agencies and institutions in Norway and Russia. Secondary data were collected from media publications and social media accounts. Statistics Norway provided very detailed data on demographics and industrial structure, turnover, investments and comprehensive statistics on employees by industry on Norwegian settlements on Svalbard. The results revealed disparities in socio-economic development, striking differences in data availability and in transparency between the Norwegian and Russian settlements. The population in the Norwegian settlements continued to grow during the period 1990–2022 with an increasing number of foreign nationals, and the population in the Russian settlements decreased by 85% at the same time period. The Norwegian settlements exemplify a diversified economy with a growing private sector, and the Russian settlements continued to rely on the town-forming Russian state unitary coal mining enterprise, Trust Arktikugol. While Svalbard presented a prime example of open data and transparency in the environmental sciences, the socio-economic and demographic statistics were lagging behind. Several practical proposals are presented for improved data ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Middleton, A. (Alexandra) |
author_facet |
Middleton, A. (Alexandra) |
author_sort |
Middleton, A. (Alexandra) |
title |
Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends |
title_short |
Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends |
title_full |
Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends |
title_fullStr |
Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends |
title_full_unstemmed |
Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends |
title_sort |
norwegian and russian settlements on svalbard:an analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2023041436662 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(14.212,14.212,78.064,78.064) |
geographic |
Arctic Barentsburg Longyearbyen Norway Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Barentsburg Longyearbyen Norway Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
genre |
Arctic Barentsburg Climate change Longyearbyen Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Spitsbergen |
genre_facet |
Arctic Barentsburg Climate change Longyearbyen Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Spitsbergen |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
_version_ |
1772812416657129472 |