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ABSTRACTRussia’s full-scale war on Ukraine in early 2022 has brought geopolitics, particularly classical geopolitics, back into the political and economic discussions and decision-making. Discursive, as well as real-world change, has been rapid, as the turn of the 21st century was the time of globalisation and neoliberal ideology – the free movement of people, products, and services. However, in this paper, we argue that classical geopolitics has defined the development of Northern industries even before the war began in 2022. Our interview data (n = 60) collected in the advent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine reveal that the themes of state power; ‘hard’ security meaning military armament; the economy as a field of national interests; and spill-over effects of geopolitical tensions between superpowers have framed economic fortunes in the European Arctic. It is concluded that the state actors’ interests in the European Arctic’s physical space and natural assets will be increasingly expanding.

ABSTRACTThe European Arctic is commonly thought of as a pristine and homogeneous area. In reality, it is a diverse region experiencing growth relying on natural resource extraction. Despite local communities being primarily affected by industry activities, most socioeconomic impact assessments are conducted at the macro level. This study addresses this gap by examining the impacts of economic activities on local communities. Using secondary data and semi-structured interviews from 15 hubs in five European Arctic countries, the study draws on locally relevant insights. Findings indicate that many activities focus on economic growth, and existing strategies do not adequately address biophysical boundaries. Furthermore, alternative activities need to be developed in a more balanced manner that aligns with the needs of indigenous and local communities. Finally, participation of various actors in future developments is critical to reduce the negative impacts of industry activities.

Indicators can be powerful tools to measure progress towards achieving societal goals, and many indicators have been developed for sustainability goals nationally and internationally. When indicators are developed solely through top-down approaches without engaging local knowledge, they often fall short of capturing local perceptions and concerns relevant to decision-making. The aim of this project was to co-create a Coastal Barometer and its component indicators, together with local knowledge-holders and communities, using the Ocean Health Index as a framework. As a first step, local knowledge-holders from six communities dispersed across Northern Norway were invited to articulate local sustainability goals and the required knowledge for eight broad topics pertaining to global OHI goals: small-scale fisheries, food production, sense of place, tourism, food production, clean waters, carbon storage and economy and livelihoods. In this paper, our main focus is the co-design phase of the Coastal Barometer, namely eliciting sustainability goals. We thus, present locally desired sustainability goals and sub-goals and the process of eliciting these goals. We also include suggestions from local knowledge-holders on how to reach these goals (i.e. proposed management measures), along with researchers’ assessment of data availability (part of the co-production process) for developing indicators to measure progress towards these goals. Finally, we discuss the benefits and challenges of co-developing sustainability goals and indicators with local knowledge-holders. We conclude that co-design can increase the quality of sustainability assessments by enriching the view of coastal sustainability. This knowledge can subsequently be used to align indicators with local sustainability goals as well as to the local context where the indicators will be applied.

In this study, we explore Indigenous energy opposition to and acceptance of small hydropower development. In Sápmi (i.e., the traditional homeland of the Indigenous Sámi people), land development poses a major threat to the cultural and material needs of the Sámi people through the loss of pastures essential to Sámi reindeer herding. In contrast to large-scale renewable energy projects such as hydropower, power line and wind power projects, the impact of small hydropower (SHP) development on Indigenous land use has received relatively little attention. We mapped Indigenous opposition to and acceptance of new SHP development in a key region for Sámi reindeer herding in northern Norway from 2010 to 2018. Our results show how the proliferation of SHPs on reindeer pastures caused concern among Sámi reindeer owners and their representatives, who devoted considerable resources to participating in and opposing new SHPs through public hearing processes. In many cases, other actors, such as environmental interests, also opposed. Nevertheless, most cases opposed by Indigenous representatives were licensed (59 %). Considering our results and given the potential for and interest in expanding renewable energy, Indigenous opposition to SHP development warrants greater attention. Our approach provides a larger-scale, larger-N, quantitative view of opposition to SHP development that can complement more qualitative and in-depth approaches.