Exploring the Arctic’s “other economies”: knowledge, creativity and the new frontier

Abstract

The stylised notion of the Arctic’s economy as solely based on three “pillars”: resources, public and traditional sectors, is no longer nuanced enough to accommodate the growing role of Arctic’s “other” (non-pillar) economies prompted by the worldwide shift to tertiary and quaternary sectors. The goal of this paper is to introduce and showcase the Arctic’s “other economies” and offer a patchwork of cases that illuminate various aspects of “other” economies. These studies include an investigation of the Arctic’s knowledge economy at the circumpolar and regional scales, a study of cultural economy and an inquiry into the relationships between “other” and “pillar” Arctic sectors. The paper concludes that although the volume of knowledge production in the Arctic is still comparatively small and economic engagement of local creativity is relatively weak, Arctic economic systems are evolving to increasingly incorporate these sectors. The Arctic knowledge economy is characterised by the key role of individual inventor or single industry, connectedness to external networks vis-a-vis weak links within the Arctic, obscured relationship between formal education and knowledge production, an elevated role of informal skills, and remaining dependency on boom and bust cycles in resource extraction. However, as “other economies” mature, this dependency is expected to diminish leading to a more sustainable model of development. Thus, this paper argues that “other economies” should move to the forefront of economic analysis and the strategising for sustainable development in the Arctic.