Download (2019Kb) - Arctic Portal Library

The Political Economy of Northern Regional Development – Yearbook 2008
possible in order to appraise whether systemic factors impede or promote a
self-reliant development path. 25
The approach of climate changes involves impacts on the resource base,
on human development, on community development and on macroeconomic
development. The question is, whether Arctic systems can show
resilience to exogenous impacts of the structure and functioning of the
economies. Yet, it also involves the presented critique of neo-classical economics
being an inadequate approach to a holistic analysis of Arctic social
systems. The essence of the POENOR approach described above is that the
three approaches the globalization impact, the systemic impact and the climate
impact are tangled together as complex impacting structures imposing
constraints and possibilities on a self-reliant development path.
Finally, articles on the use of databases (ECONOR), and the databases
themselves are presented in this volume. These are necessary prerequisites
for implementing the POENOR project’s empirical analysis. The situation
on data access for comparative analysis has in recent years, improved with
access to ARCTICSTAT and SLICA.
As mentioned, the tension between centralized and decentralized decision-makers
could in a comparative systems context represent a dichotomy
scale between plan and market and between state and private ownership.
On the other hand it could also reflect the search for a “third way”, that is
in between the poles of this. Gerard Duhaime suggests a comprehensive
approach to arctic social scientific research in his article “Theoretical
Foundation for the Study of Arctic Development Models”. His approach
constitutes a search for alternatives to development paradigms based on
either the state or market. Referring to Amartya Sen’s and Martha Nussbaums
enhanced model of human capabilities, Duhaime is looking for a
way to include local indigenous people in decision-making. In his article, a
humanist development model is presented as an alternative to neo-liberal
practices, and to state involvement from “the South”. The various economic
practices for resource exploitation – customary land uses and largescale
extraction activities – are usually seen as separate worlds, a vision
that traditional scientific disciplinary barriers have accustomed us to. Du-
25 This work commenced at the POENOR workshop in Akureyri, Iceland. Having classified the
systems, it will become possible to analyze classification variables in relation to macro-economic
indicators, human development indicators or material well being indicators (the ASI project). Forthcoming
POENOR publications will report on the results of these statistical measures.
29