ABSTRACT
Finland scores highly on environmental sustainability, social development and economic performance in many international comparisons. These assessments that position Finland among the greenest, happiest and the most innovative countries in the world are a source of national pride. Securing the well-being of Northern populations and the availability of a competent, healthy and mobile labor force are core elements in the national and regional discourses of Arctic expertise and smart specialization. The question in this chapter is how Finnish Lapland performs on social sustainability in national, Nordic, European and Arctic comparisons. Popular discourses on Arctic expertise and smartness construct a social imaginary for Lapland in which the well-being, creativity and innovation of Northern peoples are mostly wishful claims. In terms of indicators of human development, creativity and smartness, the results for Lapland are rather modest and in some cases also contradictory.
