ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the economic history of the far north of Norway from its early beginnings to the present time. It reviews the main demographic parameters in Finnmark county and coastal Finnmark since the 1960s, with emphasis on the eighties and nineties. The chapter explores the changing expectations and values of young people growing up in coastal communities. Finnmark is a virtual island on the margin of Europe, facing the North Atlantic. Finnmark has always been a pioneer fringe where people made their livings from fishing, reindeer herding and mining. The Finnmark pioneer fringe, as contrasted to many other pioneer fringes at that time, was a maritime frontier. Norway was occupied by German forces, and Finnmark, with its common border with Russia and its ice-free ports, became strategically very important when the alliance between Russia and Germany ended in 1941.
