ABSTRACT
The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in the history of mankind. Half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. The United Nations predicted that by 2050, 64.1 percent and 85.9 percent of the developing and developed world, respectively, will be urbanized (United Nations 2014). The circumpolar regions are not exempt from this global process. Since the 1960s, most of the population growth in the Arctic has occurred in urban centers (Rasmussen 2011, 22). Today, with the exception of the Faroe Islands, all of the Arctic regions have three-quarters or more of their populations residing in urban areas (Larsen and Fondahl 2015, 94). This evolution is linked to the growth in industrial activities (mostly large-scale fishing, forestry, and mineral extraction), but also to the development of social services, public administration, and tourism. For many Arctic residents, only urban centers offer decent living conditions, even if it means, for indigenous people, cutting ties with some of their traditional ways of life.
