ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses two questions that have often been neglected in the literature on remote regions: (1) to what extent are local approaches to sustainable urban development (SUD) shaped by other levels of governance? (2) How are citizens engaged in policy-making processes on SUD? Despite all disparities between (remote) cities, we show that power imbalances and a lack of formalised participatory approaches haunt local approaches to sustainable development, not only in the Arctic but also elsewhere. We further argue that the relational embeddedness of remote cities and the limited interactions between people beyond “their bubbles” help to explain the lack of transnational efforts and limited inclusive participatory governance approaches in the European Arctic and in other remote regions.
Under consideration of our conceptual model (Chapter 3), we show that at the institutional level (1) education and (institutional) learning as well as more spaces to advance knowledge transfers are needed in remote regions. In view of actors and their relationships (2), it seems that in sparsely populated areas, few people are able to become “policy entrepreneurs” because of limited connectivity and a lack of access to closed networks or clubs. This missing connection also explains why political priorities (3) more often concern local issues, because citizens feel that they are not included in policy-making processes across governance levels and feel dominated by dependencies they consider unable to change. Despite all limitations that come along with the place-sensitivities highlighted in the literature and also in our empirical data, we consider our model applicable also to other remote regions.
