The Russian settlements on Spitsbergen – history, current socio-economic status and challenges for the future development

Schennerlein, Barbara

doi:10.5194/polf-89-9-2021

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Finally, regarding job sectors, six were working in hospitality, five in gastronomy, three in research, two in tourism, two in the local hospital, one in the mines, one had a leading role at the consulate and one was a senior member of the emergency services. The absence of significant representation from the mining sector may have affected results, yet it also reflects Barentsburg's shift to a tourism and research hub (Kelman et al, 2020;Schennerlein, 2021), so the results here support an understanding of ongoing changes in the settlement in the context of developing a viable future.…”

Section: Data Collection Sampling and Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…About 1/5 of the mined coal remains in Barentsburg to fuel its power station and the rest is exported to Western Europe at low market prices. Following the successful Norwegian example in Longyearbyen, and taking into account the limited time of the mine's operations, Arktikugol has recently begun to rebrand Barentsburg from a mining settlement to a research centre and a tourist destination (Gerlach & Kinossian, 2016;Kelman, Sydnes, Duda, Nikitina, & Webersik, 2020;Pedersen, 2021;Roberts & Paglia, 2016;Schennerlein, 2021;Sevastyanov et al, 2021) 2014) placing research as the first priority for Barentsburg's post-mining livelihoods. Tourism as the second priority represents Russia's own version of the so-called "lastchance tourism."…”

Section: Barentsburgmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While recent studies (e.g. Schennerlein, 2021;Sevastyanov, Grigoryev, Paranina, Obyazov, & Kiseleva, 2021;Vlakhov, 2019) offer insight into Barentsburg's socio-economic status, infrastructure and future prospects, little has been investigated on how Svalbard's second-largest and main Russian settlement, Barentsburg, deals with risks and disasters. This lacuna appears within the context of Russia's motivations for the Arctic being the subject of considerable concerns and opportunities within geopolitical deliberations (Bruun & Medby, 2014;Nikitina, 2018;Pedersen, 2021;Wilson Rowe, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disaster risk perceptions and multinational cooperation in Barentsburg, Svalbard

et al. 2022

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Svalbard’s geographical positioning, environmental characteristics and multinational population make it conducive for considering informality and multinational cooperation in disaster risk reduction and response. Most research examining disaster risks and disasters for Svalbard has focused on Norwegian efforts in and for the main settlement of Longyearbyen, with none covering Svalbard’s second-largest settlement of Barentsburg. This paper addresses this gap by analysing how 21 Barentsburg residents deal with disasters. We conducted semi-structured interviews, visually aided by the revised PRISM (Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure) tool, to examine interviewees’ disaster perceptions, sources for disaster-related information and learning, and formal and informal sources for dealing with disaster risks and disasters. Our findings suggest that, despite being risk-aware, Barentsburg interviewees consider the settlement, and Svalbard as a whole, to be safe. The explanation is their faith in the existing disaster-related mechanisms, made up of both local Russian entities and the Norwegian rescue services, especially Svalbard’s governor (Sysselmesteren). Interviewees rely significantly on Russian and Norwegian informal actors and relationships for disaster-related information. These findings suggest that alongside formal approaches, informality may play a significant role in dealing with disasters in Barentsburg, which itself might serve as a platform for international cooperation.

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Section: Data Collection Sampling and Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Barentsburgmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disaster risk perceptions and multinational cooperation in Barentsburg, Svalbard

et al. 2022

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“…But the company has no immediate plans of closing the mine as the Russian presence in Svalbard must be maintained and bringing fuel from the mainland is not considered an option. The company has been developing tourism and related industries and allowing more space for research activities, but preserving its key role for the town (Schennerlein, 2021). This is in contrast to Longyearbyen where private enterprises were allowed into the market.…”

Section: Changing Economic Bases In Svalbard Settlementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The archipelago is considered a "hotspot of climate change" (Grünberg, Groenke, Jentzsch, Westermann, & Boike, 2021;Vidal, 2017), attracting attention from researchers, journalists and visitors eager to study environmental impacts. Simultaneously, its settlements are undergoing structural economic changes (Arlov, 2003;Norum, 2016;Reymert, 2013;Schennerlein, 2021) with coal mining being replaced by tourism (Viken, 2011), research and education (Misund, 2017;Misund, Aksnes, Christiansen, & Arlov, 2017;Pedersen, 2021) and development of innovative technologies, with a corresponding growth in the service sector. Such developments provide a unique opportunity for studying changes in Arctic communities (Paglia, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing Svalbard: Tracing interrelated socio-economic and environmental change in remote Arctic settlements

2022

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The archipelago of Svalbard is a good example of an Arctic locale undergoing rapid changes on multiple levels. This contribution is a joint effort of three anthropologists with up-to-date ethnographic data from Svalbard (mostly Longyearbyen and Barentsburg) to frame and interpret interconnected changes. The processes impacting Svalbard are related to issues such as geopolitical interests, and increasing pressure by the Norwegian government to exercise presence and control over the territory. Our interpretations are based on a bottom-up approach, drawing on experiences living in the field. We identify three great ruptures in recent years – the avalanche of 2015, the gradual phasing out of mining enterprises and the COVID-19 pandemic – and show how they further impact, accelerate or highlight preexisting vulnerabilities in terms of socio-economic development, and environmental and climate change. We discuss the shift from coal mining to the industries of tourism, education, and research and development, and the resulting changed social and demographic structure of the settlements. Another facet is the complexity of environmental drivers of change and how they relate to the socio-economic ones. This article serves as an introductory text to the collection of articles published in Polar Record in 2021/2022 with the overarching theme “changing Svalbard”. Issues discussed range from socio-economic change and its implications for local populations including identity of place, through tourism (value creation, mediation, human–environment relations, environmental dilemmas, balancing contradictory trends), to security and risk perception, and environmental and climate change issues.

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Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard: An analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends

Middleton

2023

Polar Record

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The Svalbard archipelago is a centre of global research on climate change and also an example of a rapidly changing Arctic area with tourism replacing the traditional mining industry. We compared the different development paths of the Norwegian (Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund) and Russian settlements (Barentsburg and Pyramida) on Spitsbergen as part of the Svalbard archipelago using demographic and socio-economic data until 2022 when available, but not focusing on the impacts of COVID-19 and changing geopolitics after 2022. We analysed strategy documents produced by Norway and Russia and by organisations connected to Svalbard. The analysis continued by scrutinising the statistical data available to ascertain if this supported the strategic goals outlined in the documents. Data collection was by direct enquiry to national statistical bureaus, agencies and institutions in Norway and Russia. Secondary data were collected from media publications and social media accounts. Statistics Norway provided very detailed data on demographics and industrial structure, turnover, investments and comprehensive statistics on employees by industry on Norwegian settlements on Svalbard. The results revealed disparities in socio-economic development, striking differences in data availability and in transparency between the Norwegian and Russian settlements. The population in the Norwegian settlements continued to grow during the period 1990–2022 with an increasing number of foreign nationals, and the population in the Russian settlements decreased by 85% at the same time period. The Norwegian settlements exemplify a diversified economy with a growing private sector, and the Russian settlements continued to rely on the town-forming Russian state unitary coal mining enterprise, Trust Arktikugol. While Svalbard presented a prime example of open data and transparency in the environmental sciences, the socio-economic and demographic statistics were lagging behind. Several practical proposals are presented for improved data collection on the Svalbard settlements.

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The Russian settlements on Spitsbergen – history, current socio-economic status and challenges for the future development

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Disaster risk perceptions and multinational cooperation in Barentsburg, Svalbard

Disaster risk perceptions and multinational cooperation in Barentsburg, Svalbard

Changing Svalbard: Tracing interrelated socio-economic and environmental change in remote Arctic settlements

Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard: An analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends

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