Arctic urbanization by Riccardo Luca Conti

Global Urbanization in the Arctic: Strategies for Vulnerable Communities

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development

Word count: 10186 Riccardo Luca Conti

Development Planning Unit University College London

31 August 2014

ACKNOWLEDGMENT My interest in development started in 2009 during my architecture thesis research in Nairobi. After I graduated I started working in a slum in Nairobi. That experience made me understand that what I wanted to do in my life was related to development. Nevertheless my knowledge was restricted to architecture studies with very limited understanding of development. For that reason I decided to apply for the BUDD master at DPU. Now, with this paper, I am concluding the master and at the same time I am going to start a new path for my career in development. All this was possible because of the support of many people. I would like to thank my parents for all the support that they always give me and that they will continue to give in the future. A special thanks goes to all the colleagues I shared ideas with during these academic years. Thanks to all the professors who inspired my thoughts and in particular a special thanks to Liza Griffin for the essential support she gave me during the writing of this paper. Thanks to Luca Astorri for suggesting me the book that made me interested in exploring the issues discussed in this paper. Finally a special thanks to the guys I worked with in Mathare (Nairobi) who have been a fundamental source of inspiration during my studies at DPU.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: GLOBAL URBANIZATION

1.1 The global urban phenomenon 9

1.2 Does urbanization still have boundaries? 1.3 The right to what city?

CHAPTER TWO: THE URBANIZING ARCTIC

2.1 History of urbanization in the Arctic 2.2 Breaking the rural/urban binarism

2.3 Forces driving urbanization in the Arctic 2.4 Manifestation of urban phenomena

2.5 Future visions of the urbanizing Arctic

CHAPTER THREE: DIFFERENT RESPONSES TO URBANIZATION

3.1 Vulnerable communities and related challenges 3.2 Three case studies

CHAPTER FOUR: STRATEGIES

4.1 Climate change refugeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; legal framework 4.2 Community/ies strength

CONCLUSIONS

5.1 Open issues

REFERENCES

LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1. ACIA (2004), The Arctic Region (2004) In: Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, Cambridge University Press Fig. 2. Smith, L. C. (2011) Ten “Ports of the Future” Poised to Benefit from Increased Traffic in the Arctic (2011) In: Smith, L. C., The World in 2050. Four Forces Shaping Civilization’s Northern Future, Profile Books Ltd, London Fig. 3. Map showing the Artic claims (2010) At: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe11387175 (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 4. Diagram showing the extensions of the urban (2014) Fig. 5. Petroleum production in the Arctic and associated networks of connectivity (2013) At: http://op-n.net/ARCTIC-RESOURCE-URBANIZATION (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 6. Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (2014) At: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransAlaska_Pipeline_System#mediaviewer/File:800pxTrans_Alaska_Pipeline_Denali_fault_shift.JPG (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 7. Murmansk (Russia) port (2011) At: http://englishrussia.com/2011/02/15/severe-arcticmurmansk/ (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 8. Gazprom Prirazlomnaya oil platform (2013) At: http://www.gazprom.com/f/posts/63/407714/avd49654_1.jpg (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 9. A mini-submarine places a Russian flag on the seabed of the Arctic Ocean to claim that part of territory (2011) At: http://www.sott.net/article/233657-Russias-Arctic-Sea-Grab (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 10. Oil Endpires: Detoxicity (2012) At:!http://www.petropia.org/projects/project-oilendpires/detoxi-city/ (Accessed 30 August 2014)

Fig. 11. Floating Frontiers: Archipelago City (2012) At:! http://www.petropia.org/projects/project-floating-frontiers/archipelago-city/ (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 12. Floating Frontiers: FrequenCity (2012) At:!http://www.petropia.org/projects/projectfloating-frontiers/frequencity/ (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 13. Oil Endpires: Educational Estuary (2012) At:! http://www.petropia.org/projects/project-oil-endpires/educational-estuary/ (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 14. Gazprom tower in Lakhta Center (2014) At:!http://rt.com/business/gazprompetersburg-office-2015-545/ (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 15. The village of Kivalina (2013) At:!http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23346370 (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 16. The village of Newtok (2007) At:! http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/us/27newtok.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (Accessed 30 August 2014) Fig. 17. The village of Niaqornat (2013) At:!http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/village-at-theend-of-the-world-sarah-gavron-interview (Accessed 30 August 2014) !

INTRODUCTION

! Fig. 1. The Arctic Region (2004)

Even if in the collective imaginary, the Arctic1 is uninhabited or inhabited only by nomad indigenous populations2, this region is actually undergoing a fast process of urbanization (Dybbroe, Dahl, Müller-Wille, 2010). Pita Aatami has defined this change as “from igloos to the internet” to emphasize the speed at which this radical change is happening (Aatami, 2010).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Being the Arctic a geographical region, its boundaries are not universally defined. The most known boundary of the Arctic is a circle wrapping around the earth at the latitude of 66.5622°. Climatologists define the boundary according to the median seasonal temperature. This paper consider the Arctic region as what scientists would consider as the Circumpolar North, which includes the territories of Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, northern Fennoscandia and Northern Russia. 2

Indigenous populations are defined as: “people who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present State boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions” (International Labour Organization, 1989, No.169, Art.1) ! !

Different scholars have defined the processes of urbanization in different ways, giving also different definitions to the urban term. This paper will use the work of Lefebvre and Soja as theoretical entry points for the analysis of urbanization in the Arctic region. The work of Brenner and Merrifield around global urbanization, will critically inform the understanding of this global issue in relation to Lefebvre-Soja’s theoretical framework. Looking at one example of settlement that recently has experienced changes in relation to urbanization processes, four forces driving urbanization in the Arctic will be outlined: climate change, resource demand, demography and globalization. These forces will be then analyzed in their effects on urban processes in the whole region. Particular attention will be given to the impacts of these forces on people’s lives. Some visual physical examples of urbanization in the Arctic will help the understanding of the current and projected future situation of the region. After this overview of urbanization in the Arctic, this paper will provide alternative responses to urbanization drawing on successful examples from three communities. These communities are among the most vulnerable inhabitants of the Arctic and for this reason they represent an alternative path to the major urbanization trends of the region. A set of strategies for this type of communities will conclude this paper. Lefebvre’s right to the city and its conceptual evolution to the current global urbanization debate will be a very important reference for the elaboration of the strategies. This dissertation aims to respond to what Brenner (2013) pointed out about global urbanization studies: “Considerably less attention has been devoted to the ways in which the process of agglomeration has been premised on, and in turn contributes to, wide-ranging transformations of sociospatial organization and ecological/environmental conditions across the rest of the world.” Neil Brenner, 2013, p.103

CHAPTER ONE: GLOBAL URBANIZATION “The urbanization process has become a global condition rather than simply a ‘way of life’ that is confined to certain types of settlement space as opposed to others” Brenner, Schmid, 2014, p.747 Different scholars have defined urbanization as a process happening at a global scale. In 1970 Henri Lefebvre published La Révolution urbaine already envisioning a planetary urbanization (Lefebvre, 2003). More recently the geographer Edward Soja stated: “it can be argued that every square inch of the world is urbanized to some degree” (Soja, 2011, p.687). This statement confirms what Lefebvre anticipated in 1970 about the urban phenomenon as extended to the planetary scale. Nevertheless the study of global urbanization and therefore of urbanization processes in the most extreme territories of the planet is still undeveloped and chaotic (Brenner, Schmid, 2014). Following these scholars, this paper analyzes the Arctic region as one of those extreme territories where urbanization can be seen as a recent phenomenon. These extreme and remote regions are particularly adequate for the study of global urbanization because they represent territories where the urban phenomenon is recently expanding, thus providing a good field to study the effects of global urbanization. But in order to analyze urbanization, it is necessary to define what urban means. Having recognized that the urban phenomenon is happening in every part of the planet, the following description will start considering the urban at the global scale. 1.1 The global urban phenomenon “Sometimes it takes just one human being to tip the scales and change the course of history. In the year 2007, that human being will either move to a city or be born in one. Demographers watching urban trends will mark it as the moment in which the world entered a new millennium, a period in which, for the first time in history, the majority of the world’s people will live in cities” UN-Habitat, 2007, p.IV !

In 2008, for the first time in the history, more than half of worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population was living in urban areas (Brenner, Schmid, 2014). This shift caused a lot of attention among the different disciplines related to urban studies. Even if this data marks a unique milestone in the history of mankind, it still remains a mere numerical indication that lacks the complexity of the global urban phenomenon. Following the work of Anthony Leeds and Ulf Hannerz, the anthropologist Susanne Dybbroe warns scholars about the danger of conceiving the urban processes as simply statistical (Dybbroe, 2008). To describe the effects of the increasing urban population it is necessary to consider a wide range of disciplines that goes from statistics to anthropology. Also Lefebvre recognizes the necessity of a multidisciplinary understanding of global urbanization (Lefebvre, 2003). Therefore, defining urban becomes fundamental every time that this phenomenon is analyzed. In the previously mention quotation from UN-Habitat, the urban is numerically defined at the global scale. This means that the urban is conceived as a specific delimited area, which has boundaries that allow the distinction between who lives in it and who does not. As Brenner and Schmid argue, the history of theory on urbanization is â&#x20AC;&#x153;empirically untenable (a statistical artifact) and theoretically incoherent (a chaotic conception)â&#x20AC;? (Brenner, Schmid, 2014, p.734). The understanding of the urban phenomenon as confined in urban centers (cities) is a simplification of the issue, limited both empirically and theoretically (Brenner, 2013). Also in the book The Planet of Slums (Davis, 2006), one of the most brutal in terms of presenting the consequences of global urbanization, the author adopts an understanding of the urban phenomenon as majorly confined in cities. Cities are definitely part of the urban processes but they are just one element of the complex dynamics generated by global urbanization. Therefore, it becomes crucial to elaborate a new conceptualization of urbanization processes both within and beyond the cities (Brenner, Schmid, 2014). 1.2 Does urbanization still have boundaries? Maintaining the same chronological order in the production of knowledge on global urbanization, in the 1970s Lefebvre opens the debate on the extension of the urban processes. According to Lefebvre urbanization is unfolded in two dimensions: concentration and extension (Brenner, 2013). The concentration of urbanization can be recognized in the growing cities phenomenon. The extension goes to a wider range of areas, which are those excluded in the understanding of urban processes as confined in cities. For example these areas are: !

“small and medium size towns and villages in peripheralized regions and agroindustrial zones, intercontinental transportation corridors, transoceanic shipping lanes, large-scale energy circuits and communications infrastructures, underground landscapes of resource extraction, satellite orbits, and even the biosphere itself.” Neil Brenner, 2013, p.103 This wide range of territories will be taken into analysis for the further description of urbanization processes in the Arctic. Consequently it can be argue that “the city is everywhere and in everything” (Amin, Thrift, 2002, p.1) with different physical and social manifestations of it. In fact, nowadays the interaction of everyday life is increasingly characterized by “space of flows and networks rather than a persisting presence of people in particular, bound places” (Gottdiener, 2010, p.98). Going back to the two dimensions of urbanization theorized by Lefebvre, Brenner highlights the importance of using the dialectic of implosion (concentration) and explosion (extension) as an “essential analytical, empirical, and political horizon for any critical theory of urbanization in the early twenty-first century” (Brenner, 2013, p.104). Being everywhere, urbanization can also be found in the everyday life. The communication network that characterizes the twenty-first century brings the influence of the city not only in every place of the planet but also in the everyday life of the people (Amin, Thrift, 2002). Amin and Thrift (2002) defines this process as “urbanization of lifestyles” (ibid., p.1). Hence, not only the boundaries of the city are expanded in other territories but the urban affects also the everyday life of individuals through spaces of flows and networks that are not bounded in a physical space. Thinking of Internet, the twenty-first century is highly characterized by this interaction in unbounded spaces, also called virtual, or spaces of flows. The spatial manifestations of these spaces can be found in what Foucault defines as heterotopias. “Heterotopias are defined as sites which are embedded in aspects and stages of our lives and which somehow mirror and at the same time distort, unsettle or invert other spaces” (Johnson, 2013, pp.790-791).

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In relation to the global urbanization, heterotopias are spaces that are created by the extension of the urban in the lifestyle of the global society. Examples of these spaces in the Arctic will be described further on. Also in Lefebvre’s triad of space it is possible to find a link to these extended dimensions of the urban fabric: conceived, perceived and lived (Lefebvre, 1991). “Perceived space refers to the relatively objective, concrete space people encounter in their daily environment. Conceived space refers to mental constructions of space, creative ideas about and representations of space. Lived space is the complex combination of perceived and conceived space. It represents a person’s actual experience of space in everyday life. Lived space is not just a passive stage on which social life unfolds, but represents a constituent element of social life.” Purcell, 2002, p.102 Following these concepts, “the urban as centrality is thus not easily identifiable. Not reducible to physical markers, it must ‘live’ through social practice” (Kipfer, Saberi, Wieditz, 2012, p. 119). Following Lefebvre, the urban is the “intermediate level of totality (M), which mediates the general, macro level (G) of the ‘far order’ (the state, capital, empire) and ‘the near order’, the contradictory level of everyday life (P).” (Kipfer, Saberi, Wieditz, 2012, p.124). As suggested by the previously mentioned scholars, in this definition of three levels of the urban, Lefebvre highlights the importance of a multi-scalar approach for the understanding of global urban processes. Investigating urban processes at all spatial scales becomes therefore fundamental (Brenner, Schmid, 2014) and for this reason the analysis of the Arctic will go through the understanding of global forcers (G) in the region (M) and then also in the everyday life (P) of the inhabitants. 1.3 The right to what city? As explained before, global urbanization has extended outside the fixed boundaries of cities reaching territories that are not usually conceived as urbanized. Taking this concept of !

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extended urbanization and Lefebvre’s literature on the right to the city, the question: “right to what city?” (Merrifield, 2008, p.8) arises. What is the new subject of the theory around the right to the city? It becomes therefore fundamental to rethink the Lefebvrian concept in relation to the understanding of extended urban fabric or extended city as explained before. Concerning the right to the city, David Harvey describes: “The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization.” Harvey, 2008, p.23 Merrifield questions the right to the city stating: “if urbanization is planetary, if the urban – and urban society – is everywhere, does this mean the right to the metropolitan region, the whole urban agglomeration?” (Merrifield, 2012, p.8). Following the definition of extended urban provided before and Harvey’s quotation, which defines the right to the city as “collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization” (Harvey, 2008, p.23), the answer to Merrifield’s question could be yes. Hence, with the current global urbanization process, the right to the city goes beyond the city itself, involving urban societies who claim their right on an extended global territory. Furthermore, the right to the city is about “asserting revolutionary perspectives on urban society that emerge out of struggle in social spaces where the ‘city’ may never have existed” (Kipfer, Saberi, Wieditz, 2012, p. 120). In a way, the right to the city becomes the right to the urban that, as described before, has no physical boundaries but live through social practice (ibid.). Therefore, urban society is not only formed by the inhabitants of the city, but it is extended to “peasants, small landholders, farmworkers, indigenous populations, and their advocates, across the variegated landscapes of extended urbanization” (Brenner, 2013, p.108). Later on (in this paper) this definition of extended urban society will be fundamental for the development of strategies for the Arctic region.

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CHAPTER TWO: THE URBANIZING ARCTIC “Urbanization processes produce a wide range of sociospatial conditions across the world that require contextually specific analysis and theorization.” Brenner, Schmid, 2014, p.751 According the Brenner and Schmid (2014) there is a need of grounding urbanization in the analysis of specific contexts and theories. For this reason this second chapter will ground the theoretical framework, outlined in the first chapter, in the Arctic territories. This process of grounding implies the necessity of a multi-scalar approach for the study of urban processes as pointed out in the first chapter. This multi-scalar necessity goes in parallel to the need of understanding urbanization as an extended process (see chapter one). 2.1 History of urbanization in the Arctic According to the definitions of extended urban provided in the previous chapter, it can be argued that the process of urbanization in the Arctic started when the urban encountered the Arctic for the first time. This happened with colonialism. Indigenous people of the Arctic were originally nomads. In the past century and a half, colonization processes disrupted this traditional way of living forcing people to live in settlements (Arctic Council, 2013). These forced relocations of people were often driven by state programs to improve welfare, education, living standards and the labour market (Sejersen, 2010). On the other hand, colonization processes also brought forms of dependency to the state for the provision of subsidies. This is due to the loss of traditional livelihoods caused by the imposed stationary way of living. Therefore, external actors, such as colonizing states, have always had a major role in shaping the urban history of the Arctic. This historical moment started the processes of urbanization of the Arctic conceived as concentration of people in settlements. This processes is still going nowadays with policies that continue to “encourage the population to settle down in towns and cities, where the workplaces and educational institutions are concentrated” (Nordregio, 2013, p.75). From the first step of forced abandonment of the nomad way of living, the Arctic population is now increasingly abandoning smaller villages to move in bigger settlements.

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2.2 Breaking the rural/urban binarism The Arctic Human Development Report states that the two third of the Arctic population is concentrated in urban areas (Arctic Human Development Report, 2004). Although this data represents an important element to understanding urbanization in the Arctic, there is a need to go beyond the understanding of urbanization as process confined in urban areas (see first chapter). As suggested by Brenner and Schmid (2014), in the twenty-first century capitalism, the understanding of urban processes based on the binarism urban/rural is obfuscatory (Brenner, Schmid, 2014). In order to understand urbanization in its global scale, it is necessary to dismiss this binarism. Therefore, in relation to global urbanization, the distinction between urban and rural does not exist anymore. For this reason, it becomes fundamental to break the common division of global settlements in being either urban or rural (ibid.) when looking at urbanization in the Artic. “The traditional divide between the city and the countryside has been perforated” (Amin, Thrift, 2002, p.1). To give a practical example of the inefficiency of the rural/urban binarism in the Arctic, it is helpful to look at a territory that is usually not considered urbanized: the ocean. In the binarism rural/urban the ocean does not fall in any of the two categories. Nevertheless, some offshore oil platforms have more inhabitants than some villages (urban centers) in the Arctic. This proves that this binarism is totality inapplicable in the Arctic region or in any territory affected by global urbanization processes. The offshore oil platform provides also an example of what described in the first chapter as heterotopia. The oil platform is a space that is located in a territory (ocean) but that reflects conditions dictated by another one (global market). This aspect weakens even more the conceptualization of urban processes as bounded in cities whereas strengthens the vision of urbanization as extended process. 2.3 Forces driving urbanization in the Arctic It is now necessary to ground the theoretical framework previously elaborated to the reality of urbanization in a specific territory: the Arctic. The urbanization processes are driven by a variety of forces. In relation to this the geographer Manuel Castells states: “the forces behind this process of accelerated urbanization appear to be irreversible” (Castells, 2002, p.IX). This paper embraces this vision and for this reason it !

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does not aim to stop the global urbanization in the Arctic but rather to understand it for a sustainable future development of the region, with particular attention to the most vulnerable communities. The definition of the global forces can vary according to the focus or to the discipline that analyzes global processes in a certain territory. In this paper, the elements that will shape the definition of the driving forces are all to be found in the Arctic territory. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The urban is a concrete abstraction, associated with practice.â&#x20AC;? Lefebvre, 2003, pp.118-119 As Lefebvre suggests, the urban is associated with practice and for this reason to facilitate the research of the forces driving urbanization in the Arctic a further step of scaling down will be done. The city of Iqaluit and its history provide an emblematic example of the different urban processes happening in the region. Iqaluit was founded in 1942 as military airbase for the Second World War. In the last decade the population has doubled due to the new opportunities that the city has to offer. Because of the climate change and related global warming, the sea ice-free3 period is increasingly becoming longer. This allows a higher traffic of new international transportation routes through the Arctic (Smith, 2011). The city of Iqaluit is benefiting from these new routes and it has been designed port of entry to Canada for international air and marine transportations (Government of Canada, 2014). The city also serves as gateway and supply center for diamond and gold mines in Nunavut (ibid.). These new income resources brought new job opportunities that attracted people from other areas with a consequent demographic growth of the city. Despite the recent local developments, the city is still dependent on a global market for most of the supplies, which are currently imported from the southern regions.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! refers to the warmer period of year during which the sea ice melt for a percentage of its total surface. Scientists have recorded a rapid increase of this percentage in the past years due to global warming. The accelerated phenomenon is due to the fact that ice reflects 80 percent of the sunlight whereas ocean water absorbs 90 percent of it. For this reason, the smaller the ice surface is, the faster the melting happens.!

3!This

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The city of Iqaluit is one example of those settlements that are rapidly transforming in the Arctic due to different global processes. From the recent history of Iqaluit, four forces appear to be the drivers of change: climate change, quest for resources, demography and globalization. Also at the global scale the geographer Laurence C. Smith describes these forces as the drivers of change (Smith, 2011). Having recognized these four forces, it is necessary now to scale up back and describe these forces in their effects on the entire Arctic region. This scaling up links back to the necessity of a multi-scalar approach for the investigation of global urbanization processes (Lefebvre, 2003). As shown so far in this paper, this multi-scalar approach is not unidirectional (from the global to the local scale) but it adopts a scale according to the one that is more relevant for the understanding of the investigated issue. Climate Change Drawing on the case of Iqaluit, climate change can be conceived as the first force that is driving urban transformation in the Arctic. The global warming works as a catalyst for change in the region. The aim of this paper is not looking at climate change as something positive or negative but rather as a force that is changing this region significantly. The rising temperatures are affecting the ice environment of the Arctic enhancing other processes as described in the Iqaluit case. There are three main areas that are characterized by the presence of ice: sea, ice cap and permafrost. Higher atmosphere temperatures are melting the ice in all these three areas with consequent effects. From an environmental prospective, the melting of the sea ice and the ice cap are seriously affecting the flora and fauna ecosystem of the Arctic (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, 2004). This change has mainly negative impacts on the environment, threatening the existence of some species like the well-known case of the polar bear. The environmental change affects also the livelihoods of the indigenous communities living in the region (Nuttall, 1998). Hunting and fishing are the most common livelihoods among the indigenous communities in the Arctic. Being these practices strictly related to the migratory patterns of the animals, any variation of these patterns due to environmental change represents a threat for these livelihoods. The melting of the ice surface has also other important effects, which are strictly connected with urbanization in the region. First, the areas that are uncovered from ice become available !

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for the exploitation of resources, before inaccessible or too expensive to extract (Smith, 2011). Second, as in the case of Iqaluit, a longer sea ice-free season allows a higher commercial traffic of ships in the Arctic sea. As mentioned above, all these changes are catalysts for further urbanization processes as those related to resource demand. Climate change is also affecting another environmental phenomenon called sea level rise. This phenomenon has majorly negative impacts for the most vulnerable indigenous populations of the Arctic. Since fishing is one of the most common traditional activities in the Arctic, most villages are located on coastal areas. These settlements are facing possible relocations due to severe coastal erosion with predicted future drowning of entire villages. This phenomenon represents a serious threat for the inhabitants that most of the times do not have the financial capacity to face this issue. On the other hand, global warming made also some new economical activities possible in the south of Greenland where, due to higher temperatures, some inhabitants started new agricultural activities (Smith, 2011). This represented for these people a new source of income that replaces the loss of traditional livelihoods affected by global warming (such as hunting). Lastly, it is important to remember that climate change is mainly due to human activities and related greenhouse gas emissions (Dicken, 2011), which poses an important question in terms of global responsibilities around climate change. As professor Lahoud states: â&#x20AC;&#x153;those least responsible for carbon emission will be most susceptible to drought and rising sea levelsâ&#x20AC;? (Forensic Architecture (project), 2014, p.508). This aspect will be developed further in the last chapter. Resource demand As described in the case of Iqaluit, the climate change has brought major changes in relation to resources. The concept of resources is here conceived as the wide range of assets that goes from human resources to natural resources. Many settlements in the Arctic are growing because of the increase of transportations in the Arctic (see Iqaluit). The Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage are the two main !

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commercial routes of the Arctic Ocean. They represent the shorter way to reach Asia compared to the southern route of the Suez Canal. In the last years, the maritime traffic in the Arctic increased due to the climate phenomenon described above (Smith, 2011). A higher maritime traffic means new economic opportunities for settlements designated as transportation hubs. The geographer Laurence C. Smith in his book: The New North. The world in 2050, provides a list of ten “ports of the future” (Smith, 2011, p.162) indicating the settlements that will develop due to the increased marine traffic in the Arctic.

Ten "Ports of the Future" Poised to Benefit from Increased Traffic in the Arctic Port

Country

Archangel'sk

Russia

Churchill

Canada

3 56,051 923

Dudinka

Russia

Hammerfest

Norway

9,26! 3,300

Kirkenes

Norway

Murmansk

Russia

Nuuk

Greenland

Prudhoe Bay

USA

Reykjavik

Iceland

Troms0

Norway

Likely sector(s)

Current Pop.

25,132

336,137 17,834 5' 120,165 53,622

timber, trade, metals, energy agricultural exports, trade metals, Northern Sea Route traffic energy metals, tourism, NSR traffic metals, energy, trade, military tourism, energy services energy fisheries, trade energy, fisheries

'(+several thousand temporary workers)

Fig. 2. Ten “Ports of the Future” Poised to Benefit from Increased Traffic in the Arctic (2011)

As can be seen in the table, the increase of transportation routes in the Arctic means also more possibilities for tourism in the region. The request for the natural resources of the Arctic is another driver of urbanization in this territory. In relation to oil, during the oil crisis in the 1970s and 80s, explorations for oil in Alaska started to increase. When oil was found in Prudhoe Bay, the process of urbanization boomed. The massive infrastructure project of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) was built to transport oil from the North to the South of Alaska for a distance of around 1300 Km. As Brenner (2013) wrote, this infrastructure is part of an “extended, worldwide urban fabric” (p.104).

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The settlement located along this infrastructure benefited from it because of the job opportunities that were created. In addition to this the oil production accounts for the 25% of the Alaskaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GDP (Fard, Jafari, 2013). Other resources are present in the Arctic like gas and precious metals (Smith, 2011). All these resources catalyse urbanization processes. Nevertheless, there are environmental risks related with both resources. Higher traffic brings higher levels of pollution with consequent damages on the Arctic ecosystem (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, 2004). Concerning the extraction of oil, accidents such as oil spill might occur, bringing enormous damages to the Arctic environment (ibid.). Many scholars have envisioned the Arctic as a fundamental area of development in the future due to the resources present in the region (Smith, 2011). For this reason, Arctic countries are rushing to claim the rights on the international territories4 of the Arctic. Following the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in 2007 Russia claimed a large ocean territory based on the discovery that the Lomonosov Ridge (underwater ridge) is an extension of the Russian territory (Harding, 2007).

Fig. 3. Map showing the Artic claims (2010)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4 Territories administrated by the International Seabed Authority (intergovernmental agency) because they do not belong to any specific country. ! !

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The increase of economical resources goes in parallel with the increased request of another kind of resource: human resources. In other words, there is a need of people to deal with the new economical resources in the Arctic. This phenomenon is translated in movements of people who seek job opportunities in the booming settlements. Demography Following what described for the quest of resources and related movements of people, demography becomes the third force driving urbanization in the Arctic. There are different human migration flows affecting this region. Starting from what described about climate change, the threat of the livelihoods in the indigenous communities represents one of the reasons for demographic changes in the Arctic settlements. Due to the global warming the practice of hunting and fishing is becoming less economically sustainable. This means that hunters and fishermen need to find a different employment. The above-mentioned booming settlements offer good job opportunities attracting many people from smaller villages. In addition, there are also people migrating from southern regions to the Arctic because of job opportunities, creating in some cases additional problem of social integration (Nuttall, 1998). Again, this last phenomenon mostly takes place in the booming settlements. This phenomenon of migration to few settlements has positive and negative aspects. Looking at the small villages, this migration is causing a loss of traditions ranging from hunting skills to indigenous languages. Looking at the growing settlements, better services can be provided such as schools, hospitals and so on, which are usually poor in the smaller villages or even absent. Globalization Globalization is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versaâ&#x20AC;? Giddens, 1990, p.64

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Globalization is the last presented force since it links the previous three together: climate change, resource demand and demography. First of all, climate change is the force that is catalyzing urban changes in the Arctic and it is global by definition. Global warming is a phenomenon that is largely caused by human activities and related emissions of greenhouse gases (Dicken, 2011) at the global scale. Secondly, the consequent exploitation of resources in the Arctic is a business that attracts global interests especially when it comes to oil and gas resources. The global population currently highly depends on these resources so there is a high potential for new developments in the Arctic in relation to this global demand. Furthermore, global interests on the Arctic are not recent phenomena but they started during the colonization that was in fact driven by interests in resources and land for military purposes. Lastly, in relation to demography, globalization plays an important role in moving people from a place to another. For example global economy affects the sustainability of traditional activities (i.e. fishing) in some villages, causing the migration of people to settlements where to find new job opportunities. In addition, the young generation is changing according to the developments happening in the region. Schools are qualitatively better in the growing settlements and leisure opportunities as well. With Internet provided also in the remotest villages of the Arctic, the knowledge about better opportunities in cities spreads very fast. Also food taste is changing, making the practice of hunting even more unsustainable (Arctic Human Development Report, 2004). Food is imported basically everywhere in the Arctic. The more remote the village is located, the more expensive the provision of food is. It is interesting to note that diseases like diabetes and obesity, common in the southern regions, are increasing in the region due to the imported products (JĂ¸rgensen, 2010). In the documentary Village at the End of the World, the director Sarah Gavron shows the life of a teenager in a settlement with less than 60 inhabitants in Greenland. The documentary clearly shows the phenomena described above (G) in the everyday life (P) of the village. Notable, for the visual power in providing a physical proof of globalization, is a scene filmed in Larsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; room, the teenager main character of the movie. The walls of his room are full of posters that are linked to a life that is not lived in his native village but it is rather associable to a city life. This brings back to the definition of urbanization of the lifestyles (Amin, Thrift, !

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2002). In addition, Lars’ room provides another example of Foucault’s heterotopia representing a space that is mirroring a distant space (Johnson, 2013). Even if Lars loves his native village he will move to a bigger settlement in Greenland where he will be able to continue his studies, since the only possible future for him in the village would be either becoming a fisherman or a hunter. Lars embodies what explained before about urbanization processes in the Arctic and the effects on the everyday life of its inhabitants. His life dynamics are emblematic examples of the “intensification of worldwide social relations” (Giddens, 1990, p.64) defined by Giddens at the beginning of this paragraph. Lars’ life is affected by distant spaces that generate global dynamics. In fact, “most struggles around globalization are inevitably ‘local’ in some sense or other” (Massey, 2005, p.181). This aspect links back to what discussed in the first chapter about the importance of a multi-scalar approach for the study of urbanization processes. Linking back to the history of colonization in the Arctic, it can be assumed that colonization was the early catalyst of globalization in the region as it represents the first contact between two distant spaces: the Arctic and the colonizing states.

! Fig. 4. Diagram showing the extensions of the urban (2014) (produced by author)

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2.4 Manifestation of urban phenomena

Fig. 5. Petroleum production in the Arctic and associated networks of connectivity (2013)

The map above represents the current situation of the Arctic in relation to the urbanization processes described before. In particular this map highlights the areas of oil and gas production with also the projected future areas of expansion of these activities. The transportation networks are also represented along with pipelines, ports and fisheries. Finally the map also shows the claimed and disputed areas of the Arctic. As the map does, the following images will also provide visual tools for the understanding of urbanization processes in the Arctic.

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Fig. 6. Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (2014)

Fig. 7. Murmansk (Russia) port (2011)

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Fig. 8. Gazprom Prirazlomnaya oil platform (2013)

Fig. 9. A mini-submarine places a Russian flag on the seabed of the Arctic Ocean to claim that part of territory (2011)

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2.5 Future visions of the urbanizing Arctic As mentioned before, the Arctic is rapidly changing and many scholars have developed visions for the future of this region. The following visions are elaborated on the perpetuation of the urbanizing processes that have been described above. All the following visions are inspired by the current trends in the Arctic, projecting them in future urban forms. These projects have a utopian character, which according to Lefebvre, is a necessary element in the production of urban theory (Pinder, 2013).

Fig. 10. Oil Endpires: Detoxicity (2012)

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Fig. 11. Floating Frontiers: Archipelago City (2012)

Fig. 12. Floating Frontiers: FrequenCity (2012)

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Fig. 13. Oil Endpires: Educational Estuary (2012)

These visions of the future Arctic remind, both in historical and visual term, the urbanization processes of the Middle East. The Gazprom, gas company with economic interests in the Arctic, already started in 2012 the construction of the Lakhta Center, which includes the tallest tower in Russia and Europe. The tower construction was assigned to Arabtec, which is the same company that was in charge of the construction the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tallest building in Dubai.

Fig. 14. Gazprom tower in Lakhta Center (2014)

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CHAPTER THREE: DIFFERENT RESPONSES TO URBANIZATION The projects described above are part of a specific future vision of the development of the Arctic. Obviously, as mentioned before, the urban processes of the Arctic are also representing threats for certain communities. The following paragraph will describe how the global forces, outlined in the second chapter, are affecting peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives. 3.1 Vulnerable communities and related challenges Following what has been described earlier, climate change represents a threat for several communities that are located in coastal areas or along waterways. The most serious threat in relation to this force is the displacement of these communities due phenomena related with the ice melting (coastal erosion, flooding and so on). Displacement means either relocation to a new site or moving the inhabitants of the village to one of the existing settlements. The costs of relocation to a new site are financially unsustainable for the affected communities. Relocating a village to a new site can cost up to 256 million pounds (GBP) according to US government estimation of one of the affected settlements (Sackur, 2013). As previously described, Climate change is also threatening the livelihoods of the Arctic communities. For example the hunting of the polar bear, which is a traditional livelihood of the Arctic communities, has been affected by the shrinkage of the sea ice due to global warming. The polar bear needs the ice surface to access the sea where to find its source of food: seals, whales and other aquatic mammals. With less ice surface available, polar bears not only became less in number but also became present in fewer territories than before. This causes the lack of this fundamental livelihood for certain communities of the region. Livelihoods are also threatened by what has been described before as quest for resources. The global market is reaching the Arctic region involving different economic sectors. As described in the second chapter, oil, gas and precious metals are attracting investors for the extraction of these resources. Even if the exploitation of these resources did not have relevant negative impacts on the Arctic communities, there is a danger of increasing the pollution in the area due to the expanding transports or due to possible environmental disasters such as oil spill. It has been already pointed out before the importance that the environment has in

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relation to the livelihoods of indigenous communities. For this reason, any environmental change can have severe impacts on the lives of indigenous people. Also the fishing activity is threatened by the competition with the increasing number of industrial fisheries in the region. Many villages based their economy on fishing, making this activity another threatened traditional livelihood of the Arctic communities. In addition to these challenges the demography trend of the smaller villages of the Arctic is decreasing. As previously mentioned, there is a series of elements that make people leave the villages to move in bigger settlements. Job opportunities, education facilities, infrastructures, leisure opportunities are some among all the elements that are displacing people in the Arctic. This depopulation of the smaller villages represents a threat for their future existence. To sum up, three main challenges can be recognized among the most vulnerable communities of the Arctic region: displacement, threatened livelihoods and depopulation. These challenges are deducted by the analysis of the four global forcesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; effects on the Arctic region. Since the global forces are effects of global urbanization processes (as explained in the first and second chapter), it can be assumed that the outlined challenges represent the threats cause by global urbanization on the most vulnerable populations of the Arctic region. The following case studies represent three examples of indigenous villages that reacted to these challenges adopting specific approaches. As mentioned in the beginning of the paper, the focus on these communities is due to their higher vulnerability compared to the one of the developing settlements. In addition these populations fall under what has been defined as extended urban society in the first chapter so they are part of the urbanization processes happening in the Arctic. These concrete examples, combined with the theoretical framework provided in the first chapter, will inform the strategies. This approach of informing the practice (strategies) with theory (abstraction) and example (concrete) follows the concrete and abstract elements that, according to Lefebvre (Lefebvre, 2003), form the urban phenomenon. Furthermore, the following case studies present a concrete example of what has been described before in relation to the reconceptualization of the concept of right to the city in its extended territories (see paragraph 1.3).

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3.2 Three case studies Case study 1: Kivalina (Alaska)

Fig. 15. The village of Kivalina (2013)

Kivalina is a village in the Northwest Arctic Borough in Alaska (United States). According to the 2010 census, 374 people live in the settlement mainly from the IĂąupiaq people5. The village is a barrier island which future is to drown into the ocean as the United States Army Corps of Engineers reported in 2006 (Forensic Architecture (project), 2014). Engineers estimated that this would happen by the year 2025 (Sackur, 2013). This phenomenon is happening because of climate change and consequent rise of the sea level. The melting of the sea ice is caused by the increase of temperature and it is the cause of both increased coastal erosion and rise of the sea level. In the past the sea ice was protecting the coast from the sea waves and therefore from the coastal erosion effect. Without sea ice, the natural coastal barrier has been removed. This combined with the sea rise level represent the causes of new stronger sea storms that are threatening the village (Bond, 2013). Based on the reports done by the Army Corps of Engineers (Forensic Architecture (project), 2014), the inhabitants of Kivalina decided to file a lawsuit against twenty-three of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5 Native indigenous people of North and Northwest Alaska. !

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largest oil and gas companies. The charge was of contribution to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases, therefore causing the displacement of the village. The United State district court dismissed the lawsuit because it presented “a nonjusticiable political question and because Kivalina lacks standing to bring such an action under these facts” (Washington Legal Foundation, 2012). This case and the action taken by the community raised a very urgent question “concerning legal accountability in a world where climate change is exacerbating existing inequities and contributing to an increasing number of displaced peoples and cultures” (Forensic Architecture (project), 2014, p.701). Case study 2: Newtok (Alaska)

Fig. 16. The village of Newtok (2007)

Newtok is a village located in Western Alaska on the Ninglick River. According to the 2010 census, 354 people live in the village. The population is mainly formed by Yupik people6. The village is experiencing the effects of climate change and in particular the melting of the permafrost due to the global warming. Being the village located near a river, the melting of the permafrost is increasing the erosion of the land from the river water (this phenomenon is called thermal erosion). The United States Army Corps of Engineers estimated that the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Native indigenous people of West, Southwest, South-central Alaska and the Russian Far East. ! 6

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village might be swamped in ten years time (Maldonado, Shearer, Bronen, Peterson, Lazrus, 2013). The village already experienced some losses due to the phenomenon descripted above. For example in 2005 the barge dock was swamped causing problems for the provision of goods that now must be shipped by air with consequent higher costs (Goldenberg, 2013). Since the situation needed to be addressed as soon as possible, the inhabitants of Newtok decided to get organized to relocate the village. As in the case of Kivalina the costs for moving an entire village to a new settlement are very high, and also in this case the community has no financial capacity to afford these expenses. Nevertheless the community’s idea was not to wait for an agency to help them but rather to start acting being themselves agents of their own development. This was the only immediate option for them to save their community. They adopted what they defined as pioneering approach. In the words of a community member: “The erosion isn’t waiting for any one agency, we need to start pioneering” Community of Newtok, Newtok Planning Group, 2013, p. 4 Therefore, they started to discuss about the relocation with all the community members and with external actors. With the contribution of the Alaska Department of Commerce and the United States Army Corps of Engineers the community was able to get some funds to start the process of relocation. The major source of funds was the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) from the United States Government. The CIAP: “provides federal grant funds derived from federal offshore lease revenues to oil producing states for conservation, protection, or restoration of coastal areas including wetlands; mitigation of damage to fish, wildlife, or natural resources; planning assistance and the administrative costs of complying with these objectives; implementation of a federallyapproved marine, coastal, or comprehensive conservation management plan; and mitigation of the impact of outer Continental Shelf activities through funding of onshore infrastructure projects and public service needs.” U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2014

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With these funds, the community chose a plot of land and started building on it the essential facilities. The process of construction in the relocation site is still ongoing, making the future of the village still uncertain. Nevertheless, the community now has a plan to follow and with it more probabilities to continue to live as a community. The community now wants to form a tribal non-profit organization in order to be able to get funds from a wider range of actors. The strength of this process can be found in the way the community has been organized. Some of the most important points highlighted in the Relocation Report are: definition of communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s priorities, local leadership, participatory design and planning of the relocation site, building community skills (Community of Newtok, Newtok Planning Group, 2013). This case shows how a strong community organization can be crucial for the future existence of a settlement and its sustainability. Case study 3: Niaqornat

Fig. 17. The village of Niaqornat (2013)

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Niaqornat is a small village located on the northwestern coast of Greenland. Only 58 people, belonging to the Inuit population7, live in the settlement. The inhabitants are mainly hunters or fishermen and the financial sustainability of the village highly depends on these practices. Also in this case, climate change is affecting the livelihoods of the inhabitants. Because of global warming the ice surface available for hunting (see paragraph 3.1) is smaller making this activity economically less profitable and therefore less sustainable for the future. In addition to this problem, in 2011 the Royal Greenland fish factory, located in the village, closed. The fishing factory was the other major source of economic income for the village and that is why its closure posed a very serious threat for the future existence of Niaqornat. To face this problem of income generation the inhabitants economically invested in two actions. First, they started saving money collectively in order to buy the factory from the Royal Greenland and run it collectively. Obviously this was not an easy task because the financial surplus of the inhabitants was not high. Despite this, the inhabitants of Niaqornat were able to buy and reopen the factory as a cooperative, giving new hope to the future of the village. Second, the inhabitants of Niaqornat are investing in tourism. Niaqornat is one of the stops for the touristic cruisers travelling in the Arctic. When tourists arrive the inhabitants are ready to welcome them offering a view on the traditional way of living in the Arctic and also selling some local products to sustain the life of the village. This case shows again how a strong community organization and collective action are important values to deal with collective threats. In particular, this case highlights the importance of maintaining economic activities for the financial sustainability of a settlement. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Part of me wonders, if we were to go back in 10 years, would the village still be there? Or will the effects of climate change and globalization have taken their toll?â&#x20AC;? Sarah Gavron, Village at the End of the World, 2013 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 7 Group of culturally similar Arctic indigenous groups inhabiting territories in Greenland, United States, Canada. !

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CHAPTER FOUR: STRATEGIES The following strategies are developed from what has been discussed in relation to the global urbanization process (theoretical framework) and on how this process is happening in the Arctic (analytical framework) (see first and second chapter). In particular the concept of extended urbanization and related reconceptualization of the right to the city are fundamental frameworks for the approach adopted in the following strategies. Therefore the strategies attempt to give an approach to the urbanization processes happening in the Arctic and the related challenges that the communities are facing: displacement, threatened livelihoods and depopulation (see paragraph 3.1). According to the definition of extended right to the city and the case studies presented above, the action of individuals is fundamental for any future development. In fact all the elements that form the following strategies come from actions arising from community members in the first place. This approach falls again under the above-mentioned Lefebvrian debate on the urban. As Kipfer, Saberi and Wieditz (2012) argue, the possibilities for reorganization of a sustainable urban life “can be found as fragments in the here and now, in sensuous daily practices and creative collective interventions” (p. 126). Looking at daily practices and creative collective interventions for the study of urban processes was exactly the purpose of the analysis of the three case studies. The first strategy deals with the described challenge of climate change effects on communities and in particular the displacement that might result from them. The second one is focused on the role of the community in relation to the challenges that they are facing, either from climate change effects or from the threat of traditional livelihoods. 4.1 Climate change refugees’ legal framework “A radical reconstruction of the planet for purposes of ecological sustainability and environmental justice today must take place through a profound reorganization of urban life” Kipfer, Saberi, Wieditz, 2012, p. 126

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As described in the case of Kivalina, there is no legal framework or agency responsible of displacements caused by climate change effects. Nevertheless, as the case of Newtok has shown, there are some examples where a legal link between climate change and affected communities was set up starting from a community action. These examples are very important for the framing of an urgent climate refugees’ legal framework. This approach of claiming a legal framework (rights) from the individuals (community members) falls under Lefebvre’s right to the city. In fact, the right to the city is not a juridical right but it is the “legitimizing theorization of multiple and contradictory social practices” (Kipfer, Saberi, Wieditz, 2012, p. 127). The legitimization of contradictory social practices is the core of this strategy, meaning that starting from the described examples, a process of legitimization should be undertaken in order to produce the required legal framework. The Newtok community was able to access funds from the CIAP. The CIAP is an environmental program that “provides federal grant funds from federal offshore lease revenues to oil producing states for conservation, protection, or restoration of coastal areas” (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2014). Even if the purpose of this plan is mainly environmental, there is an attention on the public service needs that creates the claimed link between environment and human activities. For this reason the community was able to access the funds to start the relocation plan. This creates an important model in the U.S. legal framework concerning the link between the exploitation of resources (in this case oil), the environmental damages and related effects on people’s lives. Obviously affected communities in the Arctic are not only in the U.S. territory but also in others. This aspect highlights the importance of the creation of a climate change refugees’ legal framework that works at the global scale. The Sudanese diplomat Lumumba Di-Aping highlighted this global necessity during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (Forensic Architecture (project), 2014). Despite a large debate around DiAping’s speech, nothing has been done yet in relation to this issue. Comparing the case of Kivalina and Newtok, it can be learned that claiming a right that does not exist (Kivalina lawsuit) to the same institution that is meant to provide that right is not a successful approach. It is rather more strategic and potentially successful to claim a right through a legitimization of a disruptive social practice as in the successful case of Newtok.

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In conclusion it seems that there is a fear from the institutions in developing such a legal framework. An episode happened in New Zealand pointed out this fear clearly. A family from the Tuvalu Islands8 was able to obtain the New Zealand residency because of the climate change threat that is affecting the island where they live. Despite this decision, the Immigration and Protection Tribunal justified the decision not because of climate change issues but because the family had strong ties to New Zealand (Maas, 2014). This statement was done because the government was afraid of opening the floodgates to other climate change refugee claims with that decision9. To sum up the necessity of a climate change refugeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legal framework is a global necessity that needs to be addresses both from communities and from international institutions. What descripted above represents possible entry points for the development of this framework. 4.2 Community/ies strength As presented before, the community has a very important role in dealing with the urbanization processes happening in the Arctic. Following what has been described before about the right to the city and the approach of positioning the communities as active agents of their own developments, the role of the community becomes fundamental for the formulation of strategies. As in the case of Niaqornat with community savings or in the case of Newtok with the community relocation plan, the community seems to play a catalyzing role towards change. The community of Newtok was particularly organized in terms of what a strong community should have. Values such as leadership, participatory design and planning and technical skills were highlighted in the relocation report. In addition, the Newtok community highlighted the importance of setting and having examples for development. Most of the vulnerable Arctic communities share the same threats and challenges as describe in the second chapter. Sharing experiences on how to deal with these threats can be a very crucial tool for the existence of certain villages. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8 The Tuvalu Islands (Pacific Ocean) are threatened by the rising of sea level. 9 In the international Refugee Convention there is no recognition of victims of climate change as refugees. !

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Internet presents itself as the best tool to do this10. Also Merrifield highlights the power of Internet and social media for the creation of new territories of encounter (Merrifield, 2012) and therefore sharing. Examples on the role of community networks in development can be found in many literatures. The communities described in the case studies also provided solutions/economic areas of interventions to respond to the shared challenge of the threatened livelihoods (see paragraph 3.1). The following descriptions elaborate on the potentialities of these economic areas for small Arctic economies. Tourism As described in the Niaqornat case, tourism plays a fundamental role for the economy of the Arctic villages. Even if there are many socio-anthropological debates about the tourism in these villages (Nuttall, 1998), it remains a very important source of income for small villages in the Arctic region. This is due to the fact that tourists are often travelling in the Arctic to see its environment and especially how people are living in relation to it in the traditional villages. With the increasing transports in the Arctic Ocean, tourism is expected to grow, representing a very important sector on which the small villages are investing for their future. New activities Another important element highlighted from the case studies was the importance of creating new activities that are able to generate income for the community. The case of Niaqornat provided an example of running an economic activity through a new form of legal organization: cooperative. That approach of finding a new legal and financial form to sustain the fishing factory was essential for the survival of the village. A famous case in Greenland also gives the same approach of creating new activities to sustain communities. Because of climate change people in the south of Greenland could not sustain their villages with the traditional practice of hunting anymore (see paragraph 2.3). They started then planting potatoes and making agriculture a new source of income for their villages (Di Salvo, 2013). This approach is much related to what can be defined as adaptation capacity. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10 The project Many Strong Voices has been working on this online-shared platform that connects communities that are facing threats related to climate change.!!! !

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CONCLUSIONS This paper presented a very unique region of the planet through the lens of global urbanization. Nevertheless it is important to bear in mind that “the urban phenomenon, taken as a whole, cannot be grasped by any specialized science” (Lefebvre, 2003, p.53). For this reason global urbanization is a process that should be continuously investigated and questioned. As stated at the beginning of this dissertation, studies on global urbanization lack of attention towards certain areas that might be conceived as un-urbanized. The Arctic region, the Amazon forest, the Sahara desert, the Siberian region, the Himalayas, the Gobi desert, the Oceans, are some examples among these areas in the world. The understanding of urbanization as a process confined in cities brings to exclude these areas. As argued throughout this paper, urbanization has extended its boundaries also in the most remote areas of the planet. Therefore the study of urbanization as global processes is fundamental in every square inch of the planet, to use Soja’s words. In the case of the Arctic urbanization processes are happening very fast with related rapid changes in people’s lives. These changes are bringing benefits to the region (i.e. more job opportunities) but also serious threats (i.e. displacements). This aspect highlights the need of further urban studies in these remote areas of the planet. As the second chapter presented, the possibility of envisioning the Arctic as the future Middle East is real. Someone could argue that this has nothing but positive aspects in terms of growth (economic and so on) of a region. Nevertheless growth goes in parallel with problematic, if driven only by profits. In fact the same case of the booming cities of the Middle East provides an example of economic growth coupled with an increase of poverty among the most vulnerable social classes11. Without an accurate study on the future development of the Arctic, the inhabitants of the region might end up having worst living conditions. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 11 The conditions of the workers in Dubai brought to defining this phenomenon as a form of modern slavery (Cooper, 2013) !

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This paper adopted a focus on the most vulnerable communities of the Arctic because they are the one that are already losing from the new changes happening. As briefly mentioned in the strategy about the necessity of a climate change refugees’ legal framework, the Arctic region is just one of the many cases where urbanization is affecting people’s lives. Urbanization processes and human activities more in general have global consequences in what has been defined as globalization (see second chapter). As described in the case of the Arctic, the manifestations of the urbanization processes are tangible. For this reason, scholars are responsible to take in consideration these global relations when investigating urbanization processes and their effects. This paper presented a series of strategies but certain issues need further analysis that fall under other disciplines. The following list is presenting these issues. 5.1 Open issues Legal framework As explained in the strategies, there is an urgent need of an international legal framework to safeguard people affected by phenomenon cased by climate change. “It has been estimated that 250 million of people will be displaced by phenomena related to climate change” (Depardon, Virilio, Native, p.184). The case of the Arctic region is just one among all the other areas affected by similar climate change effects. Nevertheless, as pointed out before, the international institutions (i.e. United Nations) have not created any agency to deal with these issues. This paper was not meant to deeply investigate the legal issues related with such a framework but rather to highlight the importance of it from the prospective of the people that are experiencing the effects of climate change. Exploitation of resources Another issue that has not being developed in depth in this paper is related to the exploitation of resources. There are a lot of debates around the exploitation of resources in the Arctic and the relation between this activity and the local indigenous population. The main issue concerns the fact that, even if indigenous populations have been inhabiting the Arctic region for long time, they have no right on the exploitation of its resources. Nevertheless, some steps towards the recognition of indigenous rights have been done, in particular with the creation of

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the Arctic Council12. Despite this, the right on the resources still remains an open issue. This issue does not concern only the economic benefit that local people might get from the exploitation of the Arctic resources. In fact if the Arctic communities could obtain decisional power around new urban processes (i.e. exploitation of resources), the impact on their livelihoods would be drastically reduced. “I certainly don’t believe the future is predetermined: Much of what does or does not happen forty years from now rests on actions or inactions taken between now and then.” Smith, 2011, p.8

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 12 The Arctic Council is the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic states (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States), Arctic Indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues, in particular on issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic. ! !

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