Vodka on ice? : Unveiling Russian media perceptions of the Arctic

This article describes Russian Arctic policy agendas as they have been reflected in mainstream Russian media outlets. The research was based on modeling topic structures of three federal and three regional newspapers. Topic modeling was performed with the unsupervised LDA algorithm and complemented with hand labelling of topics. Data was collected by retrieval of relevant newspaper articles from the media database Integrum for the period 2011–2015 (N = 611); the corpus was further divided in two periods (2011–2013 and 2014–2015) to account for the potential effect of the Ukrainian crisis on agenda-setting. Both federal and regional newspapers were found to have been mostly concerned with the development of hydrocarbon resources, as coverage of this topic was the largest during both periods. However, during the second period (2014–2015), the repercussions of the Ukrainian crisis, namely the economic sanctions and securitization, gained significant attention while marginalizing other topics. The results of this analysis may serve as a foundation for application of sentiment analysis to allow an in-depth understanding of topic salience and impact on public opinion.Peer reviewe

Energy development in the Arctic : resource colonialism revisited

As accelerated climate change can offer easier access to the Arctic resource riches, many countries, including the non-Arctic states, are now considering the Arctic as a viable future source of enormous energy supplies and valuable minerals. This chapter explores the current conversations on Arctic energy futures through the lens of resource colonialism. Focusing on the intertwined politics and economics of Arctic energy, it shows how ongoing Arctic developments have been shaped by expectations, decisions and events taking place outside the Arctic region. It is argued that a contradictory relationship between energy and environment accompanying the persistent interest in Arctic resource wealth marks a shift in the international political economy of energy from ‘old’ to ‘new’ carbon governance.Peer reviewe

Explaining choices in energy infrastructure development as a network of adjacent action situations : The case of LNG in the Baltic Sea region

This paper contributes to the development of a polycentric perspective on energy infrastructure governance by developing the concept of network of adjacent actions situations (NAAS). Examining the case of LNG infrastructure development in the Baltic Sea region, it clarifies how choices made in interlinked policy areas may affect infrastructural policy output in a regional context. It is argued that LNG is expanding as a new major energy technology around the Baltic due to its capacity to fulfill policy expectations in three issue-areas: enhancing energy security, providing low-sulphur bunker fuel, and balancing renewables in the power sector. The analysis of linkages between these actions situations emphasizes the spatial, temporal, and discursive aspects of energy infrastructure governance at the regional level. The application of NAAS as an analytical tool to map out the unintended consequences of infrastructural choices is relevant in policymaking.Peer reviewe

A local perspective on renewable energy development in the Russian Arctic

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s).Many Arctic communities are exposed to energy security risks. Remote settlements rely largely on diesel for energy production, which results in higher consumer prices, negative impacts on the environment and public health. In the past few years, pilot projects for switching remote villages from diesel-generated to wind- and solar-diesel hybrid power plants were realized across the Arctic. Renewable energy projects have a major potential to alleviate energy security risks, promote public health and better environment. Yet, renewable energy does not take hold easily in the Arctic region. Especially in Russia, significant subsidies for fossil fuel present a major disincentive, as well as perpetuate vested interests of national oil companies. Despite the Russian Arctic being a ‘hard case’ for renewables development, there has been both interest in and progress towards the uptake of renewable energy across the Russian Arctic regions. This article contributes to the ‘local turn’ in sustainable energy policy studies by exploring two intertwined questions: which factors contribute to renewable energy development in the Russian Arctic and how do these factors characterise differences between individual Arctic communities? Using a combination of exploratory factor analysis and correspondence analysis in application to the local level (municipal) data, we update the existing models of the factors contributing to renewable energy uptake and put forward four distinct community-level models that describe renewables uptake. We conclude by emphasizing the importance of the local perspective on sustainable energy as a key to explaining differences in observed policy outcomes.Peer reviewe

Digitalising City Governance in Russia : The Case of the 'Active Citizen' Platform

This essay examines the role of civic tech in contemporary Russian governance through a data-driven analysis of the 'Active Citizen' platform deployed in Moscow. It shows that the way in which polls are conducted on the platform has various consequences, from serving the city administration's PR needs to shuffling the power balance in various policy areas and effectively disempowering certain stakeholder groups, as well as helping the administration to increase control over a policy domain. At the same time, some platform uses actually empower citizens by engaging them in decision-making and offering grounds for further mobilisation.Peer reviewe

Planning for a sustainable Arctic : regional development in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia)

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Policy environment analysis for Arctic seaport development: the case of Sabetta (Russia)

In this paper, a structuration model is developed to evaluate opportunities and constraints that may arise for a port authority operating a port in the Arctic. The study builds upon the new institutionalist approach to transport infrastructure policy. It argues that given the specificity of operational conditions in the Arctic, as well as the expectations of the resource-driven future transformations, the conventional port development models cannot accurately depict factors of Arctic port activity. The proposed structuration approach focuses on how four dimensions of the policy environment (physical, economic, institutional, and environmental) enable and constrain policy choices available to a port authority. Application of this model to the case of Sabetta, a deep-sea multi-functional port constructed in the Ob estuary of the Yamal peninsula (Russia), demonstrates the inextricable links between actions and institutions and pinpoints the uncertainty factors that affect Arctic port development ‘from scratch’. The practical objective of this research is to introduce a dynamic multi-factor model for systematic evaluation of the policy environment in Arctic port development. Given that industrial activities in the Arctic region will proceed at the current speed or accelerate, lessons learned from the case of Sabetta will be relevant to other port infrastructure projects in the Arctic.Peer reviewe

Algorithmic governance : A modes of governance approach

This article examines how modes of governance are reconfigured as a result of using algorithms in the governance process. We argue that deploying algorithmic systems creates a shift toward a special form of design-based governance, with power exercised ex ante via choice architectures defined through protocols, requiring lower levels of commitment from governing actors. We use governance of three policy problems - speeding, disinformation, and social sharing - to illustrate what happens when algorithms are deployed to enable coordination in modes of hierarchical governance, self-governance, and co-governance. Our analysis shows that algorithms increase efficiency while decreasing the space for governing actors' discretion. Furthermore, we compare the effects of algorithms in each of these cases and explore sources of convergence and divergence between the governance modes. We suggest design-based governance modes that rely on algorithmic systems might be re-conceptualized as algorithmic governance to account for the prevalence of algorithms and the significance of their effects.Peer reviewe

Telling domestic and international policy stories : the case of Russian Arctic policy

Based on extensive empirical analysis of policy communication, this chap-ter investigates the difference between the Arctic narratives presented by the Rus-sian government to the domestic and foreign audiences. We apply narrative policy analysis (Nye 2004; Jones and McBeth 2010) to demonstrate how the Russian government offers two separate, yet intersecting policy stories. For the domestic audience, it highlights the socio-economic significance of natural (hydrocarbon) resources to the development of the Arctic region and Russia as a whole, and demonstrates persistence in turning the Arctic into the primary resource base ‘against all odds’ (such as the Western economic sanctions and low price of oil). For the foreign publics, it presents the narrative of the Arctic as a territory of peace and stability, emphasising adherence to the norms and principles of the international lawPeer reviewe

Regulating GHG. Emissions from shipping : Local, global, or polycentric approach?

Climate change has recently been a subject of increased attention in the shipping sector. Along with technical issues of GHG emissions reduction, a question of appropriate governance has been raised. The argument regarding the role of global, regional, and local policies in curbing shipping emissions is a part of a broader theoretical debate on forms of global governance. This paper examines the recent literature on polycentric climate governance and suggests principles for environmental regulation in shipping based on a polycentric approach.Peer reviewe