Increasing Shipping in the Arctic and Local Communities’ Engagement : A Case from Longyearbyen on Svalbard

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Tactical urbanism as a means of testing relational processes in space: A complex systems perspective

Too often, master planning strategies have failed to produce spaces responding to the social, cultural, and economic needs of their inhabitants. Accordingly, many planners have turned to relational strategies to redefine their practices. These tend toward methodologies that explore relational forces preceding design interventions rather than unfolding by means of design interventions. This article considers an alternative mode of understanding relational processes: one that considers tactical urban strategies theorized through the lens of complexity theory. This article argues that tactical approaches harness relational junctures in situ, effectively exploring relational configurations of cohesive urban environments. A design competition entry provides an illustrative example of this approach: one that channels and choreographs relational urban processes

Introduction: Strategic spatial planning in uncertainty: theory and exploratory practice

The papers in this issue develop practical and theoretical ideas about strategic spatial planning in uncertainty. This Introduction contextualises the papers in terms of spatial planning and the uncertainties that planning practitioners face as they attempt to cope with the messiness of strategy-making and implementation. The authors explain their understanding of post-structuralism and how it differs from the pragmatist theoretical foundations of other scholars. The five papers are introduced through the use of recurring themes. The Introduction concludes by proposing that post-structuralist ideas can work to improve planning practice in conditions of uncertainty, provided that key elements are in place

Three years of measurements of sea ice conditions in the Barents Sea and Fram Strait

PosterNRC publication: Ye

Dealing with difference: Contested place identities in two northern Scandinavian cities

In an era of culturally driven growth, urban identities are of central importance for the branding of cities. However, urban identities are under constant re-negotiation as cities’ populations become more diverse. In northern Scandinavia, some cities have developed on what were traditionally Indigenous lands but have failed to acknowledge the role these roots and histories have played in shaping the city’s identity. As the numbers of Indigenous people living in cities grow and they begin to assert their right to the city, the relationship between a city’s ‘majority population’ identity and its ‘Indigenous’ identity may become contested. Looking at the northern Scandinavian cities of Tromsø (Norway) and Umeå (Sweden), we study the conflicts that have arisen around the cities’ place identity. In Tromsø, the conflicts concerned joining the Sámi Administration Area. Whereas, in Umeå, the Sámi identity of the city was contested in relation to the inauguration of Umeå as European Capital of Culture 2014. Drawing on theories of place identity, social justice and the right to the city and analysing representations of place identity in the local media and public fora, we discuss the importance of change and reproduction of urban identities and power relations in the two cities. We conclude that contestation can open up space for change and challenge the city’s dominant power relations, encouraging a resurgent politics of recognition of Indigenous identities rather than a conciliatory form of settler-state recognition that (re)produces and maintains colonial relations

Three years of measurements of sea ice conditions in the Barents Sea and Fram Strait

PosterNRC publication: Ye