Sustainable Urban Development in the European Arctic

Name: Sustainable Urban Development in the European Arctic
Brand: Routledge
Price: 57.5 EUR
Availability: PreOrder

Dorothea Wehrmann Michal Luszczuk Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak Jacqueline Goetze Arne Riedel(Author)

Routledge (Publisher)

1st Edition

Will be published approx. on 20. July 2026

Book

Paperback/Softback

234 pages

978-1-032-25754-9 (ISBN)

€57.50incl. 7% vat

Not yet published

Description

Focusing on cities in the European Arctic, this book consolidates research on sustainable development, local and urban governance, and transnational cooperation in the region. It examines to what extent there is transnational cooperation between urban areas in remote locations and how it can be enhanced to better align with global sustainable development policies to successfully implement goals such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Agreement. Based on field research in seven cities in the European Arctic, Rovaniemi, Kolari, Nuuk, Akureyri, Tromso, Kiruna, and Lulea, the authors explain why approaches to sustainable urban development differ between geographies, how policies relate to other local and global strategies, and to what degree the European Arctic is normative for remote regions at large. This book contributes to important conceptual debates on local governance and transnational cooperation by examining the benefits and potential issues of applying theoretical models of multi-actor engagement and participation in isolated populations. It argues that the participation of local actors in decision processes may encourage a better harmonisation of sustainable urban development approaches in the European Arctic and will have a greater impact at the global level if aligned transnationally. This book will be relevant to researchers, social scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and NGOs in the fields of global governance, sustainable development, sustainability research, and environmental studies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Reviews / Votes

"Up-to-date, comprehensive and highly relevant to scholars and students studying Arctic urbanism and governance. Urban and resource development projects in marginal communities under multiple pressures require new multi-actor and participatory governance that integrates international sustainable development mandates with local and Indigenous knowledge and perspectives while giving nature a voice. Cities and governments elsewhere should pay attention to what these Arctic cities learn."

Peter Hemmersam, Professor of Urbanism, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design

"This book serves as a powerful reminder that the challenges of transforming the urban Arctic are not as exotic or exceptional as they might seem. Instead, they closely mirror the struggles faced by other ordinary cities worldwide. The authors present an innovative perspective on multi-level governance for understanding local approaches to sustainability in the urban Arctic, offering valuable insights for planners and regional developers alike."

Agatino Rizzo, professor, Arctic five chair in architecture and planning at Lulea University of Technology

"Frequently contextualised at the margins of national peripheries or even as a resource frontier for European green transition, questions of sustainability loom large for many Arctic communities. With its focus on urban spaces in the European Arctic, this work provides insights into facilitating transitions from global policy to local implementation suggesting practical strategies for urban decision-makers tasked with implementing sustainability targets within their own unique challenges of climate and remoteness."

Corine Wood-Donnelly, Associate Professor of International Relations and the High North, Nord University

"Remote Arctic cities, like cities everywhere, face a difficult challenge in addressing the threat posed by climate change. This book examines the tools northern cities are using to cope with the crisis. The focus on participation and transnational cooperation distinguishes this work, ensuring that it is a valuable contribution to a growing literature."

Robert W. Orttung, George Washington University

"Sustainable development promises that all good things can be combined, if we just do it right - Globally and, hence, also in the Arctic. This volume takes the fragile conceptual marriage at its words: After examining the challenges facing remote urban centers (another oxymoron), the authors identify operational steps towards bridging the gap separating Arctic cities from global mainstream discourse."

Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher at Danish Institute for International Studies, co-editor of Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic (w. J Strandsbjerg, Routledge, 2019).

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Persons

Dorothea Wehrmann is a senior researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability and has a background in sociology and political science. She obtained her PhD in 2017 from Bielefeld University with a thesis entitled "Polar Entanglements? (Critical) Geopolitics of the Changing Polar Regions in Inter-American Perspective" (Routledge, 2019). One of the key findings of her PhD research was that local perceptions have been little considered in dominant discourses on the Arctic and Antarctic and related territorial disputes, which inspired her to develop the SUDEA research proposal together with Arne Riedel and Michal Luszczuk in 2018. Since the project's kick-off in November 2020, Dorothea has been principal investigator and co-lead of the SUDEA team together with Michal Luszczuk. Constant throughout her career has been an interest in societal responses to global challenges. Her research interests and respective publications relate to cooperative frameworks in policy-making processes, legitimacy studies, and (critical) geopolitics.

Michal Luszczuk is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University. He holds a doctor habilitatus degree in political science and has been a co-leader of the SUDEA project. He is a member of the Committee on Polar Research, the Polish Academy of Sciences, serves as a delegate of Poland to the IASC Council, and was elected as a member of the IASSA Council (2017-2021). He has been a Fulbright fellow 2015-2016. His research interests include the geopolitics of polar regions, socio-economic adaptation to climate change in the Arctic, Polish polar policy, and history of Polish polar research.

Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak has a background in political science and law and is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science and Administration at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University. She holds a doctor habilitatus degree in political science. She is a member of the Working Group on Participation and Civic Dialogue, operating under the Polish Minister for Civil Society. Katarzyna has experience in comparative qualitative research in European local governments. She was a visiting scholar at Tampere University in Finland from 2014 to 2015 and a research fellow at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2021. She has been the head of several scientific projects. Her research interests include comparative public administration, local governance, and citizen participation.

Jacqueline Goetze is a political scientist with a background in international relations. She works as a researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). Jacqueline wrote her PhD thesis at the University of Bonn on the relations between Sami organisations and the European Union (EU) while understanding these relations as an example of Indigenous peoples' participation in transnational policy-making. In her PhD thesis, she found that the participation of the Sami as the only Indigenous peoples within the EU is only limitedly formalised, which influences the Sami right to self-determination. Jacqueline's research interest focuses on the participation of marginalised groups, Indigenous peoples' rights, transnational cooperation, and green colonialism.

Arne Riedel is a lawyer and senior fellow at the Ecologic Institute, where he coordinates the Ecologic Legal team as well as the Institute's activities on Arctic issues. Within this topic, he focuses on Arctic environmental governance and has worked since 2012 on numerous Arctic policy projects for German ministries and agencies, as well as for the EU Commission and the WWF International Arctic Programme. Arne has been an ethics advisor to two Horizon 2020 projects and was also a member of the scientific advisory panel to the German MARE:N research programme "Coastal, Marine and Polar Research for Sustainability" in 2021. In his work on climate governance, since 2016, he has been a part of the German and EU delegations to the negotiations under UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement and, since 2020, a member of the Kyoto Protocol's Compliance Committee enforcement branch.

Author

Dorothea Wehrmann

Bielefeld University, Germany

Michal Luszczuk

Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak

Jacqueline Goetze

Arne Riedel