Sustainable Urban Development in the European Arctic:Towards Enhanced Transnational Cooperation in Remote Regions.

拟议的项目调查如何加强偏远地区城市地区之间的跨国合作，以更好地协调可持续发展的做法。通过理论分析和经验分析相结合，项目组通过参与性方法的镜头比较了位于欧洲北极的七个选定城市的可持续发展做法的决策过程。在这一分析的基础上，将制定一个框架，以确定在全国范围内加强协调可持续城市发展政策的途径。在这方面，这项研究超越了现有的知识，因为它专门关注偏远地区，因此也关注北极。遵循互动治理的思想，主要的研究假设是，如果当地利益攸关方的立场同时反映在决策过程中，国家和区域各级的政策保持一致，北极的城市发展将更可持续。目前，欧洲北极的城市发展似乎在不同程度上受到不同北极国家的国家和地方政策的影响，也受到国际安排的影响，例如《2030年可持续发展议程》和《联合国气候变化框架公约》下的《巴黎协定》。主要研究目标是回答为什么整个欧洲北极的做法不同，以及如何结合当地和全球政策更有效地指导北极城市发展。研究小组将进行定性和定量研究，包括相关政策和立法文件的内容分析和科学文献的批判性阅读。此外，该小组将在欧洲北极选定的七个案例研究城市组织与当地利益攸关方(居民、企业、民间社会组织、地方行政当局代表和民选官员)的重点访谈，以核实和扩大从文件分析中获得的信息。该项目为城市治理文献中确定的主要治理特征提供了新的见解：对城市施加的政治和体制限制、不同类型的可用资源以及城市与社会之间的关系，包括其跨国形式。这项研究有助于就跨国合作和地方治理进行概念性辩论。这项研究进一步加剧了关于北极地区人类活动导致气候变化及其区域内外复杂影响的新辩论。该项目的成果对于参与欧洲北极决策进程的政治实践者、欧洲联盟及其北极政策的执行以及德国和波兰作为观察员国的北极理事会也具有重要意义。

The proposed project investigates how transnational cooperation among urban areas of remote regions can be enhanced to better harmonize sustainable development practices. By combining theoretical and empirical analysis, the project team compares decision-processes on sustainable development practices through the lenses of participatory approaches in seven selected cities located in the European Arctic. Based on this analysis, a framework will be developed that identifies pathways to enhance the harmonization of policies on sustainable urban development transnationally. In this regard, this research goes beyond existing knowledge as it focuses specifically on remote regions, and as such on the Arctic. Following the idea of interactive governance, the main research hypothesis is that urban development in the Arctic will be more sustainable if simultaneously the positions of local stakeholders are reflected in decision-processes and policies are aligned across the national and regional levels. Currently, urban development in the European Arctic seem to be shaped to a varying degree by both national and sub-national policies of the different Arctic states, and also by international arrangements such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The main research goals are to answer the questions of why approaches differ throughout the European Arctic and how Arctic urban development can be steered more effectively in alliance with local and global policies. The research team will conduct qualitative and quantitative research, including content analysis of relevant policy and legislative documents and a critical reading of the scientific literature. Additionally, the team will organize focus interviews with local stakeholders (residents, businesses, civil society organizations, representatives from local administrations, and elected officials) in seven selected case study cities in the European Arctic to verify and expand on the information gained from the document analysis. The project opens new insights to main features of governance identified in urban governance literature: political and institutional constraints imposed on cities, different types of available resources and relationship between the city and society, including its transnational form. The research contributes to conceptual debates on transnational cooperation and local governance. The research further adds to the emerging debate on human activities in the Arctic region that contribute to climate change and its complex effects in and beyond the region. The outcomes of the project are also of relevance for political practitioners engaged in decision-processes in the European Arctic, for the European Union and the implementation of its Arctic Policy and for the Arctic Council, to which Germany and Poland are observer states.