Islands on the margins

Coping with global restructuring

Technological and institutional modernisation have put considerable pressures on Nordic Atlantic island economies such as Greenland, Åland and the Faroe Islands. Local communities dependent on fisheries have developed 'coping-strategies' that include networking and strong local institutions. And many are economically successful despite the challenges.

These island economies are resource dependent, relying heavily on fisheries. The geography and climate are relatively harsh and travelling and freight is costly. Yet, these economies are highly modernised and technologically advanced and – as in all Nordic welfare states – have high levels of social services and strong municipal institutions.

A resource dependent fisheries economy usually has settlement patterns of small and scattered coastal villages. Such small villages tend to respond to pressures of globalisation by taking up generally accepted market-friendly economic policies. However, local practices also contribute to the dynamics of globalisation. So, how do local communities on isolated islands respond to the threat of marginalisation?

Economic re-structuring

Klaksvík is a typical industrialised fishing village on the Faroe Islands, and a good case in point. Throughout the 20th Century, Klaksvík witnessed nearly unlimited growth in population and wealth. With nearly 4,700 inhabitants, it is today one of the bigger fishing villages in the Nordic Atlantic. The economy here was, and is, founded on long-distance fisheries, coastal fisheries and a large fresh fish processing plant, supported by an extensive network of related service providers.

However, a collapse in the Faroese economy in the early 1990s resulted in a widespread political collapse and out-migration from Klaksvík. However, after this, the local community recovered on its own in an extraordinary manner.

The first step towards building and restructuring was taken by getting together key decision-makers and others from the local community. They agreed to keep the local economy in local hands, quickly re-start production, and build and maintain trustworthy relations with external creditors and the international market. The tradition of small scale solutions, and using local-to-local and local-to-international networks came to the rescue.

Local coping strategies

Coping strategies are different in different areas. Yet, some general features are crucial as Klaksvík's experience shows:

• Local history and identity are crucial attributes for developing social solidarity which is needed for handling crisis and transition: Klaksvík's long tradition of small scale entrepreneurship and local ownership was vital in its re-building.
• Involving institutions beyond the 'market' are important to balance out global pressures: Klaksvík's municipality, for example, took an overall responsibility and represented the locality generally; and the local bank provided substantial capital at a time when no one came forward to finance investments.
• Openness to, and networks with the international world help: the Klaksvik 'marketplace' which is founded on social relations, and having 'glocals' (mediators for local and global interaction) helped it to recover.

Strategies for small settlements

Fisheries dependent localities adopt strategies which are compatible with what they are historically good at, namely changing and adapting their forms of social organisation. But the solution for isolated settlements is neither just adapting to nor de-linking from the increasingly globalising economies. Instead, it is important to:

• develop strategies compatible with globalising economies, based on practices which make sense to those involved
• look at places as creative spaces for life qualities (providing alternative opportunities for work, leisure and housing)
• cross local, regional and even national boundaries to promote knowledge on practices, planning and research which are of particular interest for island economies and their lifestyles.

Gestur Hovgaard
Roskilde University, Building 23.2, P.O.Box 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
T +45 46743021
F +45 46743081
gesturh@ruc.dk

See also

Globalisation, Embeddedness and Local Coping Strategies: A Comparative and Qualitative Study of Local Dynamics in Contemporary Social Change, PhD Dissertation, Department of Social Sciences, Roskilde University, Thesis No. 29/2001, by Gestur Hovgaard, 2000

How to Make a Living in Insular Areas – Six Nordic Cases, Nordregio Report 2006:1, Stockholm: Nordregio, by Margareta Dahlstršm and others, 2006 (PDF)
www.nordregio.se/Files/r0601.pdf

Innovations in the Nordic Periphery, Nordregio Report 2004:2, Stockholm: Nordregio, edited by
Nils Aarsæther, 2004 (PDF)
www.nordregio.se/Files/r0403.pdf

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