Resource extraction and industrial development has become one of the major issues in connection with economic development in the Arctic. The project will develop more knowledge about how the players in the north are the intervention of the networks that power the global commodity-based industrial development.
The commodity-based resource utilization in northern Norway, Greenland and Iceland, where the ores, minerals, oil and gas are important resources that are traded on the global market, has become crucial for both jobs and economic output form these regions where renewable resources – fishing and hunting – used to be key activities. These resources are found and exported from the north, but must be removed and transported to the south of players from other parts of the Nordic countries and Europe. Potentially, the commodity-based industrial development in the northern parts of Scandinavia has a major positive impact on value creation and innovation in the periphery. Yet research shows that it is not always the case and that geographic proximity is not sufficient. This purpose of the project is to develop more knowledge about how the players in the north are intervening in the networks that power the global commodity-based industrial development. This allows the project to develop knowledge regarding the importance of industrial projects for regional development in a broad sense in the periphery.