CASES 2023 - Circumpolar Arctic Social Sciences Summer School on Economy and Society
CASES 2023 took place from June 7th to June 18th, in Canada's Northwest Territories. The "Circumpolar Arctic Summer School on Economy and Society" (CASES) was the first Summer school organized by the WAGE Circumpolar Partnership.
The summer school was prepared and coordinated by Davin Holen (University of Alaska Fairbanks), Jessica M. Shadian (University of Toronto), Gérard Duhaime (University Laval), and Karen Everett (University Laval).
The summer school brought together five social sciences students from Finland, Russia, and Québec: Eleonora Alariesto (University of Lapland), Philippine Almodovar (Université Laval), Nadine Boucher (Université Laval), Myriam Labrecque (Université Laval) and Polina Syadeyskaya (University of Northern Iowa).
Program
Building Equity Through Economic Diversification
During CASES 2023, students will travel to the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada to learn more about the region’s social, economic, and cultural realities from those who live and work there.
The theme, “Building Equity Through Economic Diversification,” encapsulates both the challenges and opportunities facing the NWT; those challenges and opportunities are in part tied to its Northern and Indigenous histories as well as current geopolitical realities related to its geography, the impacts of climate change, and wealth of resources needed for the global transition to net zero economies.
The NWT’s economy is tied to its mining economy. While its traditional gold and diamond mines are approaching their end of life, the region’s wealth of critical minerals and accompanying economic potentials (including accompanying necessary investments it could bring) is viewed with enormous optimism and trepidation. Diverging viewpoints, however, cannot be attributed to Indigenous versus non-Indigenous perspectives. In fact, Canada’s first operating critical minerals mine is located in the NWT on Indigenous land and operated by an Indigenous corporation. The potential future role of the critical minerals economy in the NWT includes a host of concerns, obstacles, and high hopes.
Additional factors that weigh on the NWT’s potential include its debilitating housing shortages and severe deficit of all types of transportation infrastructure. The outsized dependency on the mining economy puts greater reliance on trade linkages with other jurisdictions. Likewise, the costs of living and doing business are also much higher in the NWT due to its size and remote and sparsely populated communities. Both of these factors highlight the need for greater investments in critical infrastructure.
In terms of investment, since 2015, private investment has trended downward while public investment has trended upward. Today, the public sector (federal, territorial, municipal, and Indigenous) is the second largest economy – 20% of the total GDP of the NWT. At the same time, despite an overall labour shortage, the population of the NWT remains stagnant. However, international in-migration continues to grow in proportion to overall out-migration leading to an increasingly diverse population and, with that, a host of new skills and expertise in the region. Overall, there is great opportunity in Northern communities, yet the economy requires much greater diversification, and its growth needs to be done equitably and sustainably.
This course delves into these topics through classroom lectures and discussions, meetings with territorial and Indigenous government leaders, Indigenous Corporations, community organizations, and the private sector, and by attending the Arctic Development Expo in Inuvik. The course will conclude with student presentations and reflections.
Readings: Readings will be provided in advance and to be completed prior to the course.
Themes:
- Self-determination
- Economic development
- Unique local business models
- Northern infrastructure
- Maritime issues
- Territorial and Indigenous governments
- Socio-economic diversity
- Indigenous economic institutions
- Post-colonial mining operations
- Neo and postcolonial economies
- Indigenous rights
- Growing diversity of northern communities
Itinerary
June 8-11: Seminars (lectures) and community meetings, Yellowknife
June 12: Travel Yellowknife to Inuvik
June 12-14: Arctic Development Expo, Inuvik
June 15: Day trip to Tuktoyaktuk
June 16: Community meeting, student group work, Inuvik
June 17: Student presentations, Inuvik
June 18: Travel to Yellowknife
