Doris Anna Carson

This paper investigates rural–urban disparities in the experiences of in‐home care services for older adults in a sparsely populated municipality (Storuman) in Northern Sweden. Such municipalities are characterised by long‐term population loss and ageing, an increasing concentration of residents and services in municipal centres and resultant rural ‘resource deserts’. Disparities are measured through four ‘endpoint’ measures—exits to residential care, resource use, longevity and survival in the in‐home care system. Data were drawn from the municipality’s care service contract database (2014–2020). Users living in the municipal centre had lower resource use and used direct care less frequently than those in smaller and more distant settlements. Those living near a grocery store were more likely than others to survive long term in the in‐home care system. The research reveals a potential to reduce exits to residential care, to make more effective use of direct care and shopping services and to limit disruptive transfers of care, particularly between municipal and regional health services. Overall, there was limited evidence of rural–urban disparities in in‐home care outcomes, but particular attention should be paid to transactional proximity of different parts of the care system and proactive rather than reactive care planning. The paper contributes to debates about quality measures for in‐home care and the impacts of micro‐urbanisation on the lives of people living in sparsely populated areas.

This paper examines the social context of “domestic food production” (dfp) in the inland North of Sweden, with a focus on understanding the contributions of non-commercial food distribution to local food security and sustainable rural community-building. We report on the findings of an exploratory pilot study that included an online survey of 305 people who engaged in at least one dfp activity (hunting, fishing, foraging, or farming). The aims were to uncover common social practices of dfp, as well as to identify key values attached to dfp, the extent of commercial and non-commercial distribution of home-produced food, and motivations to give away food. The main findings emphasize the social nature of dfp activities, with the vast majority of respondents undertaking dfp in groups or as part of formal clubs. Key values attached to dfp included social and community-related aspects, while commercial interests were limited. Respondents were more likely to engage in non-commercial distribution networks, usually involving close family and friends. Food givers mostly cited social factors as their main motivations rather than other food-related aspects (such as food security, health benefits, or food waste). Food givers were also likely to receive food from others, emphasizing the relatively narrow and reciprocal character of non-commercial food networks. We conclude that non-commercial dfp networks may be expanded to the broader community by exploiting the social nature of dfp and encouraging generalized reciprocity led by dfp clubs. This could potentially reduce the negative impacts of food deserts whilst also stimulating community interactions, learning and local dfp communities of practice.

This chapter aims to increase our understanding of intra-European lifestyle migrants’ engagements in civil society and serious outdoor leisure in the context of local communities in northern Sweden’s inland. The studied village offers exceptional opportunities for dogsledding on a renown dogsledding trail. Drawing on qualitative Foresight approaches the focus is on locals’, lifestyle migrants’ and municipal officials’ desired local socio-economic futures (e.g. in ten years). This provides insights into individuals different accounts of local ‘community’ through civil society such as dogsledding clubs. These insights are then connected with more general issues such as the notion of community itself, and municipal planning for the right-sizing of green spaces and infrastructure in sparsely populated areas challenged by demographic shrinkage. Conclusions indicate values and challenges of adapting fixed assets such as roads and trails to local and incoming populations’ specific needs and wishes.

This paper examines the role of public funding in transforming tourism pathways in sparsely populated Arctic destinations, comparing Northern Sweden and Finnish Lapland. Our theoretical framework considers destination path plasticity and moments of change through the lens of geographical political economy to understand patterns of uneven development. This perspective helps explain how regional development funding driven by multi-scalar political priorities and global markets set structural conditions for tourism. We present a spatial analysis of public funding between 2007 and 2021 for private firms and public projects, complemented by document analysis and expert interviews. We find that public funding in Finnish Lapland has largely reinforced ‘Arctification’ and export-driven tourism in a few locations. In Northern Sweden, it has focused more on redistributing resources to micro-businesses and broader socio-economic development in lagging regions, yet with limited impacts on changing dominant tourism pathways. Public projects improved knowledge creation and networking among public and private actors but were largely unable to consolidate emerging pathways in the long run. Overall, regional development funding supported incremental change around existing pathways and had limited transformative effects in response to shocks or disruptive moments due to the rigid nature of funding programmes.

This chapter explores the relation between folklore, food, and tourism in the Swedish part of the cross-national country of Sápmi, the land of the indigenous Sámi. Tourism has been labelled as an experience industry, offering opportunities for entrepreneurs in remote regions to create unique stories as a tool for marketing, product development, and branding. However, when heritage is commercialised, issues related to control are vital in order to remain respectful. Two examples of Sámi food tourism initiatives are described here, both based in the region Västerbotten and operated by Sámi organisations. Together, they illustrate how food, heritage, and communication can be performed in virtual as well as tangible ways, offering both economic and sociocultural potential.

Small villages in northern Sweden have seen a continuing removal of key services, such as schools, shops and public transport, since the 1970s. Disinvestment in public services has not been strategically planned but has happened in response to population loss and increased costs on a case-by-case basis. More recently, there has been a shift in policy thinking to what might be termed a ‘de-growth’ approach where digitalisation and increased personal mobility are used to provide new ways of delivering services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the existence of ‘resource deserts’ in Southern Lapland and the emergence (or consolidation) of village hierarchies in allocating public services. We map out the distribution of neighbourhood services (grocery stores, pre-/schools and petrol pumps) among villages, and explore the lived experiences in accessing these resources in different villages. Our results show that resource deserts clearly exist in the south and east of the region, while villages in the more sparsely populated western mountain areas were generally in a better position to retain resources. We identify a lack of consistent and transparent service planning at the village level as a key shortcoming in municipal and regional service strategies. There appear to be unofficial settlement hierarchies in the differential treatment of villages that are otherwise similar in population size, population change and distance to central places. We find that political decisions on service allocations are likely influenced by several factors. These include legacy effects relating to historic settlement status, the location of villages in relation to key transport or mobility corridors, as well as ideological factors favouring villages with more ‘exotic’ features and development potential in line with the municipalities’ economic, social and political priorities. We finally argue that a shift to de-growth needs to be more strategically planned if it is to eliminate resource deserts and promote equity of service access across all villages.

The paradoxical situation of planning for growth while managing decline has long been a reality for politicians and planners in Nordic peripheries. In recent years, however, attempts to plan for demographic adaptation, smart shrinkage, and ‘right-sizing’ public services have become commonplace. While it has taken decades for this to become an accepted part of municipal planning, new opportunities are now arising in the Swedish North due to several unforeseen giga-investments. These are expected to trigger rapid socio-economic growth along the urbanized coast and in a few select inland locations. Yet the likely effects on shrinking rural and sparsely populated municipalities geographically adjacent to these investment hotspots are much less understood. Previous research suggests that such investment projects might cause pressure for rural labour and housing markets but may also offer a range of positive spillover effects and development opportunities for rural areas. We draw on structural level narratives and interviews with key informants, including local and regional political stakeholders, to identify how the prospects of the giga-investments are viewed in places that are not directly affected, and what opportunities and threats are discussed. An overarching theme identified in the empirical material concerns the a-spatiality of discourses of growth, which we divide into two concrete dilemmas: infrastructure and mobility. Our findings show that, while the investments are seen as ringing in a new ‘golden age’ for the northern region, such a-spatial understandings of regional characteristics might stand in the way of acting fast and being able to make the most of the potential spillover effects.

Remote and sparsely populated northern peripheries in Australia, Europe and North America experience high rates of population turnover and struggle to recruit and retain populations. There has been discussion about the extent to which their larger urban centres may be key to navigating common ‘boom and bust’ cycles, thus contributing to more stable and resilient demographic and economic development in their jurisdictions. This paper examines the population development in twelve remote northern jurisdictions dominated by a large city, comparing urban and regional growth patterns around periods of economic boom and bust since 1990. It was expected that periods of high population growth would be initially led by regional areas where resource projects are commonly located, but that the cities would ultimately benefit more from high growth periods and suffer less from periods of low population growth. It was also expected that cities would retain key populations better than regions because of a growing global urban preference. Results suggest that regional areas did grow more at the start of high growth periods, but there was no universal experience of higher city growth throughout the two boom and bust cycles. Rather, each city and region had unique growth pattern properties. Cities must not be assumed a priori to be the drivers of demographic development, but attention needs to be paid to what types of cities promote less volatile growth and development potential in the regions.