The goal of this book is to raise and support further debate on sustainable development in the Barents Region. Sustainable development is a topic which is once again on the global agenda – the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) was held in June 2012 to assess the progress since the United Nations Conference on Development and Environment (UNCED) held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Barents Euro-Arctic Region was established in the early 1990s to advance the political reconstruction of Northern Europe and support sustainable development in the region. This book is based on multidisciplinary research cooperation between Nordic and Russian researchers to study recent political, economic and social developments in the Barents Region. The collection of articles suggests that the Barents Region is a site of multiple, often competing strategies for sustainable development. • • • The Nordic partners in the Barents International Political Economy (BIPE) researcher network are: the Barents Institute, University of Tromsø, Norway; the Centre for Regional Studies, University of Umeå, Sweden; the University of Technology in Luleå, Sweden; the University of Eastern Finland; and the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland. The Russian experts come from the Luzin Institute for Economic Studies, Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Centre for Independent Social Research in St. Petersburg. The researcher network was funded by Nordforsk (2010 - 2012) and coordinated by research professor Monica Tennberg, from the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.
