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This paper discusses the proposals and prospects for, and the setbacks experienced in, the economic
diversification of Kirovsk and Revda. The empirical part of the paper uses a variety of qualitative
methods by analyzing expert interviews conducted in these two single-industry towns as well as local
and regional press material. The interviews were conducted in the Murmansk region in 2012 by the
author. The paper asks how the challenge of economic diversification for these two communities
can be explained by the concept of path-dependency where the local resource path has promoted
both paternalistic expectations as well as by the concept of the resource curse that explains structural
and ‘psychological’ obstacles for economic diversification as consequences of the resource-based
development of the communities. The paper hypothesizes that path-dependency, which has
exaggerated both the local resource curse as a consequence of resource-based local development and
the paternalistic expectations of the residents of these mining communities, partly explains the
different prospects for economic diversification in the Arctic mining towns of Kirovsk and Revda.
Albeit the case concerns Arctic single-industry communities, the case in general reflects a typical
problem both for post-Soviet Russia and peripheral localities and single-industry resource
communities. As Kenneth Coates (1994) emphasizes, universal problems of remoteness characterize
peripheral localities also in the Far North.
Theoretical Approach
The theoretical framework of the study approaches the challenge of post-industrial restructuring and
the potential for economic diversification of a local economic culture. The case discusses
diversification away from mining to tourism, which represents an alternative development path for
the local economy in both Kirovsk and Revda. Avoiding uncontrolled shrinkage of population is
among the main goals of sustainable development in these communities. Tourism might offer an
alternative in \