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Arctic Yearbook 2014
administration.
General mindset in
the community and
prospects for future
development
high potential to spread also to
alternative industries
Open-minded attitude to
economic diversification,
realistic prospects for
economic diversification from
mining to tourism
“Resource fatalism” (miningoriented way of thinking), likely
continuation of the resource path
and “resource-cursed development”
The study showed that the local development path in Revda stimulates resource fatalism in the
community and forms a structural obstacle to economic diversification. In turn, the lower
‘psychological’ impact of the resource path on Kirovsk was shown in the study. The historical local
path, where tourism has developed alongside the main industry, namely, mining, has had a positive
influence in terms of economic diversification. This is seen in the way of thinking of the town
administration and the main industrial company. In turn, Revda serves as an example of a place
without a history of tourism. Therefore, its development struggles in large part because of a lack of
human skills and difficulties in changing local attitudes and ways of thinking that hamper the switch
away from resource fatalism to more diversification-friendly attitudes. Hence, Revda’s example
reveals the obstacles that local path-dependency creates for economic diversification away from
mining to tourism. Hence, the comparison of these two mining communities reveals the significance
of the local historical path, which still influences local development today.
The results show that in Revda there were both attitudinal and financial obstacles to economic
diversification away from mining to tourism. In turn, in Kirovsk, economic diversification towards
tourism only faced financial obstacles. Diversification is dependent on the well-being of the main
sponsor OJSC Apatit, which in turn is dependent on the price of natural resources and is therefore
vulnerable to any volatility in the markets. Hence, the sustainability and diversification of the town is
partly resource-dependent as long as OJSC Apatit has a significant role as a sponsor of the building
of tourism attractions in Kirovsk. Therefore, the study shows the current impact of the volatilities of
the resource prices on the economic diversification and sustainable development of both Kirovsk
and Revda. Nevertheless, the challenge for promoting sustainable development with a diversified
economy in Revda is fundamentally deeper than in Kirovsk, which has a limited attitudinal obstacle
to economic diversification.
In Revda there are prevailing expectations of paternalist support from the public authorities and
external investors, as local actors have limited financial resources to support economic
diversification. In turn, in Kirovsk, OJSC Apatit supports economic diversification to tourism. So
here too there are expectations th ]