A new approach to developing northern and arctic Russian territories: local transport system

The purpose of the study is to scientifically substantiate the validity of a new approach to developing Russian Northern and Arctic territories through formation and development of a local, rather than international transit or national transport system. To achieve this goal, we apply the methods of comparative institutional analysis, qualitative sociology, statistical and cartographic analysis, and others. The authors propose a new conceptual approach to the development of Northern and Arctic territories through a much greater reliance on local specific features, interests, and institutions than is accepted today. The specification of the approach is carried out through the local transport system. The main idea of the article is that “filigree” accounting of local knowledge and institutions in the development of transport systems of the North and the Arctic; this kind of “transport anthropology” - a research direction dynamically developing in recent years abroad - can significantly improve efficiency and give a new innovative performance to the development of Russian Northern and Arctic territories. In the context of this paradigm, the main strategic documents of the federal level on transport development are analyzed. It is concluded that there is a significant number of myths (outdated ideas), which must be got rid of in order to reach more modern ideas about the development of transport of the North and the Arctic, more appropriate to the challenges of time. Based on the results of comparison of Russian realia with the global experience it is concluded that there is a need for significant modernization of theoretical knowledge and conceptual approaches to modern transport development in Northern and Arctic territories in Russia, primarily through much more significant consideration of local specific features during this process, and turning the whole pyramid of strategic planning upside down (“bottom-up”, rather than “top-down”; from local communities, landscapes, and institutions). This revolutionary process of change in perceptions provides a significant role for the new idea of the local transport system. Further research prospects are associated with a large-scale program of expeditionary surveys of key areas in Siberian and Far-Eastern North and in the Arctic planned for summer-autumn of 2018.