Social viability of a northern town in present- day conditions; leadership and grassroots civic engagement

The search for sustainable scenarios is a pressing issue for many remote industrial localities, including those located in the Russian Arctic. The majority of these settlements were established through a Soviet planning effort, specifically in order to provide extractive industries with manpower resources. Economic and political dependence on core regions, mono-profiled economic basis, reliance on resource extraction and geographic remoteness from the markers results in a limited spectrum of available livelihoods. An example of a settlement experiencing these challenges is the town of Vorkuta. Based on this empirical material the author shows how leadership and non-formal local practices of people contribute to the social viability of one Arctic town. The main argument, thus, is that grassroots activity of the population based on social capital, coherence and collectivity bring a fresh impulse to declining places in the Arctic and elsewhere. This paper is an attempt to contribute to the social theory by linking theoretical underpinnings of town viability with the Russian example.