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MAGNUS DAVIDSON: Close ties with Nordic neighbours work both ways for benefit of coastal communities in Highlands and Islands





The town of Ísafjörður in Iceland, where Magnus is currently based.
The town of Ísafjörður in Iceland, where Magnus is currently based.

This month’s column is being written from the town of Ísafjörður in Iceland’s West Fjords. I am teaching on a post-graduate course on regional development in coastal communities in a small university centre to an international cohort of students who move and live here for their studies.

Not too dissimilar to Thurso’s post-graduate research students based at UHI North Highland’s Environmental Research Institute, who bring a valuable social, economic, and cultural contribution to the town.

This is my third visit to Iceland, and I have worked across all of the Nordic countries, generally in trying to understand the social and economic impact of industry on rural populations.

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This has ranged from mining in Greenland and Finland, oil and gas extraction in Norway, new tourism in Sweden, and renewable energy generation in the Faroe Islands. Often with very similar challenges and opportunities as we face in the far north of Scotland.

The cultural links between our Nordic part of Scotland and our neighbours to the north should come as no surprise. Most Icelandic folk I meet find humour in my Icelandic sounding name, Magnús Davíðsson. A few years ago, a study came out linking the DNA of half of the earliest population of Iceland to Scotland or Ireland.

Last Wednesday I visited Bolungarvík, meaning driftwood bay, a name with the same root as Wick in Caithness and Uig in Skye.

The Scottish Government has done a good job in recognising these links and in 2019 published Arctic Connections: Scotland's Arctic policy framework. It was a move, in part, driven by our exit from the European Union and the wishes of the Scottish Government to retain international links, and to realise potential economic opportunity as the Arctic ‘opens up’ due to climate change.

I was part of a team of academics who helped contribute some background to the Scottish Government through an Arctic Policy Mapping Report. We took a systematic approach to mapping Scotland’s links through time with our Nordic and Arctic neighbours across a number of themes, including socio-cultural, environmental, and economic. Connections ranged from the Hudson Bay Company in Orkney through to projects funded by the European Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme.

Throughout any discussion on Scottish-Arctic policy I am unapologetic in my insistence that the majority of our linkages are based on our rural coastal communities, usually found in the Highlands and Islands.

Coastal areas including Scrabster have the closest links to our Nordic neighbours.
Coastal areas including Scrabster have the closest links to our Nordic neighbours.

If Scotland is to build closer economic links due to geographical and social links, then those who should first benefit are those with the closest links. That means Lerwick, Kirkwall, Scrabster and Stornoway should benefit before Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Nordic policy has been a utopian end goal for sections of Scottish society, particularly during the independence debate that has endured over the last decade.

There has been some interesting thinking come out of the Scottish-Nordic discussion but it can at times take a simplistic and uncritical approach. Looking north and east can undoubtedly offer opportunity, but we should not be naive in thinking solutions will be easily translatable or implemented.

When I first started working with colleagues from across the Nordic and Arctic regions, I would look forward to having the opportunity to be able to ask questions on aspirations I had for Scottish communities and regions. What surprised me was that these conversations were never one sided and often before I could get a question in, I was asked to explain how Scotland was doing well on a particular issue, often energy related.

Renewable energy is arguably the most interesting offering Scotland has for our near neighbours. That could be energy itself in a more interconnected energy system, right through to skills and expertise, or technology itself, if or when our efforts in marine energy start to pay off at scale. Hopefully again putting the north of Scotland front and centre with economic links to our northern neighbours.

Understandably, as the politics of Brexit have changed, the massive social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has played out, and the country faces an increasing economic crisis, the Scottish Government has not been as visible in promoting these Scottish-Arctic connections as when they released their policy framework.

Whilst we wait for greater government support, undoubtedly, to pick up in the future, we can continue our own personal, community, and regional exploration of our Nordic and Arctic links. We have a lot to offer each other.

Magnus Davidson.
Magnus Davidson.
  • Magnus Davidson is a researcher based in Thurso.

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