Glocalisation of global market forces and the repositioning of a peripheral Russian mining community

Abstract

Increasing globalisation and global market forces shape the development of resource peripheries in the Barents region. Foreign direct investments are concrete example of global market forces. Their glocalisation forces the locals to evaluate their consequences for the local development and reposition their communities in global context. This article studies glocalisation of global market forces and preferred directions of repositioning of a peripheral single-industry mining community in the Russian Barents region. The study is based on a case study of local opinions about actual and potential external actors in the economic development of Kovdor, located in the Murmansk region. The paper analyses the preferred owner of the town-constituting enterprise and the local opinions about the EU, USA and China as potential investors to the case study community. The study reveals how local opinions about external forces in the local development are related to local life-worlds. Moreover, the paper shows the impact that economic, political, cultural, historical and technological factors have in forming these opinions about potential foreign investors. The study shows generally positive local opinions about FDI. However, significant differences were found in opinions about different investing countries.