New mobilities – new economies? Temporary populations and local innovation capacity in sparsely populated areas

Many communities in sparsely populated areas of developed countries such as Australia, Canada and in northern Europe have experienced socio- conomic decline over the past decades owing to a loss of employe ment in traditional industries, youth outmigration, and population ageing. Hence, there is an increasing interest in how communities can become more innovative in addressing socio- conomic decline and pursuing new e development opportunities outside traditional industries (Halseth et al., 2010). This chapter argues that taking advantage of temporary and mobile populations may offer potential for new socio- conomic development for e settlements in decline in sparsely populated areas. Temporary mobilities may bring new people, ideas, skills, knowledge and network connections to remote communities that might otherwise not be available locally, and thus contribute to processes of local innovation. Temporary population mobility has long been a key feature of human geography in sparsely populated areas. Yet, various global forces – including improving transport and communications technologies, increasing globalisation of industrial production, ongoing centralisation of services, and higher levels of education, wealth and leisure time – have radically changed mobility trends in recent years. The literature identifies a number of examples of such changes. These include increasing proportions of non- esident r labour, including long- istance commuters (see Chapter 3 in this volume) d or seasonal workers (Storey, 2010; Lundmark, 2006), as well as increases in temporary residential migrants, including skilled workers on short- erm t 178...