Village Economics in Rural Alaska: Social and Economic Studies

摘要

The analysis describes how the village economies function and identifies the economic differences that distinguish the study communities of St. Paul, Gambell, and Alakanuk in Alaska. The study communities displayed a range of important economic characteristics. As different as they were, they can arguably be considered Alaskan economic 'prototypes' that exemplify arrangements of government programs and subsidies, natural resources harvests for both household and commercial use, and limited exports based on both raw and worked (e.g., crafts) resources similar to those patterns found in any other rural Alaska communities. All three communities' resource bases are subject to significant regulations which provided raw material for the political-economic analysis. Even though the villages have many economic elements in common, they differed most strongly in their blends of these elements.