Abstract
This paper explores social representations of wind energy development within reindeer herding lands among the Indigenous Southern Saami living within Norwegian borders. For this matter, the paper combines Social Representations Theory (SRT) with the analytical framework of "circuits of dispossession and privilege" and decolonial approaches within community psychology. Data consisted of seven individual semi-structured open-ended interviews, three collective interviews, and observation in three lawsuits, public meetings, protest actions, and reindeer herding activities. The findings suggest that for the subjects in this study, the onset of wind power represents the renewal of historical processes of dispossession through accumulation and colonialism, enabled by harmful knowledge gaps in Norwegian society and institutions, contrasting Southern Saami's values of responsibility and ecological practices. The implication of these findings suggests an urgent need of rethinking renewable energy and including indigenousknowledge in climate change agendas.
Highlights
This article explores how large‐scale wind power industrial sites are implemented in Norway and experienced by the Indigenous Southern Saami1 community
Large‐scale wind energy projects are framed as climate change mitigation strategies, they can simultaneously endanger sustainable life systems, violate human rights, or add an “insult to the injury” of communities already striving to adapt to climate change (Avila, 2018; Dunlap, 2019; Marino & Ribot, 2012)
Social Representations Theory (SRT) was useful for the analysis, in combination with critical community psychology (CP) and decolonial epistemologies
Summary
This article explores how large‐scale wind power industrial sites are implemented in Norway and experienced by the Indigenous Southern Saami community. Large‐scale wind energy projects are framed as climate change mitigation strategies, they can simultaneously endanger sustainable life systems, violate human rights, or add an “insult to the injury” of communities already striving to adapt to climate change (Avila, 2018; Dunlap, 2019; Marino & Ribot, 2012). In such a context, some populations are vulnerable to climate change, as policies of climate change mitigation can put their life systems at risk.
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