Abstract
The article addresses expanding of global economic systems by studying Sámi strategies addressing Norwegian High Northern Policies (NHNP) launched by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2005. NHNP attracted global economy, labour and knowledge to the Arctic region. The Sámi responding are analysed by using agency theories in economic geography, and contributes to expand the content of agencies e.g. by understanding its embedding in specific historical shaped structures as well as in debates on new opportunity spaces in the wake of globalism.The study demonstrates three strategies debated and launched by the Sámi Parliament: (i) In grounding its resistance the Sámi Parliament argued that the entry of international industries into areas with Sámi population threaten the fundamental conditions for Sámi livelihood. (ii) By entering global governance the parliament emphasized the importance of Sámi negotiation with multinational companies in global governance frameworks. (iii) And by changing the historical understanding of Sámi territories in order to include research and higher education milieus outside remote rural districts.
Highlights
In 1973, a pioneer in political sociology and human geography the Norwegian Stein Rokkan, formulated his mission in this statement: ‘If political science is to become truly a world-wide discipline, it must not flinch from facing the great issues: the proliferation of multi-national economic networks, the stubbornness of local and national cultures’ (Rokkan 1973)
The article will investigate the Sami in Norway’s responding a ‘proliferation’ of global economic system by analyzing actual policies strategies conducted by the Norwegian Sami Parliament the previous 10–20 years
The new High North policy (NHNP) should attract local firms to develop their competence and knowledge so they could benefit from the growing interests from oil and gas, mineral exploration, wind turbines, fish-farming, water-based power construction and tourism, all of which were articulated in many northern communities
Summary
In 1973, a pioneer in political sociology and human geography the Norwegian Stein Rokkan, formulated his mission in this statement: ‘If political science is to become truly a world-wide discipline, it must not flinch from facing the great issues: the proliferation of multi-national economic networks, the stubbornness of local and national cultures’ (Rokkan 1973). The NHNP should attract local firms to develop their competence and knowledge so they could benefit from the growing interests from oil and gas, mineral exploration, wind turbines, fish-farming, water-based power construction and tourism, all of which were articulated in many northern communities From this point of view actual Sami agencies could have followed the state’s attempt to attract international enterprises, often on a large scale, and capital to northern areas rather than e.g. developing stubbornness strategies resisting the state globalization invitation. The article analyses current Sami debates and policies in the context of these extensive socio-economic transformations ongoing in commu nities in Arctic From this perspective the debate on economic devel opment in Sami communities in the wake of NHNP includes responding to an increasing and manifold interaction of actors and interests entering Arctic. It involves specific Sami interests and legal rights interacting with trade and investment flows, and where their ability to influence on operations is embedded in specific local, national and in ternational institutional backgrounds
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