New article: “Is an urban Sámi future possible?”

A post-colonial perspective on young and urban Sámi.

In the most recent issue of Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift, Astri Dankertsen & Christina Åhrén discuss the survival and growth of indigenous identity and culture among urbanized youth. The article is based on interviews with young Sámi in different Nordic states’ urban areas.

The article is available in Norwegian at Idunn.

ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH:

Northern Europe’s indigenous people, the Sámi, experience, like other indigenous people all around the world, an increasing urbanization (Peters & Andersen, 2013). This is relevant especially for the younger generations, where ever more young Sámi grow up in or move to the cities. Concurrently with the increasing urbanization of Sámi, new questions arise regarding a Sámi future in the cities, where Sámi visibility and cultural survival in the city become important issues. We are interested in how colonial relations, representations and practices are reproduced in the present. We have interviewed Sámi youth in selected Nordic cities, representatives of Sámi youth organizations, Sámi civil society stakeholders in general, in addition to relevant authorities. In the article, we explore how Sámi youth, Sámi youth organizations, the majority society and its institutions create new urban Sámi spaces through interaction. Through Sara Ahmed’s (2004) concepts comfort/discomfort, we analyze how colonial structures are experienced on the microlevel in urban societies where there is not always space for Sámi language and culture.

Keywords: sámi, urbanity, indigenous people, colonialism, decolonization