Sámi Citizenship: Marginalisation or Integration?

Abstract

In accordance with international conventions the Sámi is an indigenous group belonging to two populations and two overlapping civil societies within one nation state. This situation not only influences Sámi political interests and activities in general, but it also affects the individual Sámi's political orientation and decisions. Nevertheless, no thorough study has been conducted, on the individual level, of Sámi political participation and involvement. We know neither how political attitudes and participation vary within this group, nor how it varies in relation to the Norwegian population in general. Thus we know practically nothing about how recent institutional developments have influenced Sámi citizenship.

This article looks closely at variations in political involvement and participation amongst Sámi and non-Sámi living in Norway's Sámi language management area, and compares this with political involvement and participation amongst the Norwegian population in general. The Citizenship Survey shows that in terms of political interest and participation, the Sámi living in the Sámi language management area are on par with others living there, and with Norwegians in general. In several important political areas the Sámi actually show significantly more interest and involvement than Norwegians in general. Furthermore, Sámi political trust and self-confidence are as high as in the general population, and we have not uncovered any particular marginalisation with respect to women and young people's interest and participation.

There is much to suggest that our findings measure not only the Sámi's combined political interest and participation, but also their degree of participation and interest in the Norwegian political system. We do not find a picture of Sámi political segregation, nor of an extensive marginalisation. The findings point towards strong integration in the Norwegian political system, with Norwegian and Sámi public space and civil societies overlapping rather than being competitive or even antagonistic.     

IMAGINED DIVERSITY

The period that takes in the first term of New Labour in Britain also spans the empowerment of a new elected National Assembly for Wales and the designation of Objective One European structural funds to parts of Wales. Analysis of cultural policy documents from those years finds that the endorsement of an eclectic cultural style as a collective identity for a diverse citizenry is compromised by the implication that it is the Welsh language, rather than diversity itself, that signifies diversity. Scrutiny of proposals for, or assertions about, a “branded” cultural identity reveals inconsistencies between the cultural practices of place‐based communities and the opportunistic affiliations that are deployed in the interests of social and economic development in a “new” information economy.     

Six theses on waste,value, and commons

The origins of capitalist value theory lie in transformations of property through enclosure of ‘commons-as-waste’ and practices of ‘commoning’ that supported these. These processes, repeated with difference, remain with us. Capitalist value production becomes a structure of necessity in societies that are profit seeking rather than needs oriented; the history of capitalist value is one of the unrelenting attempts to subordinate needs-oriented forms of value production to its accumulative logic. In the process, it continuously casts certain people, places, and conducts as wasteful, superfluous, or residual. In short, capitalist value constantly battles to assert its normative superiority over and autonomy from other forms of value production that interweaves with it. Waste, immanent to capital's becoming-being, poses a jeopardy to capital accumulation: it is, on the one hand, capitalist value-in-waiting and on the other hand, it is an omnipresent logic of dissipation that evades or exceeds capital's dialectic, threatening its legitimacy and existence.     

‘The fieldworker not in the head's office’: an empirical exploration of the role of an English rural primary school within its village

This paper presents the findings of a project exploring the role of an English primary school inside its rural village. The fieldwork discovered that the school had lacked a full-time head teacher for a number of years and the paper explicates three dynamics to unravel why: (1) interpersonal issues (high staff turnover and the legacy of a former head); (2) the political–economic development of the village and its shifting local ‘squirearchy’; and finally (3) the construction of the spatial environment of the village (post-war expansion and the situation of amenities). These three dynamics possessed a synergy and this was key in seeing the complexities of this rural environment and its bearing upon social relations such as the absent head. It therefore supports recent theorising positioning interpersonal power alongside the temporal and spatial character of a local environment. The paper concludes by using this insight to consider what problems the school—and any new head teacher—might face in the immediate future. The research is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2009–2011.Using a multi-strategy research approach, the paper draws upon participant observation, interview, documentary, visual and historical material in support of its analysis.     

Russia's Inward and Outward Foreign Direct Investment: Insights into the Economy

A prominent British economist reviews the recent growth, partner-country composition, and sector composition of foreign direct investment in and out of Russia from a comparative international perspective, based on UNCTAD and Central Bank of Russia data as well as selected case studies. Two hypotheses are tested: that foreign policy significantly affects the host-country pattern of Russia's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and that domestic institutions significantly impact the host-country pattern of Russia's OFDI and the sectoral pattern of its inward foreign direct investment (IFDI). Quantitative evidence of foreign-policy influence could not be found, while domestic institutional influences do appear to be present, most notably in the form of system-escaping OFDI.     

娘娘寨城址性质问题试探

娘娘寨城址是郑州地区新发现的一座周代城址,种种迹象表明,该城址与郑国东徙其民有很大关系,应为桓公"寄孥"与武公东迁的重要都邑。     

新中国华侨捐资兴学政策演变及其特征

受私有制、资本主义及外资利用等一系列重大理论问题的困扰,也受国内外政治经济形势及侨情等客观环境的限制,新中国成立以来的华侨捐资兴学政策一波三折。至20世纪50年代中期,各级政府才正式出台了鼓励华侨捐资兴学的政策,之后这些政策又因种种原因,在实践中未能持续下去。改革开放之后,华侨捐资兴学政策重新步入正轨,并体现出注重保护捐赠人、制度化特征明显、地方先行先试等特点。     

The Mystery of Capital: Eurasian Entrepreneurs' Socio-Cultural Strategies for Commercial Success in Early 20th-Century Hong Kong

Unlike economic capital, which is visible and easy to calculate, social capital is intangible and difficult to assess. Although both types of capital are crucial in determining social relations and social behaviour, little solid research has been done on the latter. This paper attempts to use the rags-to-riches story of Sir Robert Ho Tung, a first-generation Hong Kong Eurasian entrepreneur who commenced life without traditional social/cultural capital as the illegitimate son of a Chinese woman and a Dutchman, to illustrate the processes involved in cultivating and accumulating social capital. With special reference to economic development in early colonial Hong Kong and major social transformations in the Chinese mainland, this paper also demonstrates how a group of so-called social/racial “half-caste bastards” (Eurasians) were able to form their own social networks of mutual help and protection. It also considers how they worked to consolidate, mobilise, aggrandise and transmit their social capital. In conclusion, it is argued that Eurasians in early twentieth-century Hong Kong constructed their personal networks like a web, with different interconnecting layers that functioned at different socio-economic-political levels to serve different purposes.     

说"国必依山川"

古人认为山为神灵傧居之所,川则通达于山之涂,大邑国都是承天命之处,而天子则以事神祭祀恪谨天命为主任,为本职,“国必依山川”说的正是大邑国都依山傍水,以便于君主上通于神明,以神道政教天下。学者们以经济原因解之,以今度古之论也。     

20世纪40年代以来中国大陆“四大家族官僚资本”问题研究

20世纪20年代,瞿秋白等人提出了官僚资本的概念。抗战胜利前后,共产党人有了“四大家族官僚资本”的提法。1949年建国直至“文化大革命”结束,学术界对这一问题基本延续了此前的定论。改革开放以后,一些学者开始对“四大家族官僚资本”的性质、作用提出不同看法。上世纪 90 年代至今,除深入研究“四大家族官僚资本”扩张的过程和途径、国家资本如何转化成了官僚私人资本外,不少人认为就性质而言,“四大家族官僚资本”实际上含有国家资本和官僚私人资本两重性质。