Arvid Viken

Tourism and Sámi Identity – An Analysis of the Tourism‐Identity Nexus in a Sámi Community

This article is a study of the tourism‐identity nexus in a Sámi community called Karasjohka, often regarded as the Sámi capital in Norway. The aim is, based on focus group interviews, to look at the importance of tourism as a parameter for identity negotiations. The study indicates the existence of a strong Sámi ethos, but people have multiple roles and in many of these the Sáminess is of minor importance. The relation to tourists or to tourism as such seems to be handled through non‐Sámi roles. The study unveiled three main reactions to tourism; the first one is to be irritated – by the way the tourism industry handles Sámi culture, and by the fact that the most profitable parts of the business is in the hands of non‐Sámi; the second one is called reflexive rejection – tourism is maintained to be of minimal importance for cultural and identity issues; and the third one is called discursive awareness – people admitting that tourism is a significant institution and as such being part of the contexts that over time forms their views of themselves, their culture and of the outer world.

Introduction: Tourism and the Sámi

This special issue of Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism is devoted to tourism in the Sámi parts of Finland, Sweden and Norway, a region that together with an area in Russia is called Sápmi by the Sámi. The issue has evolved from a Nordic research project focusing on tourism as an ethno-political matter. On conducting tourism research in this area indigenous and ethnic issues are inevitable. Although not many of the Sámi either live within Sápmi or speak one of the Sámi languages, traditions, ethnic symbols and the aboriginality status have for a long time contributed to the touristic attractiveness of the Sámi core area. The most important particularity of Sámi culture is the Finno-Ugrian language, related to Finnish and only with borrow-words common with Swedish and Norwegian. There is of course a whole culture interwoven with the language. Almost as important is reindeer herding, although only a minority of the Sámi people is occupied by this semi-nomadic subsistence. Among most Sámi the traditions related to reindeer herding are strong. For instance, reindeer meat is still vital in the upbringing of most of the Sámi. And, symbolically, reindeer herding is as important as ever – it is a dynamic sign of Sámi traditions and modernity at the same time. Altogether the symbols of Sámi culture are exotic in the eyes of people from outside and thus, they are frequently used for attracting tourists to the North of Europe (e.g. Saarinen, 2001; Pettersson, 2004). Moreover, recent changes in the reindeer herding industry have put additional pressure on the Sámi to engage in alternative business ventures. Tourism development has been seen as a key option in this context (cf. Müller & Pettersson, this issue). The Sámi are often regarded as one people. Historically this may be right, but today there are different Sámi groups, like Southern Sámi, Lule Sámi, Skolt Sámi, Inland (Fell) Sámi and Costal Sámi. And due to the borders drawn up by the Nordic national states in the 18th century (by a treaty called Lappekodisillen from 1751) (cf. Lorenz, 1991), there are also significant differences between the Sámi living in Norway and Sweden, and those living in Finland or Russia. In Finland the

Tourism, research, and governance on Svalbard: a symbiotic relationship.

The tourism industry, research activities, and governing institutions are often seen as three very different, independent, and partly antagonistic activities and sectors - tourism as pure profit-pursuing, research as indifferent to business, and governing as controlling both. In this paper, it is argued that this is not the case on Svalbard, where a symbiotic relationship exists between the three sectors. Tourism to the islands emerged in the wake of the exploration of the Arctic in the late 1800s, but for a long period tourism rates were low, mostly due to a strict environmental regime supported by researchers in the natural sciences as well as the government. However, tourism has increased over the past 20 years, partly due to changes in the relationships between the tourism industry, researchers, and governing bodies. The involvement of research in different types of governance and its influence on tourism development will be demonstrated using theories of modern governance as points of departure for an analysis of the current situation; how tourism has provided governors with activities to govern and researchers with a rationale for comprehensive research activity. This case study shows how a symbiosis between tourism, research, and governance can be seen to emerge.

Kirkenes: An Industrial Site Reinvented as a Border Town

Abstract 1This article analyses the transformation of Kirkenes, a small town on the Russian–Norwegian border, from an industrial town to a border town. Kirkenes was established as a harbour for an iron-ore mining venture in what today is the municipality of Sør-Varanger. This industry closed down during the 1990s. The article describes how Kirkenes has been transformed within “bordered” relationships of civic society, business and a combination of high-level and local political activities. Being a border town and a centre in the Barents Region is the hegemonic narrative of today. The manifold transformations have led to a situation where Kirkenes has become “Russianized”, though local actors struggle with how to handle this aspect of local development and the meaning of the place. The article also investigates to what degree the transformations have changed local identity. The focus is on how identities are dealt with, whether they are seen as immanent and essential cultural traits, or as something that tends to be changed and adapted to the situation. Based on the concept of narrative identities, there are reasons to believe that there are strong identities based on both public narratives relating to local history and nature and metanarratives about globalization and cross-border communities.

Editorial: Tourism issues and international borders in the Nordic Region

Boundaries or borders and their associated security, political, socio-cultural and economic mechanisms have significant implications for regional and industrial development, trade, human mobility, social networks, cultural diversity, environmental regulations and tourism. Traditionally, international borders have been viewed as barriers, but border landscapes also provide opportunities for cross-border collaboration and development (Rumford, 2012; Timothy, 1999). Indeed, while we do not live in a borderless world, border areas are increasingly challenged and transformed by transnational border-crossing activities (Sassen, 2008). Conceptually borders can be seen in various ways, scales and levels of complexity (Wastl-Walter, 2011), and cross-border travel and tourism provides multiple ways to approach and understand borders and their roles and impacts. While borders can hinder the mobility of people, goods and ideas, “borderlands” can also work as engines of connectivity (Rumford, 2008) and places for collaboration and exchange (Timothy, 2001). Thus, borders empower economic and cultural encounters where people, businesses, agencies and NGOs can actively construct, change and even erase the impacts and meanings of borders through “borderwork” (Rumford, 2012). Thus, most borders are dynamic and relational, and continually constituted through encounters, policies and practices. Obviously borders and border landscapes in tourism are often based on their selective openness where some people, actors and matters can move across more easily than others. This is highly evident in the current crisis of humanitarian migration in Europe. Therefore, the connections between borders, bordering/borderwork and tourism are highly diverse. This introductory paper examines some of the traditional relationships between borders and tourism. The specific focus is on international borders, which form the core area of studies in tourism and borders. Like many other industries and forms of trade, tourism is affected profoundly by the existence of these political borders in several ways, including borders as attractions or destinations, barriers, transit spaces and determiners of tourism landscapes (Timothy, 2001). It is through the very existence of nation states and borders that international tourism is constituted as something measurable. After a short presentation of border tourism theory as part of the science of borders, and an overview of the most common perspectives in border tourism, the paper focuses on the Nordic borderscapes in tourism by highlighting some of the current changes taking place in this dynamic area of tourism research and by introducing the themes developed in this special issue by its contributing authors. Finally, future research needs are briefly discussed.

What Is Arctic Tourism, and Who Should Define It?

This chapter discusses the Anglo-American hegemony of academic writing about Arctic tourism. This is often reckoned as a periphery and this term is also discussed. It is argued here that this hegemony results in some off accounts. The chapter shows how some of the writing about Arctic tourism in academic books and journals tends to be very inaccurate and general, adding to a perception of these geographical areas as less developed and modern. However, it is also shown that there are research rather indicating the opposite – that the “periphery” is an integrated part of a global hybridity, but also that to break the hegemony is a challenging matter.

Communities of practice in the management of an Arctic environment: monitoring knowledge as complementary to scientific knowledge and the precautionary principle?

This is accepted manuscript version. Published version available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S003224741500039X