Strategies of the Sámi movement in Sweden: mobilization around grievances related to the ecological conditions of reindeer pastoralism, 2012–2022

Abstract

Reindeer pastoralism, practiced by groups of the Indigenous Sámi people in Sweden, is being threatened by a new wave of encroachments. In this paper I take stock of how the Sámi movement has mobilized around grievances related to the ecological conditions that support natural pasture-based reindeer pastoralism. I apply the contentious politics approach to social movement theory, and Felix Kolb’s conceptualization of five strategies that social movements have used when interacting with the state to achieve political change. Drawing upon 10 years of data from the Sámi public news service, my study makes three main contributions. First, I identify a set of themes found in the public grievances connected to ecological conditions articulated by reindeer pastoralist organizations in the public sphere that are a focus for mobilization. Second, I present an overview of the five strategies that the Sámi movement applies in claims-making to address those grievances: the public preference mechanism, the political access mechanism, the judicial mechanism, the international politics mechanism, and the disruption mechanism, and show how they relate to one another. Third, I discuss the limitations of current mobilization efforts, and argue that cross-movement coalitions are needed to challenge the hegemonic bloc.

Keywords

• contentious politics
• grievances
• indigenous mobilization
• pastoralism
• reindeer husbandry
• social movements
• strategy for political change