*Originally recorded March 29, 2019*
Co-sponsored with the Northern Studies Program
Dr. Per Selle
Professor, Department of Comparative Politics
University of Bergen

Abstract:This presentation will discuss how Sami politics has developed since the start in 1989, institutionalizing a new public space for the Sami, an Indigenous people in Norway. It is important to note that these developments are occurring in a unitary welfare state with a strong emphasis on universalism and individualism.  The growth of Sami self-determination and power through different self-rule and shared-rule arrangements within such a state structure is not an obvious thing. In trying to explain why the strengthening of Sami power has been possible, I will also look to Canada and to changes taking place in international law.