{"id":800,"date":"2021-05-24T10:37:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T08:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/?p=800"},"modified":"2021-05-24T10:37:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T08:37:19","slug":"coming-up-corinna-rovers-dissertation-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2021\/05\/coming-up-corinna-rovers-dissertation-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming up: Corinna R\u00f6ver’s Dissertation Defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

PhD-Colleague Corinna R\u00f6ver<\/a> is defending her doctoral thesis on 2 June, 2 p.m. (Stockholm Time) in\"\" the division’s Higher Seminar Series. Her dissertation with the title “Making Reindeer. The Negotiation of an Arctic Animal in Modern Swedish S\u00e1pmi, 1920-2020”<\/a> will be discussed with opponent Prof. David Anderson, Chair in “The Anthropology of the North” at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.<\/p>\n

If you are interested in Corinna’s outstanding work, you can join via Zoom<\/a> and in case that you need technical assistance for joining please contact history[at]abe.kth.se.<\/p>\n

\n

Here is the abstract<\/strong> of this valuable contribution:<\/p>\n

The Arctic has long been perceived as a static, timeless place of shielded wilderness. This perception extended to the reindeer as both part of the Arctic environment and of traditional Indigenous livelihoods. Physically, the reindeer of Swedish S\u00e1pmi looks largely the same today as it did a century ago – an animal ostensibly unaltered and unchanged.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this thesis argues that the reindeer has undergone a number of fundamental shifts of meaning in Swedish S\u00e1pmi over the past century. The dissertation asks how the reindeer’s roles and functions evolved in Swedish S\u00e1pmi from ca. 1920 to 2020 and examines how, why and by whom the reindeer has been negotiated. It explores the changing understanding of the reindeer’s role in society, studies emerging idea(l)s and purposes, and considers what mark they left on the animal.<\/p>\n

This study is a history of the ideas, discourses and practices that shaped the modern reindeer. It examines ways of understanding and making reindeer. At different points in time, varying combinations of actors have sought to control, shape and re-define this Arctic animal. The meaning attached to it changed as a result, and with it reindeer-related policies. Swedish state policies towards the S\u00e1mi and reindeer husbandry have especially deeply impacted the way reindeer were understood and governed. Over the course of a century, policy efforts aimed to control the reindeer’s movements, health, reproduction and death, with varying success. Discourse and associated practices generated multiple versions of the reindeer. In terms of these changing versions, the thesis conceptualizes the reindeer as a changing technology and a socially constructed resource.<\/p>\n

Five empirical chapters trace how the reindeer was negotiated, especially between the Swedish state and S\u00e1mi herders. They show how the reindeer’s role and purpose has been under repeated negotiation and discuss some of these roles. Restrictive border and grazing policies made the reindeer a trespasser at the turn of the twentieth century. From the 1950s onwards, a modernist improvement project envisioned it as economic resource. In the course of such rationalization efforts, the reindeer became an object of techno-scientific interest. Improvers attempted to transform reindeer into productive, reliable meat machines. These efforts faced a severe setback when the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 contaminated considerable numbers of reindeer, turning it into a toxic animal and a threatened bearer of S\u00e1mi culture. In more recent years, we find the reindeer at an intersection of consumer demand for natural foods and S\u00e1mi agency. It has become a symbol for claims to self-determination. S\u00e1mi champions of food sovereignty and land rights have started to reclaim and promote the reindeer as traditional and wholesome source of food through the Slow Food S\u00e1pmi movement.<\/p>\n

A closer look at these re-definitions reveals that the reindeer is no timeless, passive backdrop to human action. The reindeer itself has history – it is a historical animal with agency of its own, able to challenge efforts of control. Nevertheless, the different notions of the reindeer materialized into policies and ways of governing not only the reindeer but also their Indigenous herders. The (re)negotiations of what reindeer are or ought to be provide insights into the relationship between representatives of the Swedish state and of S\u00e1mi reindeer husbandry, as well as colonial legacies and persistently unequal power relations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Swedish:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arktis har l\u00e4nge uppfattats som en statisk, tidl\u00f6s och avskild \u00f6demark. Denna uppfattning g\u00e4ller \u00e4ven renar, som setts som en del av b\u00e5de den arktiska milj\u00f6n och urfolkens traditionella levnadss\u00e4tt. Renen i svenska S\u00e1pmi ser fysiskt i stort sett likadan ut idag som f\u00f6r hundra \u00e5r sedan \u2013 ett djur som till synes f\u00f6rblev of\u00f6r\u00e4ndrat genom tiden.<\/p>\n

\u00c4nd\u00e5 argumenterar denna avhandling f\u00f6r att renen har genomg\u00e5tt ett antal grundl\u00e4ggande betydelsef\u00f6rskjutningar i svenska S\u00e1pmi under det senaste \u00e5rhundradet. Den utforskar den f\u00f6r\u00e4nderliga f\u00f6rst\u00e5elsen av renens roll i samh\u00e4llet och den studerar framv\u00e4xande id\u00e9er och syften och hur dessa p\u00e5verkade djuret. Avhandlingen fr\u00e5gar hur renens roller och funktioner har utvecklats i svenska S\u00e1pmi mellan 1920 och 2020 och unders\u00f6ker hur, varf\u00f6r och av vem renarnas f\u00f6rvandling har genomf\u00f6rts.<\/p>\n

Denna studie \u00e4r en historia som innefattar de id\u00e9er, diskurser och metoder som formade den moderna renen. Den unders\u00f6ker s\u00e4tt att f\u00f6rst\u00e5 och \u201cg\u00f6ra\u201d renen som djur men ocks\u00e5 som inslag i ekonomi och samh\u00e4lle. Vid olika tillf\u00e4llen har olika kombinationer av akt\u00f6rer f\u00f6rs\u00f6kt kontrollera, forma och omdefiniera detta arktiska djur. Som resultat f\u00f6r\u00e4ndrades dess betydelse, och d\u00e4rmed \u00e4ven den politiska styrningen av renen. S\u00e4rskilt den svenska statliga politiken gentemot samerna och rensk\u00f6tseln har djupt p\u00e5verkat hur renar f\u00f6rstods och styrdes. Under ett helt \u00e5rhundrade har politiska anstr\u00e4ngningar syftat till att kontrollera renens r\u00f6relser, h\u00e4lsa, reproduktion och d\u00f6d, med varierande framg\u00e5ng. Diskurs och tillh\u00f6rande praktiker genererade flera versioner av renen. Med tanke p\u00e5 dessa f\u00f6r\u00e4nderliga versioner konceptualiserar avhandlingen renen som en socialt konstruerad resurs.<\/p>\n

Fem empiriska kapitel sp\u00e5rar hur renen f\u00f6rhandlades, speciellt mellan svenska staten och samiska rensk\u00f6tare. Restriktiv gr\u00e4ns- och renbetespolitik gjorde renen till en inkr\u00e4ktare vid 1900- talets b\u00f6rjan. Fr\u00e5n 1950-talet och fram\u00e5t s\u00e5gs renen som en ekonomisk resurs i ett statligt modernistikt f\u00f6rb\u00e4ttringsprojekt. Under dessa rationaliseringsinsatser blev renen till ett objekt av teknovetenskapligt intresse. Reformatorer f\u00f6rs\u00f6kte omvandla renar till produktiva, p\u00e5litliga k\u00f6ttmaskiner. Dessa anstr\u00e4ngningar m\u00f6tte ett allvarligt bakslag n\u00e4r k\u00e4rnkraftsolyckan i Tjernobyl 1986 f\u00f6rorenade ett stort antal renar och gjorde det till ett giftigt djur och en hotad b\u00e4rare av samisk kultur. P\u00e5 senare \u00e5r ser vi renarna i sk\u00e4rningen mellan konsumenternas efterfr\u00e5gan p\u00e5 naturliga livsmedel och samisk agens. Renen har blivit en symbol f\u00f6r anspr\u00e5k p\u00e5 sj\u00e4lvbest\u00e4mmande, d\u00e4r samiska f\u00f6rk\u00e4mpare f\u00f6r livsmedelssuver\u00e4nitet och markr\u00e4ttigheter har b\u00f6rjat \u00e5terta och fr\u00e4mja renen som traditionell samisk och h\u00e4lsosam matk\u00e4lla genom Slow Food S\u00e1pmi-r\u00f6relsen.<\/p>\n

En n\u00e4rmare granskning av dessa omdefinitioner visar att renen inte \u00e4r n\u00e5gon tidl\u00f6s, passiv bakgrund till m\u00e4nniskornas handlingar. Renen har en egen historia \u2013 det \u00e4r ett historiskt djur med egen agens, som kan utmana kontrollf\u00f6rs\u00f6k. \u00c4nd\u00e5 omsattes de olika f\u00f6rest\u00e4llningarna om renen till politik och s\u00e4tt att styra inte bara renen utan ocks\u00e5 dess samiska \u00e4gare. Att f\u00f6rst\u00e5 (om)f\u00f6rhandlingarna om vad en ren \u00e4r eller borde vara ger insikter i f\u00f6rh\u00e5llandet mellan representanter f\u00f6r den svenska staten och samiska rensk\u00f6tare, liksom f\u00f6rh\u00e5llandets koloniala arv och kvarvarande oj\u00e4mna maktf\u00f6rh\u00e5llanden.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PhD-Colleague Corinna R\u00f6ver is defending her doctoral thesis on 2 June, 2 p.m. (Stockholm Time) in the division’s Higher Seminar Series. Her dissertation with the title “Making Reindeer. The Negotiation of an Arctic Animal in Modern Swedish S\u00e1pmi, 1920-2020” will be discussed with opponent Prof. David Anderson, Chair in “The Anthropology of the North” at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1305,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[129,7,4,3],"tags":[27,131,126,130],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defence","category-events","category-research","category-the-division","tag-dissertation","tag-higher-seminar","tag-sami","tag-sapmi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions\/810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}