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The Invisible Sami Population: Regional Public Healthcare in Northern Sweden 1863–1950
Medicine and public health provision have often been used as instruments of power that have shaped relations between the colonizer and the colonized. The county councils, established in 1862 as regional self-governing authorities, became (and have remained) the main architects of Swedish public healthcare services. In this paper, we investigate the political praxis in regional public healthcare development in the three northernmost counties of Sweden, during 1863–1950. Our study finds that the “Lapp shall remain Lapp” policy, which dominated Swedish Sami policy at the time, had little if any influence on regional public healthcare politics. During the focal period, there were no public healthcare facilities and virtually no specific policies or directives aimed at improving access to healthcare for the Sami population
Wellbeing and Gender Equality for the Elderly in the Context of Arctic Sweden
One theme of importance for gender equality in the Arctic region is the wellbeing of the aging population and how their needs are provided for in private and public spheres – by the family, local communities, the state and the market. In this article, the complexity of the public and private division of welfare provision and care of the elderly in the Swedish Arctic context is addressed and discussed in the light of national, regional and international policy and law. Norrbotten, the northernmost county in Sweden that is part of the Barents Euro-Arctic region, is taken as a frame of reference for critical reflection on wellbeing and gender equality for the ageing population in rural, depopulated and multicultural contexts and the need to develop alternative political and legal interventions that are better adjusted to meet the everyday needs in this specific setting
The Emergence of Physical Education as a Subject for Compulsory Schooling in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century: The Case of Phokion Heinrich Clias and Adolf Spiess
In general, schooling and nation-building are associated with the unifying role of language and history education, since language and culture are perceived as fundamental pillars of the nation. Less discussed—at least regarding the curriculum—is the role of physical education, even if physical education was a highly political issue in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Based on a case study of Switzerland and textbooks for physical education by Adolf Spiess and the activities of Phokion Heinrich Clias for the Bernese school, this article discusses how physical education, distinct from the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’ care for the body, became a school subject of the nineteenth century compulsory schools and how it was related to the notion of nation and nation-building. It argues that physical education became first part of the “modern” philanthropic education and schooling, was soon taken for granted as an essential curricular component of nation-building and lost thereby the political threat
Gender Equality in the Governance of the Arctic Region
Gender equality is a fundamental political and legal obligation for most of the world’s states. The public governance of the Arctic, performed by democratic institutions established by the Arctic states, has the obligation to meet the needs of all. This article presents an analysis on whether the structure of the governance meets the needs of all equally. The analysis of the organisation’s rhetoric and activities shows what interests and whose which are maintained, as well as those who are not prioritised. Gender equality and other social sustainable considerations are treated as reactive in relation to economic development. Gender equality, as well as equality between different ethnic groups, have not, so far, been prioritised within the public governance of the Arctic despite far-reaching obligations for the concerned states
Johan Schimanski & Ulrike Spring, Passagiere des Eises. Polarhelden und arktische Diskurse 1874, Wien: Böhlau Verlag 2015, ISBN 9783205796060, 719 pp., 55 ill.
Maria Bylin, Cecilia Falk & Tomas Riad (eds.), Studier i svensk språkhistoria 12. Variation och förändring
Review: Maria Bylin, Cecilia Falk & Tomas Riad (eds.), Studier i svensk språkhistoria 12. Variation och förändring, Stockholm: Institutionen för svenska och flerspråkighet, Stockholms universitet 2014 (Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Stockholm Studies in Scandinavian Philology, N.S. 60), ISSN 0562-1097; ISBN 978-91-87235-85-6; 978-91-87235-86-3, 261 pp
Value Patterns in Four Dimensions among the Indigenous Sami Population in Norway: A Population-Based Survey
Background: This is a population-based study that explores and describes a set of personal values in indigenous Sami and non-Sami adults in Norway. Norway ratified the ILO convention no. 169 concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries in 1990. In accordance with the convention the integrity of the indigenous culture and values shall be respected. Our aim is to describe and explore value patterns among Sami and Norwegian populations.
Method: Cross-sectional questionnaire. From 24 local authorities, a total of 12,623 subjects between the ages of 36 and 79 were included in the analysis. The survey instrument consisted of a 19-item questionnaire of personal values and the analysis was based on responses from 10,268 ethnic Norwegian (just 6 questions were asked to them) and 2,355 Sami participants (1,531 Sami and 824 mixed Sami/ethnic Norwegian participants).
Results: From the 19 values, Sami respondents held the following five personal values in the highest regard: being in touch with nature; harnessing nature through fishing, hunting and berry-picking; preserving ancestral and family traditions; preserving traditional Sami industries and preserving and developing the Sami language. On the other hand, Sami respondents’ least important values included modern Sami art and the Sami Parliament (Sametinget). The ethnic Norwegians also held being in touch with nature as a very important value. Sami reported significantly higher scores for experience of ethnic discrimination and fear of losing their work/trade than ethnic Norwegians. The last 13 questions were just asked to Sami and mixed-Sami respondents. According to those questions four dimensions associated with personal values were identified among the indigenous Sami population: “Traditional Sami Values,” “Modern Sami Values,” “Contact with Nature” and “Feeling of Marginalisation.” Traditional and modern Sami values were both characterised by significantly higher scores among females, the lowest age bracket and those who considered themselves Sami. Within the Traditional Sami Values dimension, higher scores were also recorded in participants who were married or cohabiting, living in majority Sami areas, satisfied with “way of life” and members of the Læstadian Church. The Modern Sami Values dimension showed higher scores among participants with high household incomes. The Contact with Nature dimension had significantly higher proportions of Sami, married or cohabitants, and participants content with their way of life; age, geographical area and household income were found to be insignificant variables within this dimension. Feeling of Marginalisation was characterised by significantly greater proportions of males, individuals of working age, residence in Norwegian-dominated areas, self-perceived Sami ethnicity, low household income, poorer self-reported health and dissatisfaction with way of life.
Conclusion: Four distinct value patterns and relationships to well-being and self-reported health were identified in the indigenous Sami population. The four dimensions reflect important aspects of present-day Sami society