Incommensurabilities of new arctic extractive projects : Resistance to mining among Sámi, reindeer herders and local communities in Sápmi and Finnish Lapland

• Main Author: Lassila, Maija M.
• Other Authors: Blaser, Mario, Kröger, Markus, Ranta, Eija, Helsingin yliopisto, valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta, Poliittisten, yhteiskunnallisten ja alueellisten muutosten tohtoriohjelma, Helsingfors universitet, statsvetenskapliga fakulteten, Doktorandprogrammet i politisk, samhällelig och regional förändring, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Doctoral Programme in Political, Societal and Regional Changes
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Helsingin yliopisto 2024
• Subjects: globaali kehitystutkimus; Arctic; karelia*; karelian; Sámi; Utsjoki; Lapland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/572542

This study examines the contestations arising from the early stages of mining expansion in Utsjoki and Sodankylä in Arctic Finland. During the 2000s, Finland became a focus of interest for foreign mining companies due to its peaceful political atmosphere and favourable mining policies. Overall, the global and EU demand for raw materials and critical minerals for the planned transition to a low-carbon society is expected to further increase mining in Finland and the wider Arctic region, which is estimated to contain untapped mineral potential. At the same time, local communities are becoming increasingly aware of the negative impacts of mining on their lifeworlds, in places that have incommensurable value to them beyond extraction. The four articles in this study examine the conflicts caused by mining expansion and the resistance to mining that emerges when the mine projects are still uncertain and not constructed, but people have a tangible experience that life as they know it is at stake. In Utsjoki, the study traces the organisation and actions of the Anti-Mining Coalition movement of the Deatnu Valley between 2014–2015 and vis à vis the Karelian Diamond Resources company’s reservation notification for preliminary mineral exploration on Sámi land. Through a cross-border movement and counter-mapping of their land against the external vision and mapping of the land as mineral-rich, the movement challenged the company’s reservation, with the result that the company withdrew. In Sodankylä, the study tracks the impacts of the proposed Anglo American Sakatti “green” mine project on reindeer herders and other habitants between 2016 and 2023, as well as the dimensions of resistance and alternative territorial relations in a pro-mining municipality with already existing mines, and several ongoing mineral exploration and mining projects. In this study, my aim was to understand ethnographically the asymmetries of power and the resulting contestations and vulnerabilities in how land is defined, known, and targeted for ...