Sámi ethnicity as a variable. Premises and implications for population-based studies on health and living conditions in Norway

• Main Author: Pettersen, Torunn
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UiT The Arctic University of Norway 2015
• Subjects: Samfunnsmedisin; Sosialepidemiologi; Samisk demografi; Urfolksmetodologi; VDP::Medisinske Fag: 700::Helsefag: 800; VDP::Samfunnsvitenskap: 200::Statsvitenskap og organisasjonsteori: 240; VDP::Medical disciplines: 700::Health sciences: 800; VDP::Social science: 200::Political science and organizational theory: 240; DOKTOR-003; Brustad; Norway; Northern Norway; Sámi; samisk
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/8354

Paper II of this thesis is not available in Munin: Same Sámi? A comparison of self-reported Sámi ethnicity measures in 1970 and 2003 in selected rural areas in Northern Norway. Torunn Pettersen & Magritt Brustad. (Manuscript). Published version available in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Volume 38, Issue 12, September 2015, pages 2071-2089 Summary: The use of Sámi ethnicity as a variable in studies aiming at quantitative knowledge on health and living conditions at the population level in contemporary Norway is challenged by in-sufficient Sámi-demographic data and blurred Sámi-ethnic boundaries. Based on the premise that the Sámi can be conceptualized as an ethnic group which is also an indigenous people, this thesis explores aspects of the operationalization, registration and (self-)reporting of Sámi ethnicity in the Norwegian part of Sápmi. The purpose was to contribute to more systematic knowledge on and understanding of factors that may affect the design, results and interpre-tations of population-based studies involving patterns of Sámi health and living conditions. The thesis employs empirical data from the Sámediggi electoral roll in Norway for the period 1989‒2009 (Paper I), from Norway's 1970 Census (Paper II), as well as from the SAMINOR study; a population based study of health and living conditions conducted in 2003/2004 in selected rural areas with Sámi and non-Sámi settlement in Norway (Papers II and III). The results show how Sámi ethnicity can be measured in various ways, and how both the ethnicity measures themselves and (self-)reported Sámi ethnicity based on such measures, may change over time. The choice of Sámi ethnicity measures can have a noticeable effect on study populations' size and geographical profile, but seems to have less influence on the outcomes when comparing living conditions in the Sámi population and in the remaining population in the same area. The overarching discussion emphasizes that epidemiological studies using a Sámi ethnicity variable must take into account the ...