Paper long abstract:

This paper critically examines recent changes in the political and social terrain of Indigenous Sámi research in Finland, where such research is currently subject to a new wave of up-to-down academic institutionalization, at the same time as the very meaning of Sáminess and Sámi identity has become increasingly politicized and contested, mostly by individuals and movements which claim and promote self-identified “Sámi” identities, building on highly exaggerated or fabricated accounts of Sámi lineage, family lore or affective testimonies of self-recovery. The paper shows that while the ongoing efforts to institutionalize Sámi research relate to a number of changes that are making such research increasingly attractive in the eyes of the Finnish state and universities, the rise of the new "Sami" identities, or "settler self-Indigenization" (Sturm 2011; Leroux 2019) has further multiplied the range of interest and desires that are now projected on Indigenous Sámi resaarch. I argue that in this conjuncture of institutionalization and neo-politicization, established definitions of Indigenous Sámi research, which emphasize its political and ethical qualities ("Sámi research" as research which proceeds from a "Sámi perspective" and which centers on the interests and world views of the Sámi") appear increasingly problematic. Instead of bringing questions regarding the politics of perspective, location, representation and power/knowledge to the fore, presenting the research field in these terms might actually turn attention away from a variety of interests and subject positions that are projected on Sámi research currently, and hence depoliticize understandings of Sámi research and its complex interdependence with the state and the society.