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Paper short abstract

Building on anthropological fieldwork and interdisciplinary collaborations, this paper advances an anthropological understanding of justice that centres on land use, acknowledging that land and its use is at the core of struggles over green transition projects.

Paper long abstract

The Finnmark region in Norway is both the homelands of the indigenous Sámi population and increasingly a site of conflicts over ‘green transition’ projects. Amongst these is Blue Moon Metals’ copper mine in Kvalsund, which was given strategic status by the European Commission in 2025 – despite more than a decade of protests, most recently a 200-day long protest camp June 2025-January 2026. The licensing process has also been marked by a lack of recognition justice (Dale and Dannevig 2023). With the electrification of petroleum installations, new power lines and prospective wind power plants, the mountains and plateaus of Finnmark are yet again made a frontier, now in the name of the green transition.

Those resisting such developments, whether indigenous or not, often practise being on the land in reciprocal, respectful and non-extractive ways – whether in the form of fishing, reindeer herding, berry-picking, a protest camp or a touring theatre performance. These practises of care are central to questions of justice, and to what kinds of lives and livelihoods are to be protected and abandoned.

This paper advances an anthropological understanding of justice that focuses on land use rather than energy or environmental justice per se, acknowledging that land and its use, past, present and future, is central to the struggles over ‘green’ projects. This grows out of an anthropological engagement with the Finnmark region through many years, and an interdisciplinary collaboration with scholars of geography, planning and justice through the NordForsk-funded project JustGreen.