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Contribution short abstract:

This contribution brings up contested histories of outdoor recreation in Sweden and stresses the importance of accomodating experiences of historically marginalized communities and patterns of structural inequality in addressing sustainbility of nature-based activities.

Contribution long abstract:

This contribution offers a historicized perspective on the practices of outdoor recreation in Sweden and their inextricable connection to colonial and nation-building projects. Bringing into the conversation stories and experiences of historically marginalized groups, it unpacks patterns of social inequality in nature and traces the transformation of Sami homelands into Swedish welfare landscapes. As the recreational infrastructures built "by men, for men" spread across the indigenous lands, the Sami mobilities and land-use became increasingly limited due to multiple developmental pressures, including tourism. Genderization, racialization and modernization of northern nature subsequently shaped the Swedish welfare landscapes, bringing revenues from extractive practices of nature exploitation, including tourism.

Exploring structural inequalities in access, mobility and agency rights in natural landscapes can help understand the historical path-dependencies in recreational land-planning and reveal socially and environmentally unsustainable patters. The current challenges of mitigating climate crisis and land-use conflicts call for a renegotiation of governance patterns and demand a deeper understanding and sensitivity for the matter. In that process, acknowledgement of historical injustices and generational traumas of belonging is one of the keys to reconciling different views on nature and its meanings and developing new, decolonised regimes of sustaining recreational spaces based on inclusivity, equality and mutual consent.