From “disguised and concealed” (Parks and Starosielski 2015) in nature to more recent, select attempts at “visible, accessible, environmentally friendly” (Holt and Vonderau 2015), data centers are the backbone of the digital infrastructure. Studies of data centers continuously help develop media and communications studies in understanding the role of media infrastructure, representations of imaginaries of the cloud; social, political and economic realities embedded in data, and issues of power, agency and resistance against the backdrop of increased global concerns for the environment and greening practices, built into the discourse of tech companies. This research provides an insight into data centers in S.pmi, in the Arctic and near-Arctic regions in Sweden, from the perspective of Indigenous S.mi communities. Data centers are examined here through their materialities and representations and as industrial sites of politics, power and promise through lived realities of the S.mi people in Sweden. As a result, data centers emerge not only as entities with built-in, inherent dependence on materialities and representations of land, water and air but also as contrapuntal nodes – assemblages perpetually at odds with their built-in power through time: their narratives –neutral connectedness and natural sustainability – at odds with their material infrastructure: detaching and uprooting from land.

The thesis studies how and why ethnicity was used as a ground for separation in order to establish education that was segregated from the normal teaching in elementary schools. The thesis focuses on the educational policy targeted at Gypsies, vagrants and nomadic reindeer-herding Sámi. Due to their ways of living they did not fit into the general Swedish education, which was based on domicile. My aim is to problematise research of the teaching that was offered to Sámi and Gypsies. The safety zone has been used as a metaphor for analysing a physical, spatial way of thinking, where the location of the educational environment in relation to the surrounding society was focused on. The concept has also been used in order to analyse a dimension of educational content that was a matter of forming the pupils’ way of thinking and knowledge. What may at first glance be perceived as primitive and poor, e.g. teaching out of doors, may also, as I see it, be interpreted as a manifestation of a radical educational current. The education policy was moreover a concern not only for the state or for centrally placed actors but engaged the local authority community and other actors. The study shows how actors at different levels in a country committed to education handled issues concerning ambulatory ethnic groups. It was not the same issues that were relevant for the groups, but they involved a common pattern of thought. The education policy, teaching activities and sorting process that are described developed under the influence of international educational and socio-political currents and were shaped by politicians, civil servants, experts, teachers and all sorts of “amateurs”. It is the scope of their knowledge basis, opinions, proposals and actions that is focused on. The thesis also deals with a complicated justification process for identification, sorting and implementation of a separative education, where quite often a “Swedishness” that was difficult to capture was articulated as a norm in relation to the deviant groups.

This is an undergraduate study which examines the availability of guidance counselor services given in Sámi languages in the Sámi administrative areas in Sweden. The questions at issue are:  How available is guidance counselling in the Sámi languages in Sweden's 25 administrative areas? What are the counsellors' views regarding Sámi clients being able to speak their own language during a session?  The administrative areas were selected since they have an obligation to offer certain services in Sámi languages. The areas are located in 25 Swedish counties and a survey with questions regarding the availability of guidance counselling in the Sámi languages was distributed to the counsellors employed therein. None of the counsellors has ever used a Sámi interpreter, is able to speak a Sámi language, and the majority haven’t identified a need for it with their clients.  The result is analysed with a critical discourse method and the theories of stigma, hegemony, Othering and ethnocentrism are used. The analysis shows that Sámi people are being Othered and that the guidance counsellors are operating from an ethnocentric view, which can lead to stigma and hegemony in guidance sessions with Sámi clients.

Sustainable food systems are a crucial objective in the 2030 agenda as food security is under threat in large parts of the world, either currently or in the near future. Food systems connect many of the timely challenges the world faces today, touching upon various dimensions. This multidimensional character causes the search for adequate solutions to span a broad interdisciplinary field and to direct research towards new modes of knowledge, such as those carried by Indigenous peoples' traditional cultures and beliefs. Indigenous people’s food systems are considered to offer valuable insights into sustainable food practices and improve the understanding of the connection between nature and humans. In Sweden, the National Food Strategy is the guiding framework that aims for a transformation to a sustainable food system in line with the objectives of the 2030 agenda. The need for knowledge generation is recognised but refers to new and mainstream objectivist modes. Sámi Indigenous perspectives as a potential source are not recognised. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to identify potential learnings from Sámi Indigenous perspectives to strengthen the Swedish idea of a sustainable food system. To reveal learnings, a policy analysis is carried out guided by Indigenous methodology. The analysis is rooted in two core documents, namely the Sámi environmental framework (Eallinbiras) and the Swedish National Food Strategy. Commonalities and differences between Sámi perspectives and Swedish food policy are identified and discussed. Additionally, in line with Indigenous methodology, two consultations with local Sámi experts were carried out to seek guidance on the interpretations and findings of the results. Overall, it is concluded that there are various touching points where Sámi ontology could facilitate a strengthening of the food strategy and help realise the desired goals. Mainly, such involvement could steer approaches from a regulatory- to a relationship-oriented character, facilitate a deepened holistic perspective, and assign greater value to the environment, resulting in improved resilience. To realise an integration of Sámi perspectives into Swedish food strategy requires respect and the safeguarding of Indigenous rights. Certainly, many political, ontological and epistemic challenges present themselves for such an endeavour. However, some interests appear to be shared, and the potential for valuable learning is found to exist. Further research is needed to derive more concrete, practical implications and carry out participatory models to realise an integration of Sámi ontology to strengthen Swedish food policy.

<p>This case study explores how geo-political power structures influence and/or determine the conception, acceptance and maintenance of what is considered to be valid archaeological knowledge. The nature of this contingency is exemplified through an examination of how the prehistory of Norrland, a region traditionally considered and portrayed as peripheral vis-à-vis the centre-South, was interpreted and presented by Swedish archaeologists during the 20th century. This contextual situation is analysed through the implementation of three interrelated and complimentary perspectives;</p><p>1) The relationship between northern and southern Sweden is examined using concepts concerning the nature of colonialism, resulting in the formulation of 20 particulars that typify the colonial experience, circumstances that characterise the historical, and unequal, association that has existed between these two regions for the last 600 years.</p><p>2) Ideals of national identity and heritage as manufactured and employed by the kingdom and later by the nation-state, with the assistance of antiquarianism, archaeology and/or centralised cultural management, are outlined. The creation of these various concepts have reinforced and perpetuated the colonial and asymmetrical association between what has naturally come to be viewed as the peripheral-North and the centre-South.</p><p>3) A century of archaeological research into the Norrlandian past is studied using the concepts ‘thoughtstyle’ and ‘thought-collective’ as devised by Ludwik Fleck. This analysis disclosed a persistent set of reoccurring explanations that have constantly been invoked when interpreting and presenting the prehistory of Norrland. This archaeological thought-style has normalised the unbalanced power relationship between North and South that has existed for the last 600 years by projecting it far back into the prehistoric past.</p><p>This case study has demonstrated that archaeologists, unless acutely aware of the historical context in which they themselves move and work, risk legitimising debilitating economic and political power relationships in the present through their study and presentation of the past.</p>

The Sámi’s past activities have been documented historically from a European perspective, and more recently from an anthropological viewpoint, giving a generalised observation of the Sámi, during the study period of AD200-AD1800, as semi-nomadic hunter gatherers, with several theories suggesting that interaction with Europeans, through trade, led to the adoption of European activities by certain groups of the Sámi (Eiermann, 1923; Paine, 1957; Manker and Vorren, 1962; Bratrein, 1981; Mathiesen et al, 1981; Meriot, 1984). However, there is almost no information on the impact the Sámi had on the landscape, either before or after any adoption of European activities, and none investigating what cultural footprint or indicators would remain from Sámi or European occupation and/or activity within the typically podzolic soils of Northern Sweden. Consequently the thesis aims to contribute to the gap in knowledge through the formation of a podzol model identifying the links between anthropogenic activity and the alteration of podzol soils, and through the creation of soils based models which identify the cultural indicators associated with both Sámi and European activity; formed from the identification of cultural indicators retained within known Sámi and European sites. The methods used to obtain the information needed to achieve this were the pH and magnetic susceptibility from bulk soil samples and micromorphological and chemical analysis of thin section slides through the use of standard microscopy and X-ray fluorescence from a scanning electron microscope. The analysis revealed that the Sámi had an extremely low impact on the landscape, leaving hard to detect cultural indicators related to reindeer herding in the form of reindeer faecal material with corresponding phosphorous peaks in the thin section slides. The European footprint however, was markedly different and very visible even within the acidic soil environment. The European indicators were cultivation based and included phosphorous and aluminium peaks as well as a deepened, highly homogenised plaggen style anthropogenic topsoil rich in ‘added’ materials. An abandoned European site which visibly and chemically shows the formation of a secondary albic horizon within the anthropogenic topsoil also provides an insight into the delicate balance of cultivated soil in northern Sweden, whilst reinforcing the outputs identified in the podzol model. Due to the almost invisible Sámi footprint on the landscape, areas of overlap were impossible to identify however, there was no evidence of the adoption of European cultivation activities at any of the Sámi sites investigated. The only known area of interaction between the two cultures was an official market place which had been a Sámi winter settlement prior to its use as a market site. This site showed none of the reindeer based Sámi indicators or the cultivation based European indicators, but did contain pottery fragments which could be linked to trade or occupation. Overall, the thesis reinforces the low impact expected of the semi-nomadic Sámi and sheds light on the underlying podzolic processes influencing the anthropogenically modified soils of Northern Sweden. The podzol model is reinforced by several findings throughout the thesis and the soils based cultural indicator models for both Sámi and European activity have been successfully tested against independent entomological and palynological data and therefore provide reliable reference material for future studies.

This case study explores how geo-political power structures influence and/or determine the conception, acceptance and maintenance of what is considered to be valid archaeological knowledge. The nature of this contingency is exemplified through an examination of how the prehistory of Norrland, a region traditionally considered and portrayed as peripheral vis-à-vis the centre-South, was interpreted and presented by Swedish archaeologists during the 20th century. This contextual situation is analysed through the implementation of three interrelated and complimentary perspectives; 1) The relationship between northern and southern Sweden is examined using concepts concerning the nature of colonialism, resulting in the formulation of 20 particulars that typify the colonial experience, circumstances that characterise the historical, and unequal, association that has existed between these two regions for the last 600 years. 2) Ideals of national identity and heritage as manufactured and employed by the kingdom and later by the nation-state, with the assistance of antiquarianism, archaeology and/or centralised cultural management, are outlined. The creation of these various concepts have reinforced and perpetuated the colonial and asymmetrical association between what has naturally come to be viewed as the peripheral-North and the centre-South. 3) A century of archaeological research into the Norrlandian past is studied using the concepts ‘thoughtstyle’ and ‘thought-collective’ as devised by Ludwik Fleck. This analysis disclosed a persistent set of reoccurring explanations that have constantly been invoked when interpreting and presenting the prehistory of Norrland. This archaeological thought-style has normalised the unbalanced power relationship between North and South that has existed for the last 600 years by projecting it far back into the prehistoric past. This case study has demonstrated that archaeologists, unless acutely aware of the historical context in which they themselves move and work, risk legitimising debilitating economic and political power relationships in the present through their study and presentation of the past.