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Intragroup conflict, or lateral violence, in Indigenous and local communities is a heated topic. While there is some research on lateral violence in Indigenous communities in Australia, there is currently no such research in Sámi and local communities in Sweden. This chapter explores manifestations and underlying causes of lateral violence, using analysis based on cultural, structural, and extractive violence, and employs an international comparative approach to discuss situations in the Swedish part of Sápmi compared to those in Australia.

The Sámi are the Indigenous People of Sweden. Many Sámi communities are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain traditional livelihoods such as reindeer herding. This creates external pressures for Sámi communities and can contribute to increased intragroup conflict. First Australian communities also experience external pressures caused by extractivism. This chapter theorizes that there is a strong connection between external pressures caused by extractive activities on Indigenous lands and lateral violence in Indigenous and local communities, and suggests that by addressing the causes of lateral violence, conflict transformation—where both the contextual and relational aspects of conflicts are emphasized—could be a way forward.

I forskningsprojektet Skada skedd: Urfolkssamhällens erfarenheter av och rekommendationer för energiproduktion har vi undersökt hur energi- och annan utvinningsindustris verksamhet historiskt påverkat och fortsätter att påverka urfolk, samt vilka slags förändringar urfolk vill se i interaktioner med dessa industrier.

Samiska forskningsdeltagare rekommenderar att företag som på allvar utövar socialt ansvar genom att främja jämlik dialog och ömsesidig förståelse ska premieras. Bolagen behöver kommunicera sitt sociala ansvar, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) till samebyar eller samiska organisationer. De behöver också efterleva sin CSR-kommunikation så att det stämmer överens med deras faktiska handlingar i interaktioner med samiska organisationer, föreningar eller samebyar. Samer vill se ökad kunskap om samiskt samhälle, historia, kultur och samiska perspektiv hos bolag. Samer skulle också vilja se en samordnande organisation för bolags CSR i Sverige som även skulle kunna implementera och hantera CSR-certifiering.

I en internationell jämförelse undersökte vi erfarenheterna av utvinningsindustriers CSR hos  samer i Sverige och Adnyamathanha och Arabunna-folken i södra Australien. Trots stora skillnader mellan Sverige och södra Australien vad gäller rättigheter, näringar, politiska situationer och klimat, visar studien ändå stora likheter i hur utvinningsindustriers sociala ansvar kommuniceras och följs, och de aboriginska forskningsdeltagarna vittnar om hur fina ord inte efterlevs i praktiken.

In the research project Damage Done: Indigenous communities’ experiences of and recommendations for energy production, we have studied how the activities of the energy industry and other extractive industries have affected and continue to affect Indigenous peoples, and what changes Indigenous people themselves would like to see in interactions with these industries. 

Sámi research participants recommend that companies that encourage dialogue on equal terms and reciprocal understanding, thus showing strong social responsibility practices, should be rewarded. Companies need to communicate their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Sámi communities or Sámi organisations and comply with this in their interactions with Sámi representatives. Sámi people would like corporations to demonstrate greater knowledge of Sámi history, society, culture and worldviews and they would like to see an organisation tasked with coordinating CSR in Sweden, including implementing and administering a system for CSR certification. 

In an international comparison, we examined the experiences of CSR in extractive industries, held by representatives of the Adnyamathanha and Arabunna peoples of South Australia. Despite significant differences between Sweden and South Australia in terms of rights, livelihoods, the political situations and climates, the study shows great similarities in how extractive industries communicate about and comply with CSR.

Social justice is part of higher education discourse within university mission statements, graduate qualities and university rhetoric globally (Connell, 2019; Wilson-Strydom, 2015). In Australia, this focus includes re-centring Indigenous Australian epistemologies and ontologies from the subjugated margins in academia (Moreton-Robinson, 2009; Nakata, 2007) and in Sweden, building an understanding of intergenerational traumas of school-based systemic violence against Indigenous Sámi (Atkinson, 2002; Norlin, 2017). This chapter highlights opportunities for upward socio-economic mobility for First Nations peoples through surpassing the deficit thinking still prevalent among invader-coloniser populations. Included in this we reference the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities (United Nations, 2021) and its potential to influence educational discourses in teaching practice and curriculum construction in Australia and Sweden. Indigenous Standpoint Theory (IST) and Critical Race Pedagogy (CRP) are utilised as critical frameworks for unpacking the historical background of racial oppression, understanding the complexities of Indigeneity and post-colonising constructs, and disrupting whiteness embedded in mono-cultural education. As practicing educators, we have sought in this chapter, to critically explore how Indigenous Knowledges and culturally responsive pedagogies are disrupting ethnocentric ontologies within the university sector through an emergent undisciplined strategy. 

I detta kapitel redogör vi, var för sig, för de specifika forskningsområden där vi är verksamma. Vi beskriver teoretiska ramverk, forskningsprinciper och ger exempel på metodologiska verktg och frågeställningar som kan vägleda studenter som är intresserade av liknande frågor inom en etnologisk ram.

This paper aims to explore Environmental Justice in two Indigenous contexts, Canada and Sweden, and uses the concept of Extractive Violence to discuss colonial articulations of extractivism and community strategies for dealing with it. Through analysis of existing research, as well as the experiences shared by the two Indigenous leaders, the paper investigates the different strategies and narratives of environmental justice enacted, and how is justice framed and discussed in response to extractive violence.

Participatory research methods in education, such as action research, have been around for some time. Recently, not only researchers but also research policy makers have highlighted the importance of participation between society and research. Citizen science, science with and for society, and practice-based educational research are examples of approaches that aim to bring society and research more closely together. In this paper, we explore underlying premises behind practice-based research policies in the EU and in Swedish educational research policy. In order to understand how participation can be understood, we have analysed them closely through a lens of Indigenous methodologies. Results reveal an underlying understanding of participation as nonreciprocal where expertise is a key concept, researchers hold this expertise, and where the main responsibilities for research lie with the researchers. However, the results also indicate a sense of respect for practice and a willingness to form relationships between research and practice.

This paper evaluates the method Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) from the perspectives of Indigenous methodologies and Indigenous standpoint, in order to identify some strengths and limitations of using S-LCA in Indigenous contexts. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to measure environmental impacts connected with all stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. S-LCA is a methodology designed to include the social aspects of sustainability in the LCA methodology. S-LCA emphasizes stakeholder involvement and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) S-LCA guidelines (2020) lists Indigenous communities as possible stakeholders. With a focus on Indigenous communities in the Arctic region we also include comparative aspects from Australia to generate new conceptualizations and understandings. The paper concludes that S-LCA has the potential to facilitate opposing worldviews and with some further developments can be a valuable methodology for Indigenous contexts.