Focusing on the Sapmi region of Northern Europe as a point of departure, this book enriches and sharpens the concept of 'the North.' It combines detailed empirical research on the Sami people and their life-worlds with theoretical contributions from leading scholars. The authors consider the European North not only as a geographical site or an object of academic research, but as a particular way of knowing and being, with its own needs, practices, concepts, and imaginings. The North, as an epistemic position, offers its own conceptions of politics, human agency, history, and social relations, which this book studies and describes. The volume challenges us to consider social scientific knowledge, its significance, and the practices of producing it in a new way.

This book provides a comprehensive and multifaceted analysis of the Sami society and its histories and people, offering valuable insights into how they live and see the world. The chapters examine a variety of social and cultural practices, and consideration is given to environment, legal and political conditions and power relations. The contributions by a range of experts of Sami studies and Indigenous scholars are drawn from across the Sapmi region, which spans from central Norway and central Sweden across Finnish Lapland to the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Sami perspectives, concepts and ways of knowing are foregrounded throughout the volume. The material connects with wider discussions within Indigenous studies and engages with current concerns relating to globalization, environmental and cultural change, Arctic politics, multiculturalism, postcolonialism and neoliberalism. The Sami World will be of interest to scholars from a number of disciplines, including Indigenous studies, anthropology, sociology, geography, history and political science.

Focusing on the Sapmi region of Northern Europe as a point of departure, this book enriches and sharpens the concept of 'the North.' It combines detailed empirical research on the Sami people and their life-worlds with theoretical contributions from leading scholars. The authors consider the European North not only as a geographical site or an object of academic research, but as a particular way of knowing and being, with its own needs, practices, concepts, and imaginings. The North, as an epistemic position, offers its own conceptions of politics, human agency, history, and social relations, which this book studies and describes. The volume challenges us to consider social scientific knowledge, its significance, and the practices of producing it in a new way.