COLONIAL TUTELAGE AND INDUSTRIALCOLONIALISM Reindeer husbandry and early 20th-century hydroelectric development in SwedenThe incentives for large-scale hydropower development in Sweden are usually explained in terms of the early 20th-century belief in progress and the need for energy to fuel industrialization and modernization. For reindeer husbandry, the consequences and cumulative effects of this large-scale landscape conversion, and the societal changes it entailed are still largely a story to be told as impacts and effects constantly evolve in the socio-ecological system of the reindeer grazing lands. The present article 1 investigates hydropower development in the northern parts of Sweden, and how the reindeer husbandry of the indigenous Sami people was involved, through a case study of three hydropower projects in the early 20th century. An additional perspective is illuminated: how early hydroelectric development in the reindeer grazing areas was made possible through an immersed colonialism.

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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.

In the wake of the enthusiasm for green energy, previously contested energy and mining projects can be framed as part of a green transition. When state authorities decide to forego the standard procedural protections and the processes and forums for deliberation and local influence, it contributes to constructing green sacrifice zones. This paper compares two Swedish energy policy processes. The first is occurred during World War II and the hydropower expansion of the 1940s and 1950s. The second takes place today when wind power is expanding to increase renewable energy production. In Sweden, policymaking seems to be back to square one in the green transition, leaving out both important knowledge of the past and contemporary voices of the ongoing and probable consequences. In certain issues, such as how the recognition of the Indigenous status of the Sámi actually affects the legislative process and how to address the Indigenous rights of the Sámi, policymaking is particularly slow to adapt. The green transition industry is already affecting the Sámi, as the construction of the Nordic welfare society has done during the last century, and still does. It deepens an ongoing colonial wave that started in the 1300s. By showing how the Swedish legislative process, historically as well as currently, has neglected to involve Sámi representatives, this study points to the importance and obligation of Swedish policymaking to engage Sámi representatives in an early phase to avoid further sacrifice zones in Sápmi.

This article examines the intergenerational effects of hydropower expansion on Sámi living conditions. In-depth conversations were conducted with five research participants from three different generations living in a hydropower impacted area on the Swedish side of Sápmi. The aim is to analyse how natural resource extraction has affected living conditions for the Indigenous Sámi people, using an intergenerational approach. The questions cover how to deal with the consequences and how coping strategies have affected the living conditions for the research participants and the participants’ families: older and younger generations. Historical unresolved grief connected to large-scale resource extraction is an important component for understanding experiences of colonialism in a Nordic Indigenous context. Furthermore, an intergenerational approach is essential for studying long-term impacts on Indigenous communities. From the conversations, four main themes are crystallized: bereavement, fear and worries, agreements with the energy company, and reconciliation and strategies for the future.