SESAM Brown-bag seminar: Sámi reindeer herding from a business perspective

When: Tuesday October 23, 2018, 11:15-12:00

Where: Centre for Sami Studies, Guovssu, TEO H2.228

Niklas Labba will give a presentation on the topic: “Sámi reindeer herding from a business perspective”.

Reindeers migrate between winter pastures in the east, to the summer pastures in the west, in annual cycles.  Reindeer herding is organised in the traditional “siida” system. The “siida” is a social, economic and work collaboration, where the members work towards mutual goals with the principle of consensus. Collective goals and consensus are examples of principle’s that stands strong in reindeer herding.  Reindeer herding is still a “way of life” for many Sámi reindeer herding families, and they have succeeded to maintain their traditional reindeer herding values.

Agricultural models are used to describe Reindeer herding. The reindeer-herding act of 1971 in Sweden regulates and organizes reindeer herding as form of agricultural union, controlled by the majority of its members. Many research approaches states that reindeer herding is a form of agricultural business, where agro-economic factors explains what may cause what, or what may happen under certain circumstances. Still reindeer herding falls outside the EU- subsidy systems that is created to support agricultural farms in the member states.

I will try to explain Reindeer herding in its context, in a form that includes some agricultural and business models, so that its values will be understood. In a modern market-oriented company and in the reindeer herding “way of life” the values and principles comes from humans and their ability to understand and adapt to their environment. Both reindeer herding and a modern company has some sort of production, a market for their products and there are people working together. In opposite to the agro- economic approach that mainly focuses on optimizing the use of resources and improving production models, the modern market-oriented approach states that a company’s knowledge and ability to adapt is crucial for its survival.

Niklas Labba is the Academic Director at the Centre for Sami Studies at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Buresboahtin! Welcome!