Vår 2025

STV-3020 Indigenous Peoples - Politics, Institutions and Tools - 5 stp

The course is administrated by

Institutt for samfunnsvitenskap

Type of course

The course is mandatory for students at the Master¿s Programme in Indigenous Studies (MIS).

The course may also be part of other disciplinary master programmes within social sciences and may be taken as a single course. Prior knowledge of the situation for indigenous peoples are highly recommended.

Course overlap

STV-3013 Indigenous Rights, Politics and Institution Building 5 ects

Course contents

The course departs from the current debate over indigenous peoples¿ possibilities for self-determination within nation states. The Sami people in Norway serve as a point of departure for the focus on indigenous institutions, like parliaments, consultations and other tools for decision-making between indigenous peoples and nation state authorities, and tools indigenous peoples can use in interaction with market actors. The course consist of three sections. The first is on indigenous peoples¿ political challenges, and how international law prescribe indigenous participation and involvement vis a vis the nation state and how national regulations attempt to implement these commitments. A second part look at challenges for management of land and water, and how indigenous peoples work with challenges facing their traditional livelihoods, like tensions between these and industrial development. The third part provides an in-depth focus on institutionalization of indigenous self-determination by scrutinizing the model of the Sami parliament while simultaneously addressing the differences in institutional development in the Nordic countries.

Admission requirements

General admission requirements: Admission to requires a bachelor's degree (180 ECTS), or an equivalent qualification, with a minimum of 80 ECTS within social sciences, humanities, education or the social practice of law.

Applicants with a Norwegian study background need an average minimum grade of C or better from the bachelor's degree to be admitted to the master's program.
Applicants who hold a bachelor's degree or equivalent issued in Europe, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand need an average grade of C or better on the ECTS scale.
Applicants who hold a bachelor's degree or equivalent issued in countries other than the above mentioned must have an average grade of B or better on the ECTS scale.

Specific academic requirements: A special interest in Indigenous issues is a precondition. Experience from work related to Indigenous peoples and/ or studies will be an advantage.

The course requires solid competence in reading and writing English.

Application code: 9371.

Objective of the course

The students have the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

The student gets knowledge about

important debates on indigenous rights and politics, in particular relating to land and resources, self-determination and culture;
how various colonial histories and different systems of government influence and define state-indigenous relations and conditions for self-determination arrangements.

Skills

The student knows how to

critically examine indigenous rights claims from the foundations of both international law and domestic legal and political developments
distinguish between how different country contexts impact debates on indigenous rights issues and political questions

Language of instruction

English

Teaching methods

12 hours of lectures.