Open Access(Lack of) government policy for indigenous (Sámi) sport: A chain of legitimating and de-legitimating acts
Author(s) -
Eivind Å. Skille,
Josef Fahlén,
Cecilia Stenling,
Anna-Maria Strittmatter
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international review for the sociology of sport
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.147
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1461-7218
pISSN - 1012-6902
DOI - 10.1177/1012690220988650
Subject(s) - legitimation , indigenous , norwegian , state (computer science) , government (linguistics) , political science , parallels , sociology , political economy , public administration , politics , law , economics , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , operations management , computer science , biology , algorithm
While colonization as policy is formally a historic phenomenon in Norway and elsewhere, many former structures of state organization – including their relationship to sport – remain under post-colonial conditions. This paper is concerned with how the Norwegian government contributes to creating a situation, which includes the Norwegian sports confederation (NIF) but excludes the indigenous people Sámi’s sports organisation. Based on existing data and literature, we analyse how the state favours NIF through a chain of legitimating acts. Thus, sport is a preserve of colonization, where a one-sided legitimation parallels a de-legitimation of the overarching sport policy goal of sport-for-all. However, there are signs of change whereby actors are challenging NIF’s monopoly and ‘older’ state-sport regimes.