State sport policy for indigenous sport: inclusive ambitions and exclusive coalitions

ABSTRACT

With the policy aim ‘Sport for all’ as a backdrop, this paper investigates sport policies for Sami sport in Sweden and Norway (the Sami is the indigenous people residing in the northern parts of Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden). By applying an Advocacy Coalition Framework, the purpose of the paper is to explore how the organisation of and possibilities to exercise Sami sport are affected by political coalitions, social structures and institutions. Drawing on data from policy documents and interviews with government and Sami Parliament representatives, results show how institutionalised relationships affect the general ambitions to provide sport for all and the more specific ambitions to reach under-represented groups. In both countries, dominant coalitions are made up by the institutionalised cooperation between the states’ Ministry of Culture and the umbrella sport organisations. Alternative and emerging coalitions are made up by the Sami sport organisations, the Sami Parliaments and the Sami policy units of the states. While the dominant coalition is stronger in Sweden, the alternative coalition is stronger in Norway. These differences are interpreted as being results of policy elements outside the policy subsystem of sport – the two countries’ different relationships to legal adoptions of indigenous rights. These findings suggest that approaching sport organisations outside dominant coalitions can be conducive in reaching sport for all ambitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport sociology
• advocacy coalition framework
• qualitative analysis
• Norway
• Sweden

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Sami sport association in Finland only exists in the Nordic organisational chart and is actually not at work (SVL-N 2015).

2. Cf. note 1.

3. Sapmi is the Sami word for ‘Sami land’ and refers to both the land of usufruct and connotes the feeling of homeland in a more extended way than the words land or country in the Scandinavian language or English.

4. It should be noted that when speaking with representatives of the Department of Sport Policy in the Ministry of Culture, the tone is still reluctant towards Sami sport and conceived as something they have to do rather that something they want to do.