Den "tomma" platsen Norrland

Sammanfattning: This essay examines how it was possible for the Swedish Government to decide upon expanding its military operations in Vidsel, in order to let the land to foreign military forces. The decision is controversial because the land traditionally belongs to the Sami people, and is mainly used for their reindeer herding. The decision was made without any consultation with the Sami Parliament, which aims to act for a prosperous Sami culture. The official report from the Swedish Government which served as the basis for the decision is analyzed with Carol Bacchi’s method "What's the problem represented to be?” in order to understand how certain representations of a problem can enable certain political decisions. In light of postcolonial theories, the essay seeks a further understanding of why some problem formulations have been made, why the Swedish interests dominate the discourse, and why the Sami interests doesn’t. The conclusions drawn from the study is that the dominant discourse partly made an exploitation of the Sami land possible, since the Swedish and European interests and identities are seen as “normal” and “general”, while Sami culture and interests are seen as “abnormal” and are therefore neglected by the dominant society.