R Kuokkanen
Biographic Data
| ID | 6652 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Kuokkanen |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Kuokkanen |
| SIGNATURE | KUOKKANEN R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lapland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6720-5962 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 219 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Society as Reality and Construction
Kymlicka asks whether the Marshallian vision of society‐ and membership‐making remains relevant when thinking about possible Indigenous futures. In this article, I first respond to this question. Given the meticulousness of Kymlicka's analysis, my response should be read as complementary, offering additional considerations that I think warrant further attention. I then engage the challenge Kymlicka poses at the close of his Indigeneity section, w…
Culturalization as a governance logic
This article examines reconciliation in Norway, asking how the Norwegian state’s approach to reconciliation exemplifies what I call the logic of culturalization. I theorize culturalization as a settler-colonial logic of governance that neutralizes Sámi political claims to jurisdiction and decision-making by recasting them as matters of culture. Empirically, the article analyzes two parallel developments in Norway in 2023: the release of the Truth…
Introduction to the special issue ‘A profound reorganising of things’
It’s about all relations
This article theorises Indigenous feminist relational freedom that emphasises the ways in which relations and structures of domination disproportionately impact women and gender-diverse people, including through gender-based violence and environmental harm. The theory of relational freedom critiques both one-dimensional conceptions of Indigenous relationality and the conventional framing of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination through th…
Are Indigenous conceptions of sovereignty as non-interference patriarchal
In the field of International Relations, sovereignty refers to a state’s authority to govern itself without external interference, closely tied to the principle of non-intervention. Recent scholarship has illuminated sovereignty as socially constructed and dynamic, yet non-interference remains central to its conception. Catherine MacKinnon’s feminist critique exposes the patriarchal implications of fetishising non-interference, silencing marginal…
It Doesn’t Rise to the Level of Crisis That Other Situations Would
Is gender violence considered a part of advancing Indigenous self-determination in Alaska? What are the key jurisdictional, institutional, infrastructural, and community level challenges in combating violence against Alaska Native women? Few studies have considered the relationship between gender violence and Alaska Native sovereignty. I address this gap by employing the theory of relational Indigenous self-determination and drawing on research i…
Reimagining self-determination
Self-determination language and practice are increasingly perplexing in the 21st century. Historically linked to decolonization processes and post-imperial transformations of the international system, self-determination has espoused both violent and non-violent resistance, and supported both existing and emergent sovereignty. With the Janus-faced relationship between self-determination and colonialism continuing to this day, the contemporary mome…
Reclaiming democracy through Indigenous self-determination
From Indigenous private property to full dispossession – the peculiar case of Sápmi
The concept of dispossession has become ubiquitous in contemporary critical theory, including analyses of settler colonialism and Indigenous scholarship. It suggests that in addition to being colonised, Indigenous peoples have been deprived of their lands and the territorial foundations of their societies. Critics, however, allege that theories and arguments of Indigenous dispossession are inconsistent, arguing that Indigenous peoples did not hav…
Are Reindeer the New Buffalo
In the nineteenth-century prairies, the buffalo was nearly exterminated as the result of the European economic and ecological invasion. Today in Scandinavia, reindeer are being threatened by the renewable energy transition, also known as the Green Shift. The Green Shift has led to an explosion of the wind industry in many countries, including Norway. Many of the onshore wind development projects have been built in areas central to reindeer herdin…
Pohjoismainen asuttajakolonialismi ja vuoden 2017 Tenosopimus
ohjoismaita pidetn kansainvlisesti edistyksellisin kansallisvaltioina, jotka edistvt sukupuolten tasa-arvoa, sosiaalista hyvinvointia sek vhemmist
The Deatnu Agreement
The Deatnu River, located in Northern Scandinavia in the heart of Sápmi, is often regarded as one of the finest salmon rivers in Europe. In the 1751 Strömstad Peace Accord, the Deatnu river was made into an international boundary, becoming one of the oldest political borders in Europe. Since 1873, salmon fishing in the Deatnu River has been regulated by bilateral agreements negotiated between Norway and Finland. The most recent agreement was reac…
Reconciliation as a Threat or Structural Change? The Truth and Reconciliation Process and Settler Colonial Policy Making in Finland
The Sámi have long desired a public process to examine and expose the Nordic states’ colonial, assimilationist practices and policies, past and present, toward the Sámi people. This article considers the truth and reconciliation process in Finland, assessing it in light of recent legislative and other measures. Employing settler colonial theory, it argues that reconciliation, although seemingly progressive, signifies a continuation of colonialism…
Indigenous governance of cultural heritage
In this paper, we critically examine the co-management of Indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage as simultaneously a driver and product of the culturalisation of Indigenous peoples: the reduction of complex legal-political orders, anchored in specific lands, value systems, rights, and practices, to material cultures. Co-management has been hailed as a defensibly imperfect, ‘tweakable’ system that benefits both Indigenous and state parties, and mor…
Self-Determination and Violence against Indigenous Women
Indigenous feminist discourse links the realities of multilayered violence faced by Indigenous women to questions of self-determination, self-government, and the survival of Indigenous communities. This chapter considers how Indigenous political institutions and leadership address gendered violence. Nearly all interviewees agreed that violence against women is a self-determination issue, but pointed out that existing self-government institutions …
Gendering Indigenous Self-Government
Chapter 4 examines the gender power dynamics of existing Indigenous self-government institutions, cultures, and discourses in Canada, Greenland, and Scandinavia. Employing feminist institutional analysis, the author investigates how Indigenous political institutions are gendered. Gendering refers to a multiplicity of interacting processes shaped by the distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine, which create and conceptualize soc…
Indigenous Gender Justice as Restructuring Relations
The concluding chapter argues that there is no Indigenous self-determination without Indigenous gender justice. Whatever is put in place in the name of Indigenous self-determination (or sovereignty) without interrogating gender and gender regimes of existing political organizations will be a smokescreen for upholding the status quo, and the subordination of groups and individuals whose interests and concerns do not correspond with the established…
Implementing Indigenous Self-Determination
Indigenous self-government is the political theory and practice of the right to self-determination. It is a political arrangement that enables a group to govern themselves according to their own will and through their own institutions. This chapter considers the degree of Indigenous self-determination in the three regions through participant discussions. In spite of increasing participation of Indigenous women in formal politics and their involve…
Indigenous Self-Government Structures in Canada, Greenland, and Sápmi
Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of the related (but distinct) concepts of self-government, governance, and autonomy and how they differ from the concept of self-determination. It then examines in detail the scope and structures of the existing self-government arrangements in three regions: Canada, Greenland, and Sápmi (the Sámi region in Scandinavia) through participant discussions. In Canada, the focus is not on a specific First Nation or sel…
Self-Determination
Chapter 1 examines the conceptions of Indigenous self-determination. It begins with an overview of the global political discourse of Indigenous self-determination as a foundational right articulated especially within the UN framework since the 1980s. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork and building on Iris Marion Young’s concept of nondomination and Jennifer Nedelsky’s theory of relational autonomy, the chapter develops a theory of Indigenous self-…
Restructuring Relations
This book interrogates normative conceptions of Indigenous self-determination and the structures of Indigenous self-government institutions, arguing that Indigenous self-determination is not achievable without restructuring all relations of domination beyond that with the state; nor can it be secured in the absence of gender justice. It demonstrates that the current rights discourse and focus on Indigenous-state relations is limited in scope and …
At the intersection of Arctic indigenous governance and extractive industries
To See What State We Are In’
This article examines the implementation of Greenland's self-government (commonly referred to as self-rule) through an analysis of the Greenland government in the first four years of the Greenland Self-Government Act (SGA). Greenland and its government are numerically dominated by the Inuit, one of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. The article begins with an overview of Greenland as a country and its political development, from a Danish colon…
Decolonizing Feminism in the North
Rauna Kuokkanen is from Ohcejohka/Utsjoki, Sapmi (Finland). She is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Aboriginal Studies Program at the University of Toronto. She holds
Gendered Violence and Politics in Indigenous Communities
Indigenous Economies, Theories of Subsistence, and Women
Indigenous Economies, Theories of Subsistence, and Women:Exploring the Social Economy Model for Indigenous Governance Rauna Kuokkanen (bio) Profit to non-Natives means money. Profit to Natives means a good life derived from the land and sea, that's what we are all about, that's what this land claims was all about. . . . The land we hold in trust is our wealth. It is the only wealth we could possibly pass on to our children. Good old Mother Earth …
Globalization as Racialized, Sexualized Violence
In my article, I suggest that indigenous women are among the hardest hit by economic globalization – the expansion of markets, trade liberalization and cheapening of labour – and that globalization represents a multifaceted violence against indigenous women. I consider this with the help of two examples. First, I discuss the largely ignored case of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada and how the interlocking systems of oppression (col…
From Indigenous Economies to Market-Based Self-Governance
This paper examines the apparent contradiction between the current tendency of many Indigenous groups and their political institutions to embrace the capitalist economic model as the one and only solution in establishing contemporary Indigenous self-governance, on the one hand, and on the other, the detrimental force of the market economy on Indigenous societies, past and present. The starting point is the following question. If the global market…
Restructuring Relations
This book interrogates normative conceptions of Indigenous self-determination and the structures of Indigenous self-government institutions, arguing that Indigenous self-determination is not achievable without restructuring all relations of domination beyond that with the state; nor can it be secured in the absence of gender justice. It demonstrates that the current rights discourse and focus on Indigenous-state relations is limited in scope and …
Reshaping the University
In the past few decades, the narrow intellectual foundations of the university have come under serious scrutiny. Previously marginalized groups have called for improved access to the institution and full inclusion in the curriculum. Reshaping the University is a timely, thorough, and original interrogation of academic practices. It moves beyond current analyses of cultural conflicts and discrimination in academic institutions to provide an indige…
At the intersection of Arctic indigenous governance and extractive industries
Reconciliation as a Threat or Structural Change? The Truth and Reconciliation Process and Settler Colonial Policy Making in Finland
The Sámi have long desired a public process to examine and expose the Nordic states’ colonial, assimilationist practices and policies, past and present, toward the Sámi people. This article considers the truth and reconciliation process in Finland, assessing it in light of recent legislative and other measures. Employing settler colonial theory, it argues that reconciliation, although seemingly progressive, signifies a continuation of colonialism…
Indigenous governance of cultural heritage
In this paper, we critically examine the co-management of Indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage as simultaneously a driver and product of the culturalisation of Indigenous peoples: the reduction of complex legal-political orders, anchored in specific lands, value systems, rights, and practices, to material cultures. Co-management has been hailed as a defensibly imperfect, ‘tweakable’ system that benefits both Indigenous and state parties, and mor…
Toward a New Relation of Hospitality in the Academy
In this article I will propose some thoughts for working toward academic hospitality that would enable the recognition of Indigenous epistemologies in an appropriate manner. These suggestions will always remain partial and are by no means intended to be taken as a comprehensive, exhaustive consideration of possible measures. To suggest otherwise would inevitably contradict and negate the idea of hospitality, the fundamental openness to the other.…
Gendered Violence and Politics in Indigenous Communities
What is Hospitality in the Academy? Epistemic Ignorance and the (Im)Possible Gift
The academy is considered by many as the major Western institution of knowledge. This article, however, argues that the academy is characterized by prevalent “epistemic ignorance”—a concept informe
Decolonizing Feminism in the North
Rauna Kuokkanen is from Ohcejohka/Utsjoki, Sapmi (Finland). She is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Aboriginal Studies Program at the University of Toronto. She holds
"Survivance" in Sami and First Nations Boarding School Narratives
While colonial influences are with us everywhere in the world, the ways in which colonialism operated and continues to operate in different parts of the world vary radically from one another. Each colonial state has implemented various colonial and imperial ideologies in its specific ways that have also changed historically. Despite these often vast differences, the consequences and effects of colonization on subjugated peoples are usually very s…
To See What State We Are In’
This article examines the implementation of Greenland's self-government (commonly referred to as self-rule) through an analysis of the Greenland government in the first four years of the Greenland Self-Government Act (SGA). Greenland and its government are numerically dominated by the Inuit, one of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. The article begins with an overview of Greenland as a country and its political development, from a Danish colon…
Reimagining self-determination
Self-determination language and practice are increasingly perplexing in the 21st century. Historically linked to decolonization processes and post-imperial transformations of the international system, self-determination has espoused both violent and non-violent resistance, and supported both existing and emergent sovereignty. With the Janus-faced relationship between self-determination and colonialism continuing to this day, the contemporary mome…
Indigenous Women in Traditional Economies
Are Reindeer the New Buffalo
In the nineteenth-century prairies, the buffalo was nearly exterminated as the result of the European economic and ecological invasion. Today in Scandinavia, reindeer are being threatened by the renewable energy transition, also known as the Green Shift. The Green Shift has led to an explosion of the wind industry in many countries, including Norway. Many of the onshore wind development projects have been built in areas central to reindeer herdin…
Láhi and Attáldat
This article explores the Sami philosophy of the gift as a basis for a transformative pedagogical framework. Grounded on the Sami land-based worldview, this philosophy calls for the recognition and reciprocation of gifts, whether gifts of the land, interpersonal gifts or giftedness of an individual. In particular, the article considers two Sami concepts, that of láhi and attáldatand explains how they can serve as a framework for a Sami pedagogy t…
Are Indigenous conceptions of sovereignty as non-interference patriarchal
In the field of International Relations, sovereignty refers to a state’s authority to govern itself without external interference, closely tied to the principle of non-intervention. Recent scholarship has illuminated sovereignty as socially constructed and dynamic, yet non-interference remains central to its conception. Catherine MacKinnon’s feminist critique exposes the patriarchal implications of fetishising non-interference, silencing marginal…
Reclaiming democracy through Indigenous self-determination
Film reviews
Mother Dao. Mother Dao the Turtlelike; a Kinematographic Image of the Dutch‐Indies 1912‐c. 1933. Documentary composition edited by Vincent Monnikendam; various cameramen. 1995, 89 minutes, b & w tinted. English subtitles. Distributed by International Art Film/ Filmmuseum (IAF/NFM), P.O. box 74782, 1070‐BT Amsterdam, Netherlands; Tel.: +31–20–589–1423; Fax: +31–20–683–3401; or Zeitgeist, 2nd floor, 247 Center Street, New York, NY 10013; Tel.: +1–2…
"Survivance" in Sami and First Nations Boarding School Narratives
While colonial influences are with us everywhere in the world, the ways in which colonialism operated and continues to operate in different parts of the world vary radically from one another. Each colonial state has implemented various colonial and imperial ideologies in its specific ways that have also changed historically. Despite these often vast differences, the consequences and effects of colonization on subjugated peoples are usually very s…
Toward a New Relation of Hospitality in the Academy
In this article I will propose some thoughts for working toward academic hospitality that would enable the recognition of Indigenous epistemologies in an appropriate manner. These suggestions will always remain partial and are by no means intended to be taken as a comprehensive, exhaustive consideration of possible measures. To suggest otherwise would inevitably contradict and negate the idea of hospitality, the fundamental openness to the other.…
Láhi and Attáldat
This article explores the Sami philosophy of the gift as a basis for a transformative pedagogical framework. Grounded on the Sami land-based worldview, this philosophy calls for the recognition and reciprocation of gifts, whether gifts of the land, interpersonal gifts or giftedness of an individual. In particular, the article considers two Sami concepts, that of láhi and attáldatand explains how they can serve as a framework for a Sami pedagogy t…
Globalization as Racialized, Sexualized Violence
In my article, I suggest that indigenous women are among the hardest hit by economic globalization – the expansion of markets, trade liberalization and cheapening of labour – and that globalization represents a multifaceted violence against indigenous women. I consider this with the help of two examples. First, I discuss the largely ignored case of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada and how the interlocking systems of oppression (col…
What is Hospitality in the Academy? Epistemic Ignorance and the (Im)Possible Gift
The academy is considered by many as the major Western institution of knowledge. This article, however, argues that the academy is characterized by prevalent “epistemic ignorance”—a concept informe
Reshaping the University
In the past few decades, the narrow intellectual foundations of the university have come under serious scrutiny. Previously marginalized groups have called for improved access to the institution and full inclusion in the curriculum. Reshaping the University is a timely, thorough, and original interrogation of academic practices. It moves beyond current analyses of cultural conflicts and discrimination in academic institutions to provide an indige…
Indigenous Women in Traditional Economies
From Indigenous Economies to Market-Based Self-Governance
This paper examines the apparent contradiction between the current tendency of many Indigenous groups and their political institutions to embrace the capitalist economic model as the one and only solution in establishing contemporary Indigenous self-governance, on the one hand, and on the other, the detrimental force of the market economy on Indigenous societies, past and present. The starting point is the following question. If the global market…
Indigenous Economies, Theories of Subsistence, and Women
Indigenous Economies, Theories of Subsistence, and Women:Exploring the Social Economy Model for Indigenous Governance Rauna Kuokkanen (bio) Profit to non-Natives means money. Profit to Natives means a good life derived from the land and sea, that's what we are all about, that's what this land claims was all about. . . . The land we hold in trust is our wealth. It is the only wealth we could possibly pass on to our children. Good old Mother Earth …
Gendered Violence and Politics in Indigenous Communities
To See What State We Are In’
This article examines the implementation of Greenland's self-government (commonly referred to as self-rule) through an analysis of the Greenland government in the first four years of the Greenland Self-Government Act (SGA). Greenland and its government are numerically dominated by the Inuit, one of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. The article begins with an overview of Greenland as a country and its political development, from a Danish colon…
Decolonizing Feminism in the North
Rauna Kuokkanen is from Ohcejohka/Utsjoki, Sapmi (Finland). She is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Aboriginal Studies Program at the University of Toronto. She holds
At the intersection of Arctic indigenous governance and extractive industries
Self-Determination and Violence against Indigenous Women
Indigenous feminist discourse links the realities of multilayered violence faced by Indigenous women to questions of self-determination, self-government, and the survival of Indigenous communities. This chapter considers how Indigenous political institutions and leadership address gendered violence. Nearly all interviewees agreed that violence against women is a self-determination issue, but pointed out that existing self-government institutions …
Gendering Indigenous Self-Government
Chapter 4 examines the gender power dynamics of existing Indigenous self-government institutions, cultures, and discourses in Canada, Greenland, and Scandinavia. Employing feminist institutional analysis, the author investigates how Indigenous political institutions are gendered. Gendering refers to a multiplicity of interacting processes shaped by the distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine, which create and conceptualize soc…
Indigenous Gender Justice as Restructuring Relations
The concluding chapter argues that there is no Indigenous self-determination without Indigenous gender justice. Whatever is put in place in the name of Indigenous self-determination (or sovereignty) without interrogating gender and gender regimes of existing political organizations will be a smokescreen for upholding the status quo, and the subordination of groups and individuals whose interests and concerns do not correspond with the established…
Implementing Indigenous Self-Determination
Indigenous self-government is the political theory and practice of the right to self-determination. It is a political arrangement that enables a group to govern themselves according to their own will and through their own institutions. This chapter considers the degree of Indigenous self-determination in the three regions through participant discussions. In spite of increasing participation of Indigenous women in formal politics and their involve…
Indigenous Self-Government Structures in Canada, Greenland, and Sápmi
Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of the related (but distinct) concepts of self-government, governance, and autonomy and how they differ from the concept of self-determination. It then examines in detail the scope and structures of the existing self-government arrangements in three regions: Canada, Greenland, and Sápmi (the Sámi region in Scandinavia) through participant discussions. In Canada, the focus is not on a specific First Nation or sel…
Self-Determination
Chapter 1 examines the conceptions of Indigenous self-determination. It begins with an overview of the global political discourse of Indigenous self-determination as a foundational right articulated especially within the UN framework since the 1980s. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork and building on Iris Marion Young’s concept of nondomination and Jennifer Nedelsky’s theory of relational autonomy, the chapter develops a theory of Indigenous self-…
Restructuring Relations
This book interrogates normative conceptions of Indigenous self-determination and the structures of Indigenous self-government institutions, arguing that Indigenous self-determination is not achievable without restructuring all relations of domination beyond that with the state; nor can it be secured in the absence of gender justice. It demonstrates that the current rights discourse and focus on Indigenous-state relations is limited in scope and …
Pohjoismainen asuttajakolonialismi ja vuoden 2017 Tenosopimus
ohjoismaita pidetn kansainvlisesti edistyksellisin kansallisvaltioina, jotka edistvt sukupuolten tasa-arvoa, sosiaalista hyvinvointia sek vhemmist
The Deatnu Agreement
The Deatnu River, located in Northern Scandinavia in the heart of Sápmi, is often regarded as one of the finest salmon rivers in Europe. In the 1751 Strömstad Peace Accord, the Deatnu river was made into an international boundary, becoming one of the oldest political borders in Europe. Since 1873, salmon fishing in the Deatnu River has been regulated by bilateral agreements negotiated between Norway and Finland. The most recent agreement was reac…
Reconciliation as a Threat or Structural Change? The Truth and Reconciliation Process and Settler Colonial Policy Making in Finland
The Sámi have long desired a public process to examine and expose the Nordic states’ colonial, assimilationist practices and policies, past and present, toward the Sámi people. This article considers the truth and reconciliation process in Finland, assessing it in light of recent legislative and other measures. Employing settler colonial theory, it argues that reconciliation, although seemingly progressive, signifies a continuation of colonialism…
Indigenous governance of cultural heritage
In this paper, we critically examine the co-management of Indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage as simultaneously a driver and product of the culturalisation of Indigenous peoples: the reduction of complex legal-political orders, anchored in specific lands, value systems, rights, and practices, to material cultures. Co-management has been hailed as a defensibly imperfect, ‘tweakable’ system that benefits both Indigenous and state parties, and mor…
Political science (26 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Indigenous (22 works) · Law (20 works) · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights (16 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Indigenous Studies and Ecology (11 works) · Ecology (10 works)