What’s counted as a reindeer herder? Gender and the adaptive capacity of Sami reindeer herding communities in Sweden

Abstract

Researchers of adaptive capacity and sustainable livelihoods have frequently used social, cultural, human, economic and institutional capitals to better understand how rural and resource-dependent communities address environmental, social and economic stresses. Yet few studies have considered how men and women contribute differently to these capitals to support community resilience overall. Our research sought to understand the differential contributions of Sami men and women to the adaptive capacity of reindeer husbandry and reindeer herding communities in northern Sweden. Our focus revealed a gendered division of labour in reindeer herding as an economic enterprise as well as gendered contributions to a broader conceptualization of reindeer husbandry as a family and community-based practice, and as a livelihood and cultural tradition. Based on our results, we recommend that community resilience be enhanced by generating more opportunities for men to achieve higher levels of human and economic capital (particularly outside of herding activities) and encouraging women to contribute more directly to institutional capital by participating in the formation and implementation of legislation, policies and plans.

A synthesis of convergent reflections, tensions and silences in linking gender and global environmental change research

“…In this special issue, the mixed-methods approach are also used in half of the case study papers (Buchanan et al 2016; Dah-gbeto and Villamor 2016; Díaz-Reviriego et al 2016; Ravera et al 2016; Smucker and Wangui 2016). The value of triangulating of the mixed-methods approach has been emphasized by feminist political ecologists because such approach is able to capture the gendered differences in access to, control over and knowledge of resources (Rocheleau 1995; Nightingale 2003; Buechler and Hanson 2015).…”

“…The same framework also allows for the expansion of the adaptive capacity literature at the household and community level to consider the intersections across units of analysis. In the implementation of the livelihood framework to the case study of Sami reindeer husbandry in northern Sweden (Buchanan et al 2016), Maureen Reed, co-author of the paper, highlights: the analyses must examine multiple scales simultaneously — so not just intersections across the same scale (e.g., individual), but across scales (individual, household, community, and region) as there are interplays among scales. …”

“…Finally, regarding gendered subjects and gender, the focus of some of the papers in the special issue (Buchanan et al 2016; Wilmer and Fernández-Giménez 2016) opens the question of gender in adaptation, vulnerability and resilience in GEC to subjects located in the Global North. While maintaining its rural background, these papers broaden the (previously) almost exclusive focus on women in developing countries (MacGregor 2010).…”

Gender perspectives in resilience, vulnerability and adaptation to global environmental change

“…Additionally, as remarked by Dyck (2005), close attention to everyday life helps to keep women visible in rapidly changing world conditions, rather than shade their activities beyond dominant models. Four papers in this special issue illustrate such focus (Buchanan et al 2016; Buechler 2016; Ravera et al 2016; Wilmer and Fernández-Giménez 2016). …”

“…Buchanan et al (2016) use a capitals approach to analyse adaptive capacity and community resilience of Sami communities involved in reindeer husbandry in Sweden in the face of climate change and complex economic and socio-political conditions such as large-scale resource extraction, industrialization and past colonization. The authors overcome narrow assumptions about which activities are considered reindeer husbandry and who undertakes them and they propose a framework to conceptualize reindeer husbandry as the business, the land-based practices and the practices and cultural traditions.…”