Suchergebnisse

Presents & reviews complexities concerning the definition & role of Sami political representation in the Swedish government. The organ for representation of the indigenous Sami people, Sametinget, now 10 years old, can be still considered in many ways as a political experiment in which an attempt is made to give the interests of the Sami people greater visibility & mobility in the Swedish government & increase Sami autonomy without simultaneously weakening the power of other elected Swedish organs. Much of the difficulty that arises in determining the proper & most effective direction of Sametinget is that in its definition of purpose the organ can be seen in many ways as being a type of hybrid between a popularly elected parliament & a central government administration. In this respect the Sametinget operates on inherently contradictory grounds. As these contradictions are explored in some depth it is suggested that in order for the organ to move ahead into a productive future, a clarification of its authority must be made. Otherwise both Sami support for -- & general Swedish recognition of -- Sametinget might be eroded. 24 References. C. Brunski

The objective behind this article is to study the proliferation of the politics of information technology (IT) in Sweden, 1994-2003, based on a discourse analysis. The article argues that the Swedish IT political discourse is characterised by a guiding rule according to which there exist an autonomous & inevitable historical path towards the "information society." Swedish citizens are defined as dependent subjects, without any means to influence the advent of this new society. Instead they have to comply with new requirements in terms of swift social adaptation & life-long learning. In addition, the IT-political discourse is distinguished by nationalist optimism, as well as democratic ambitions. This also gives rise to peculiar contradictions within the discourse, for instance in the educational arena where there is a clash between individualist pedagogical doctrines & collective compliance to the information society. The author concludes that Swedish IT politics have hitherto mainly focused on affecting definitions & perceptions through the persuasive use of a model of steering which the author labels "visionary governance," ie, the establishment of an authoritative definition of the future by certain experts or "visionaries." Discursive power within such a model consists in making all actors addressing the political issue unanimously. 24 References. Adapted from the source document.