This article is devoted to the study of Russian nature reserves, which are now changing their form and status as all organizations have done since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The author is mostly concerned with the study of the professional ethos of the ranger. The similarity of the rangers’ ethos is determined by their common experience of work in the forest. The variability is explained by the difference in the environments of nature reserves, such as the proximity of a city or state border. The attempt to integrate this study in the corpus of works about social effects of nature reserves is made in the conclusion.

The purpose of this article is to show how national interests and western ideas about the polar wilderness influenced initiatives taken in the early decades of the twentieth century to protect the natural environment of the Arctic islands of Spitsbergen, today called Svalbard. After a brief outline of the environmental history of the islands, the explanatory significance of a game theory-based assumption about the predicament of nature conservation on common land is discussed by applying it to this historical case. It is the environmental dilemma known as the “tragedy of the commons”. Some elements of the western and Scandinavian ideological interpretations of the Arctic nature are introduced as a background to the following discussion of the most significant early initiative of nature conservation in the Arctic: Hugo Conwentz's proposal for the protection of the nature of Spitsbergen of 1914. The conception and outcome of Conwentz's initiative is explained by references to the political, social and ideological contexts of early twentieth-century science and colonialism. In the final section, the post-war development of the environmental administration of the islands is correlated to the political situation following World War I with its many historical contingencies and the breakdown of internationalism in science and nature conservation.

The chronology of the earliest history of Svalbard (Spitsbergen) has been, and still is, a controversial issue in historiography, partly due to inconclusive evidence and lack of sources that open up for different interpretations, but also because of particular interests in this contested region. This survey of a dozen important works shows that historiography reflects the changing national interests in Svalbard over time and the variations in intensity of political debate. By 1920, three different history traditions had established themselves with regard to the question of discovery and early exploitation: the Norwegian “Viking hypothesis”, the Russian “Pomor hypothesis” and the nationally more neutral “Barentsz hypothesis”. While Barentsz’ discovery in 1596 is generally accepted as a historical fact, the hypotheses about earlier visits have proved strikingly resilient. The “archaeological turn” around 1970 introduced a fourth hypothesis, the possibility of a Stone Age settlement, and also hopes that new material evidence would finally solve the question of chronology. This has not happened; archaeological research has augmented historiography, but not caused a fundamental shift in positions and interpretations – national historical traditions remain influential.

Pacifist, land surveyor, friend of the Sámi people, scholar studying Sámi culture, Karl Nickul's (1900–1980) life work proves that the work of a public servant and researcher can be merged into a strong ethical stand to influence society. Nickul, an early initiator of Finland's peace movement, was by training and profession a land surveyor, who worked for the Finnish government making maps of Lapland and Petsamo in northern Finland in the 1920s and 1930s. Becoming acquainted with the Skolt Sámi, he began to study them and to take part in the official discussions about their status. With a project to preserve Skolt culture Nickul's paramount idea of Sámi governance began to grow. He actively pursued this idea after World War II through his activities in Sámi politics in Finland and in Sámi cooperative efforts in the Nordic countries. The dominant idea was that the Sámi culture was to be protected from outside pressures of settlement, and that the Sámi themselves should be allowed to determine their own identity and their own needs. The paper discusses and analyses Karl Nickul's personal development and involvement in various projects and activities to secure Sámi rights.

The negotiations between Norway and Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, in the maritime delimitation in the Barents Sea have been going on for more than 30 years. Despite a declared will on both sides to reach an agreement, the prospect of an early settlement seems remote. Formally the delimitation problem concerns the distribution of the important economic resources in the area, i.e. petroleum and fish. In practice, however, the strategic importance of the area and the impact of the international context on the bilateral relationship have played an important role in the negotiations. As a result, the parties clearly have different preferences for a solution. Because there is no practical need for a solution and because the parties do not see the boundary dispute as a strain on their mutual relations, the prospect of an early settlement is dependent on the political will of both sides to bring this long-standing conflict to and end.

In the summer of 1928, the dirigible “Italia” with the Italian navigator and constructor Umberto Nobile and his crew crashed in the polar ice north of Spitzbergen. The accident triggered not only the then most extensive rescue operation ever, it also resulted in a national grievance in Norway, when the national hero Roald Amundsen vanished in the sea on his way from Norway to Spitzbergen. Amundsen was flying north to help to find his old companion. With his disappearance the Norwegian attitude towards Nobile and his fellow Italians turned from bad to worse. This unkind attitude was also strengthened when Nobile came out of the ice safe and sound after 1 month. One Norwegian paper called Nobile “a goldgallooned fascist fool”, whose “insane venture had caused the whole tragedy” (Friheten 8 June 1928). Now Nobile was in safety, while Amundsen was gone forever. When the Italian shipwrecked men came to the coastal town of Narvik in Norway to dock for the waiting train to Italy, the locals met them with hostility. Why had the usually friendly and calm Norwegians suddenly become so hostile and unkind?

Customary law among indigenous, or Fourth World, peoples is part of comprehensive aboriginal rights. The political aspect of customary law has lately been emphasized as a strategic element of the general political agenda. As argued, this reactualization of customary law offers legitimacy to stated claims, at the same time cultural and political autonomy is reinforced. The article also attempts at certain conceptional clarification, differentiating the perspectives of anthropology and law. The contemporary Sámi rights process in Norway forms the empirical basis for the general arguments introduced. In reflecting on customary law comparatively cases from Canada, Australia and New Zealand are brought in. Finally, the significance of customary law, as pointed out, refers to recognition of difference and the acceptance of a legal pluralistic arrangement.

The relationship between people and places, and the meaning of place are changing in the context of modern society. Modernist theories emphasize the free choice of individuals, their construction of individual identities and the diminishing meaning of place. The latter is related to mobility, both as practice and ideal. Discussions about modernity are generally related to urban areas, while rural areas and local communities are associated with the past and tradition. The aim here is to nuance the image of the modern, free, detached individual primarily associated with urban areas. By taking interviews with students from rural areas in Norway studying at a regional university in a small town in northern Norway as the empirical point of departure, how the students describe their relationship to their home place will be discussed. These descriptions will in different ways portray the kind of life they want to live, what possibilities and limitations they associate with rural areas, and how their home place is incorporated into their lives and their construction of identity. Instead of focusing on the detached individual, it is more rewarding to examine how individuals handle attachment and the changing meaning of place. Both mobility and individual freedom are central values in modern society. These values are, however, not absolute, but conditioned and must be contextualized.

This article examines the representations of Sámi culture in tourism. It is argued that Sámi culture is displayed in an "emblematic" form that promotes an idea of the Sámi as traditional and radically different from modern Norwegian culture. This touristic way of exhibiting culture is also found in other fields than tourism, and is in danger of reinforcing clear-cut ethnic boundaries in an area that should rather be understood by concepts such as hybridity. Finally, it is discussed how this touristic way of representing indigenous culture proceeds from a reasoning also found in political discourse.