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This study examines the role, inclusion, and protection of the rights of minorities in conscription systems, with a special focus on Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. It analyzes the situation of conscripts, focusing on the following good practices: the struggle to overcome inequality, discrimination, and harassment; inclusion strategies and training measures; dealing with complaints of discrimination or harassment; special personnel policies; implementation of equal opportunity in the armed forces; approaches to linguistic minorities; approaches to religious minorities; and special food and dietary requirements. The study provides a list of key recommendations on how conscription systems can better accommodate the presence of minority servicemen. Lastly, the study outlines the key international instruments relevant to the protection of minorities in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia.

Sustainability is not an object in itself but rather a quality that describes the durability of practices over time, and the mobilization and use of material beings as resources to support those practices. Sustainability enjoys a visibility that few other ideas today can claim. At times it serves as an implicit critique of society. At others it serves to greenwash actions that only displace the site of extraction, or that defer the inevitable transformation of useful objects into waste. For example, new consumption practices may serve as harm reduction. Yet unless attached to changes in the broader relationships of production, distribution, and exchange, and at scales that are appropriate to the reproduction of those relationships, new consumer trends may themselves wind up in the dustbin of discarded fashion. As a concept, sustainability has proven itself amid fluctuations in the market of ideas and has achieved a degree of durability as it bridges disciplines under the heading of a science. Part of the success of sustainability (as a concept, institutional discipline, NGO mission, or development goal) lies in the publication of books like this one, which seeks to trace and describe the uses of sustainability and its related concepts across the various contexts in which it hopes to intervene. Situating Sustainability: A Handbook of Contexts and Concepts, introduces readers to contemporary problem-sites and conceptual approaches of sustainability studies.

Desire for what is good—and for a good life—is one of the human universals spanning across all societies and cultures. Yet, how people imagine a good life differs significantly according to the individual, and it also depends on numerous social, political, cultural, economic and geographical variables. In this book we explore what a good life looks like for young people in a place that, at first glance, may appear difficult or hostile for human inhabitation: the Arctic region. The Arctic is often portrayed in popular and scientific literature as a frontier characterized by the catastrophic impacts of a changing climate and resource extraction. This adds to the image of the Arctic as a region that is ill-fit for human wellbeing and emplacement, where outmigration should be the default goal of the young generation. In a globalized world, however, youth have more choices than ever where to emplace themselves and how to realize their dreams. This introduction focuses on three principal questions from a theoretical vantage point rooted in the anthropology of wellbeing. What affordances does the Arctic offer for a good life as young people make their choices? What can empirical evidence from working with young people in the Arctic contribute to our general understanding of wellbeing as a concept in the social sciences? Which factors make Arctic towns attractive as places for youth to realize their dreams in life? The chapters in this volume all approach these questions in their own way with empirical evidence from various places in the Arctic.

Tässä katsauksessa pohdin merisaamelaisten perustamalla Riddu Riđđu -musiikki- ja kulttuurifestivaalilla kuulemiani kertomuksia oman äidinkielen ja suvun kulttuuriperinnön takaisinottamisesta tilanteissa, joissa kieli ja osittain kulttuuri ovat väistyneet jo sukupolvi tai useampi sukupolvi aiemmin. Katsaus pohjautuu etnografisen osallistuvan havainnoinnin menetelmällä tehtyyn tutkimukseen merisaamelaista kulttuuria elvyttämään perustetulla Riddu Riđđu -musiikkifestivaalilla Pohjois-Norjassa, sekä festivaaleille osallistuneiden perheiden haastatteluihin vuosien 2013–2019 aikana. Oman kielen ja kulttuurin takaisinottamisesta on kirjoitettu runsaasti varsinkin kielisosiologisen revitalisaatiotutkimuksen parissa. Pohjois-Norjan rannikon merisaamelaiset ovat yksi pohjoissaamenkielisen Saamen kansan vähemmistö, joka melkein jäi norjalaistamisen jalkoihin. Pohdin tässä katsauksessa pitkään kestäneen voimakkaan assimilaatioon vaikutusta Pohjois-Norjassa varsinkin merisaamelaisten nuorten perheiden näkökulmasta.

The categories emanating from international human rights law defining the belonging of peoples to different types of minorities invites for a re-assessment. These different minority categories such as indigenous peoples, national (historical) minorities and migrants tend to fix people to different types or levels of specific protection. The justifications for different treatment are, however, not born in a vacuum or value-free, and they rarely fit seamlessly with real life cases of needs of minorities. Thus, in this article I shall discuss the legitimacy and consequences of the current typology, which divides minorities into different categories. This categorization has direct consequences for the rights people can claim vis-à-vis their governments and the international community. To illustrate the key concerns with the contemporary categorization of minorities, this article presents the case of Roma and their current struggles to fit their claims and needs into the existing minority rights framework.

Hirvi, Laura 2013. Identities in Practice – The TransAtlantic Ethnography of Sikh Immigrants in Finland and California. Studia Fennica Ethnologica 15. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 183 pp. ISBN 978-952222-470-5.

Abridged Russian-language version of the ELDIA Comparative Report

Poster for ELDIA Closing Conference, June 2013