IN SEARCH OF POWER : The Vindelälven-Juhttátahkka Biosphere Reserve in Sweden under the microscope of the Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

Sammanfattning

The present study focuses on the Vindelälven-Juhttátahkka Biosphere Reserve (BR) in Northern Sweden, which serves as an implementation site of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme. In response to a series of environmental and social problems identified in the specific locale, the area inhabited by both “Swedish” and “Sami” people, is designed to serve henceforth as a learning site for sustainable development. Taking Michel Foucault’s work on discourse and power as a reference point, in this study we analyze the discourse that permeates life in the specific milieu, to understand how power operates in the BR and look for resistance. Following Foucault’s theorization of discourse, the study has employed Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (F.D.A.) on the empirical material, gathered from official documents and interviews with people in the BR. Our research has concluded that by employing its scientific programme, UNESCO’s discourse has managed to a large extent to construct in this place a reality that does not allow a future to be imagined outside of the context of sustainable development. This study has found its participants to be influenced by UNESCO’s discourse and has constrained them from perceiving present or imagining future realities that do not sustain the power of the Swedish state under the global neoliberal rule. Lastly, our research has illustrated that the participants who have been found to respond to their experiences have also been found to resist the discourse permeating the BR.