Ulf Mörkenstam

Ulf Mörkenstam is Professor at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University and at the Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm. His main research interests are within democratic and political theory with a specific focus on the rights of indigenous peoples. He has published frequently on Sámi politics in Sweden and the Nordic countries, and recent publications have appeared in Citizenship Studies, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Electoral Studies and the International Journal of Human Rights.

The project

Title: Indigenous self-determination in theory and practice

"The last two decades we have witnessed a growing global acknowledgement of indigenous peoples’ rights, manifested in the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The adoption of the declaration established indigenous peoples as equal to other peoples within international law, and that indigenous rights are human rights (Allen & Xanthaki 2011; Hohmann & Weller 2018). The declaration states, among other things, that “[i]ndigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development” (UN 2007, Art. 3). Although not legally binding, the UNDRIP reflects in many ways customary international law on indigenous peoples’ rights and, as such, it serves as a point of reference in the interpretation of other human rights instruments (see, e.g., Diergarten 2019; Lightfoot 2016). The recognition of indigenous self-determination challenges the traditional nation-state centred understanding of political rights and democracy, not least through indigenous peoples’ own constitutions (Gover 2010). Not surprisingly, therefore, there is still a gap between this recognition on a global level, and an institutionalisation and legal recognition of these rights on a nation-state level. In many ways the actual meaning of indigenous peoples’ right to selfdetermination is still contested and international law lacks a “more precise scope and content of Indigenous peoples’ self-government and autonomy rights” (Scheinin & Åhrén 2018, 74). The AIM of this project is twofold: to develop a theoretical understanding of indigenous selfdetermination through an analysis of the normative conflicts and conceptual ambiguities in contemporary theories on indigenous rights; and to empirically investigate how indigenous selfdetermination has been implemented on a nation-state level. How is the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples to be understood as a theoretical concept? And how has it been implemented in political practice?"

Hosting institution: Sciences Po - CEVIPOF, Paris

Selective Bibliography

• Beckman, L., K. Gover & U. Mörkenstam (2022). “The popular sovereignty of indigenous peoples: a challenge to democratic legitimacy in multi-people states”, Citizenship Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13621025.2021.2011142.
• Mörkenstam, U., P. Selle & S. Valkonen (2022). ”Who are ‘We, the People’? A comparative analysis of the right to register in the Sámi electoral roll in Finland, Norway, and Sweden”, in S. Valkonen, Á. Aikio, S. Alakorva & S-M. Magga (eds.), The Sámi World. London: Routledge.
• Mörkenstam, U., R. Nilsson & S. Dahlberg (2021). “Indigenous peoples right to self-determination: perceptions of self-determination among the Sámi electorate in Sweden”, in Timo Koivurova et al (eds.), Handbook of Arctic Indigenous Peoples. London: Routledge
• Mörkenstam, U.  (2019). “Organised hypocrisy? The Influence of International Norms on the Indigenous Rights Regime in Sweden”, International Journal of Human Rights, 23(10), 1718-1741.
• Dahlberg, S. & U. Mörkenstam (2019). “Social Identification, In-group Integration and Voter Turnout in Three Parliamentary Elections: An Analysis of the Swedish Sámi Electorate”, Electoral Studies 59, 99-108.