Gruvboom och gruvkamp

Anteckningar från Gállok–Kallak

Abstract

This article is based on a pilot study where I used ethnographic and media studies approaches to examine how contemporary movements and struggles are interwoven with aspirations for a sustainable countryside. My specific interest in this article is the demonstration against the prospecting for a mine in Gallok / Kallak west of Jokkmokk in Sápmi. The demonstration against the prospecting that started in the summer of 2013. I followed the developments of the demonstration through social media, especially Facebook and Twitter. I also made a short field trip to the demonstration site in early August 2013. A conclusion in the article is that the protest was supported and manifested in many different ways of which some were only visible in social media and some only at the demonstration site in Gállok . Investigations of struggle and resistance – of which this study is an example – is telling of the outermost points of conflict in contemporary society. The study contributes with an analysis of the material conditions and social components of the demonstration and the meanings for the mobilization of resistance that were created. This pilot study suggests further research into what stories about the history, present and future that are created at such points of conflict.