From relations to dissociations in spatial thinking: Sámi ‘geographs’ and the promise of concentric geographies ARI AUKUSTI LEHTINEN Lehtinen, Ari Aukusti (2011). From relations to dissociations in spatial thinking: Sámi ‘geographs’ and the promise of concentric geographies. Fennia 189: 2, pp. 14–30. Helsinki. ISSN 0015-0010. This article critically examines the currently popular renewal in human geogra- phy inspired by relational thinking. Particular emphasis is directed to formula- tions informed by the philosophies of immanence. It is argued that this tendency carries the risk of being narrowed into cursory excursions on the immediate geographies of what happens. The article is consequently concerned about the resulting scholarly indifference when it comes to socio-spatial discontinuities and circles of particularity. It is also shown in what type of settings the ‘imma- nent relationalism’ becomes a too general view to explain satisfactorily the earthly co-being of humans and non-humans, and presents alternative ‘lines of flight’. The case study focusing on the indigenous Sámi in the European North exemplifies the nuances of cultural domination versus decline in a multilingual milieu whereupon some criteria for identifying particular place-making under the general pressures of all-inclusion are formulated. Keywords: Sámi homeland, geographies of difference, comparative reading, ‘geographs’, polyglot interfaces, relational and concentric spaces Ari Aukusti Lehtinen, Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, Uni- versity of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland. E-mail: ari.
[email protected] Introduction: geographies of as consequences of social and environmental withdrawal changes put forward and accepted by the sur- rounding society. They are thus, undeniably, sup- Ä´kkel Sámi, one of the Eastern Sámi languages ported by our silent acceptance, if not ignorance spoken on the Kola peninsula, crossed the thresh- or indifference.