From relations to dissociations in spatial thinking: Sámi ‘geographs’ and the promise of concentric geographies

Abstract

This article critically examines the currently popular renewal in human geography inspired by relational thinking. Particular emphasis is directed to formulations 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 ‘immanent 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.