TITLE:
Norwegian Sociology and the Recognition of the Saami Minority
AUTHORS:
Hans Petter Sand
KEYWORDS:
Saami Ethnic Minority, Problem-Oriented Empirism, Sociologists as Public Intellectuals, Vilhelm Aubert
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Applied Sociology,
Vol.4 No.5,
April
3,
2014
ABSTRACT: At a time when the
Saami ethnic minority got little attention by the Norwegian public and the political
authorities of the country, sociologists did much to raise public awareness
about the conditions of this ethnic minority. In the postwar period of the
1950s and 1960s, sociologists of Norway focused to a large degree on social
groups that fell outside the emerging welfare state. Norwegian sociology has
been characterized by an approach named “problem-oriented empirism” and also by
sociologists playing a vital role as public intellectuals. Sociology professor
Vilhelm Aubert (1922- 88) coined the term “problem-oriented empirism” to
characterize Norwegian sociology from the end of the Second World War to around
1975. Empirism refers to the importance of sociology being close to social
reality. Problem-orientation refers to the importance of choosing research questions that are not only scientifically interesting, but also relevant to
society. Vilhelm Aubert was also a leading figure among sociologists playing
the role of public intellectuals in this period. Problem-oriented empirism
and sociologists as public intellectuals have in particular been the case with
regard to Saami research.