Permalink :  http://hdl.handle.net/2115/91266

JaLCDOI :  10.14943/Jais.4.001

KEYWORDS : 情報化; 投書; ロシア; 先住民族; 社会運動; information society; letter of appeal; post-Soviet Russia; indigenous peoples; social movements

This paper focuses on the relationship between indigenous rights movements and the information society in post-Soviet Russia. The purpose of this paper is to examine how knowledge for negotiating with companies and the government has been shared among indigenous communities in Russia through an analysis of letters, which were exchanged between the government, companies, and indigenous peoples. Previous research on indigenous peoples in Russia has shown that there is a gap between the ideals and reality of implementing federal laws concerning indigenous rights. It means that indigenous peoples are required to be familiar with the discourse of the companies and governments with which they are negotiating, in order to bridge these gaps. Under these circumstances of unbalanced power relations, how do indigenous groups know and share knowledges for negotiation? This paper focuses on letters, which are Russia's unique means of addressing social issues and used as a media for sharing knowledge for negotiation among indigenous communities. In particular, this paper focuses on the significance of indigenous organizations as intermediaries between local indigenous communities, companies and government. The author argues that the indigenous organizations have played a role of "legal translator" that has paraphrased the words of local indigenous communities and negotiated with companies and governments by sharing the way of using legal terminology for negotiation.

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