Adaptation Strategies under Technological Change: A Comparative Study of Saami Reindeer Management Regions in Norway 1960-1990

Abstract

"The aim of this article is to try to explain why the transition from subsistence economy to market economy has been clearly more successful so far in the South than in the North. It seems rather obvious that the problems with overgrazing or resource depletion in the North is the result of a badly functioning common property regime. But one may ask whether we are observing a simple disintegration of a previously well functioning system or whether the problem is lack of capacity to transform as the transition from subsistence to a market orientation has taken place. If so, the problem is to explain why the system was not able to adapt in the North, while in the South, transformation and adaptation processes seem to have been rather successful concerning resource conservation and income."