ABSTRACT

This chapter investigates the potential of mobile technologies for Indigenous empowerment in the context of the Sami community, based on the example of an application for mobile devices that reveals a Sami linguistic landscape via augmented reality. Mobile technology is reshaping not only the media landscape, but also the way people can interact with the environmental landscape. The mobility is approached not only in terms of technological accessibility but also as a practice, i.e., in relation to uses and representations of place, space, and landscape. The potential of linguistic landscapes is emphasized in the problematization and investigation of the effects of public signs on language behaviour. Indigenous linguistic landscapes can contribute to ethnolinguistic vitality and to the strengthening of identity. The mobility of mobile technology can indeed reinforce the sense of place because it can function as a form of digital cartography and place-specific knowledge.