University of Lapland

About: University of Lapland is a education organization based out in Rovaniemi, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Arctic & Indigenous. The organization has 665 authors who have published 1870 publications receiving 39129 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Rovaniemi & Lapin yliopisto.

How to Revitalize an Indigenous Language? Adults’ Experiences of the Revitalization of the SÁMi Language

Abstract: The purpose of the research: Language revitalization means that an extinct language is taken in active use. Language revitalization can also save an endangered language from extinction. The Sami form an indigenous people whose language is endangered. A marginal group of people with Sami ancestry has revitalized the Sami language. The materials and methods: This study focused on these adult Sami-speaking people (N=10) who had revitalized the language. They were interviewed of their language revitalization process, especially how they became language revitalizers. This was a narrative study.The results: The results show that language revitalization is a process that demands strong motivation and courage at the individual level. The process includes difficult experiences and the support from the community is not any obviousness. The study contributes information about a less studied and topical viewpoint to the revitalization of indigenous languages. Key words: Indigenous people; Language revitalization; Linguistic diversity; Language maintenance; Identity; Motivation

Investigating the balance between virtuality and reality in mobile mixed reality UI design: user perception of an augmented city

Abstract: Examples of mixed reality mobile applications and research combining virtual and real world data in the same view have emerged during recent years. However, currently there is little knowledge of users' perceptions comparing the role of virtual and real world representations in mobile user interfaces (UIs). In this paper, we investigate the initial user perceptions when comparing augmented reality and augmented virtuality UIs in a mobile application. To chart this, we conducted a field study with 35 participants, where they interacted with a simulated mobile mixed reality (MMR) application with two alternative UI designs, and an online survey completed by over a hundred people. Our findings reveal perceived differences e.g. in immersion, recognition, clarity and overall pleasantness, and provide insight to user interface design and methodological challenges of research in the area of mobile mixed reality.

How useful are urban island ecosystems for defining invader patterns

Abstract: Biological invasions are pervasive, alter ecosystem sustainability, and can reduce native biological diversity (Vitousek et al. 1996). Ecologists are scrambling to predict where and when new invaders may strike (Lodge 1993; Fagan et al. 2002). Urbanization has created a number of new ecological niches which, after remaining empty for some time, are increasingly being colonized or invaded by vertebrates (Erz 1966). One of the major disputes in evolutionary biology concerns the rate at which species evolve to occupy new niches (Diamond 1986). How quickly are animals adapting to these new habitats and what makes them successful colonists?

Automatic versus manual forwarding in web surveys

Abstract: Several authors and software vendors advocate the benefits of auto forwarding in web surveys, but there is little empirical research on this approach. We experimentally tested automatic versus manu...

20 years of research on Arctic and Indigenous cultures in Nordic tourism: a review and future research agenda

Abstract: Through a critical reading of previous research, this article explores local and indigenous cultures in the context of Nordic Arctic tourism and how its consequences have been researched in Nordic ...