Contemporary Norway Research Articles

Rare yet relevant: Trondheim Cooperative Housing Association

ABSTRACT The paper explores the history of the housing cooperative Trondhjems Kooperative Boligselskap (TKB) [The Trondheim Cooperative Housing Association] in relation to societal and political currents in contemporary Norway. The article also discusses how the neighbourhood and its architectural layout were adapted to changing uses over a 100-year period. Established in 1922, the TKB is the second-oldest housing cooperative in Norway. An important distinction from similar cooperatives was its construction process, where members of the construction workers’ union built their own homes and set up a production unit to continue developing new projects. Two related movements contributed to the TKBB’s foundation: Firstly, the work of the Norwegian Association of Housing Reforms, and the Own Homes movement, both inspired by the Ebenezer Howard Garden City concept. Secondly, the labour movement, which initiated the construction of the TKB. The main actor behind the housing association was the Norwegian architect and planner, Sverre Pedersen. Consisting of 86 units in 11 duplexes and 16 quadruplexes, the timber houses are organized with small gardens and within larger green communal spaces. The article elaborates on how elements from the TKB’s organizational and architectural principles are relevant to developing social housing in Norway today.

From Polarizing to Shared Shame: Multicultural Daughters, Pakistani Mothers, and Norwegian Child Welfare Services in What Will People Say

ABSTRACT This article is a close analysis of the feature film What Will People Say (2017) by the Norwegian-Pakistani director Iram Haq through the lens of shame as a filmic emotion experienced both by the Pakistani mother in the film and by the Norwegian majority viewers. The film’s reception reveals a polarized discourse that pitches the Norwegian majority against minority women and builds up the myth that shame in contemporary Norway exists primarily as an import phenomenon in diasporic communities such as that of the Pakistanis. My analysis shows how paying careful attention to the Pakistani mother’s role in the story and the Pakistani family’s interactions with the Norwegian Child Welfare Services becomes a productive avenue to challenge the polarized discourse and build up a sense of mutuality and community in multicultural Norway. In essence, the article shows how Norwegian majority viewers can share the shame of Pakistani minority women when they are willing to approach the mother’s shame as more than simply a twin sister of honour and embrace their own embarrassment at the way the Norwegian Child Welfare Services treat the film’s main character, a Norwegian-Pakistani teenage girl whose family sends her to Pakistan against her own will.

Love Jihad in Contemporary Art in Norway

This article explores the concept of ‘love jihad’ and the love jihad discourse in a Scandinavian setting, with a particular emphasis on contemporary works of art and popular culture in Norway. Arguing that ‘love jihad’ may be understood as part of a larger cluster of meaning related to fear of love across religious and cultural boundaries, and of losing ‘our women’ to ‘foreign men’, the article demonstrates that the love-jihad discourse and its related tropes exist in the Norwegian public sphere. It is directly articulated in far-right blogs and Facebook groups and indirectly present in the works of art and popular culture that this article explores. Indeed, read intertextually and in light of recent research in sociology and media studies about Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric on the Internet, works such as Disgraced, Heisann Montebello, SAS plus/SAS pussy, and Norskish demonstrate—through challenging, mocking or discussing the love-jihad discourse—that ‘love jihad’ has echoes in contemporary Norway.

With Age Comes …? An Examination of Gendered Differences in the Resource Advantages Associated with Parental Age in Norway

Using high-quality register data, this paper constructs an empirical portrait of older parenthood in contemporary Norway and explores gender differences in the extent to which older parents are better-resourced parents. Like most family issues, academic and policy discussions of older parenthood have tended to focus on the experiences of women. Although motherhood at older ages was not uncommon in previous generations, rapid social and family changes in recent decades mean that today’s older mother is far more likely to be having her first child. She may have focused on obtaining a good education and then on establishing her career and finding a supportive partner. When viewed through this motherhood lens, older parents are often portrayed as being relatively well-off financially and enjoying stable family lives. Viewed through the fatherhood lens, however, the family literature suggests that age might not be as strong a marker of socio-economic advantage. Our findings show that this is the case: While older fathers are, on average, more socio-economically advantaged than younger fathers around the time their children are born, their relative advantage is narrower than what we observe when older mothers and younger mothers are compared. Gender differences in the family history profiles of older parents appear to explain some of the differentials we document. The children of older fathers are more likely to be born into blended families and less likely to born to a mother who postponed her first birth than are the children born to older mothers. The results suggest that the meaning of paternal age and maternal age differs: paternal age is not as strong a marker of socio-economic advantages and resources for children as maternal age is.

Dance in the Christian Traditions

Although dance is a common religious expression, its place in the Christian tradition has been contested. In modern Protestant Norway, dance has mostly been considered irrelevant to church life, or even sinful. In recent decades, however, dance has become increasingly common in Norwegian churches. This empirical analysis of dance in Christian settings in contemporary Norway is based on participant observation and interviews. While younger dancers (born after 1990) consider it natural to dance in church, and are usually welcome to, older participants have met significant resistance. In dancing, dancers find personal meaning (wellbeing, positive emotions, processing life), social meaning (communication, belonging) and religious meaning (contact with God, prayer, growth). Dance emerges as a part of lived religion that clearly highlights how bodies matter, as well as how spiritualities are gendered, in this contribution to understanding the embodied dimensions of religion. Keywords: dance; embodied faith; lived religion; Christianity; religious experience; gendered spiritualities

Conceptualizing the Multicultural ‘North’ in the Íslendingasögur: Peoples, Places, and Phenomena

During the early medieval period, a large part of Fennoscandia was inhabited by the Sámi (Zachrisson 2008, 32). With written sources such as Historia Norvegiæ, Ágrip af Noregs konungasǫgum, and Heimskringla referring to Sámi settlements in the Viking and medieval period reaching as far south into Norway as Hadeland (Einarsson 2007, 5-7), alongside archaeological excavations asserting a Sámi cultural presence south of the contemporary cultural borders of Sápmi (Bergstøl 2008), close contact between the groups is not surprising. Despite often being described as ‘desolate’ and ‘remote’ (especially in the terra nullis colonialism exercised by the Scandinavian nation states in early modern times), the northernmost parts of the Fennoscandian landscape complexes are described as already inhabited in several medieval Scandinavian sagas, including the Íslendingasögur. Primarily, these texts explicitly assert that the ambiguous and distant ‘north’ of Fennoscandia was a special, preternatural place, simultaneously internal and external to what medieval Icelanders perceived as ‘Nóregi’. Whether enforced by the ‘othering’ of characters depicted with northern descent through expressive features and abilities traditionally associated with the area or its indigenous inhabitants, by the descriptions of different landscapes and communities unequivocally ‘othered’ and distinct from that of the saga-writers’ reality, or by extraordinary phenomena connected to the two, ‘norðarliga í Nóregi’ is portrayed as somewhat distinct from that of the rest of the ‘national’ landscape. Encompassing an area extending further south than contemporary northern Norway, the notion of a supernatural north in the Íslendingasögur goes beyond an idea of a unified Nóregi. Moving into the land of powerful chieftains in Naumdælafylki and the ambivalent Hálogaland, venturing ‘á fjall upp’ to the Sámi borderlands of Finnmǫrkr, whilst also incorporating the mysterious landscapes and peoples of eastern Fennoscandia, the notoriously equivocal Kvenland and Bjarmarland, distinct descriptions of peoples, places, and phenomena appear and follow literary patterns and stereotypes that are sometimes archaic. By discussing the portrayal of north Norwegian landscapes and geographical understandings in these texts, in conjunction with an examination of the depiction of the Sámi, this essay aims to demonstrate how north Norwegian spatial awareness in the Íslendingasögur can help enlighten cross-cultural relationships and liminal identities, and present fewer rigid contrasts between people and cultures in Fennoscandia than previously accounted for.

Hytte-humor – om sanitetsbind og begjær

AbstractThis article considers two comedy sketches that poke fun at cabin culture, a key praxis in contemporary Norway. The sketches are examples of what philosopher Simon Critchley calls «comedy of recognition», reflecting rather than challenging common experiences and beliefs. Focusing on the attitudes held by men and women toward cabins, the article examines how in particular masculinity is experienced and performed in this setting. The article concludes that cabins express complex feelings connected to personal, gender and national identities, and that they are therefore an apt vehicle for comedy about what it means to be Norwegian today.

Dancing faith: contemporary Christian dance in Norway

ABSTRACTAlthough dance is a common religious expression, its place in the Christian tradition has been contested. In modern Protestant Norway, dance has mostly been considered irrelevant to church life or even sinful. In recent decades, however, dance has become increasingly common in Norwegian churches. The present analysis of empirical data on dance in Christian settings in contemporary Norway is based on participant observation and interviews. While younger dancers (born after 1990) consider it natural to dance in church, and are usually welcome to do so, older participants have met significant resistance. When dancing, dancers find personal meaning (wellbeing, processing emotions and life events), social meaning (communication, belonging), and religious meaning (contact with God, prayer, growth). Dance emerges as a part of lived religion that clearly highlights how bodies matter, and how spiritualities are gendered, in this contribution to understanding the embodied dimensions of religion.

The balancing act. Museums as spaces for democratic debate: a case study from Oslo, Norway

ABSTRACT This paper explores the tensions that arise when museums adopt a particular moral and political standpoint while at the same time attempting to recognize and making space for a plurality of perspectives. The study draws on a visual, textual, and comparative analysis of two exhibitions: Typical at the Intercultural Museum and FOLK: from racial types to DNA sequences at the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, both located in Oslo, Norway. Alongside interviews with the exhibition producers, the analysis examines how the exhibitions communicate certain standpoints in relation to questions of diversity and demographic changes in contemporary Norway, while simultaneously facilitating an open dialog and debate. The findings suggest that these two roles can be hard to reconcile and ultimately influence museums’ attempts at creating genuine spaces for democratic debate.

Shamanism in Contemporary Norway: Concepts in Conflict

To choose a terminology for an investigation of shamanism in contemporary Norway is not entirely without problems. Many shamans are adamant in rejecting the term religion in connection with their practices and choose broader rubrics when describing what they believe in. When shamanism was approved as an official religion by the Norwegian government in 2012, the tensions ran high, and many shamanic practitioners refused to accept the connection between religion and shamanism. This chapter provides an account of the emic categories and connections used today by shamanic entrepreneurs and others who share these types of spiritual beliefs. In particular, the advantages and disadvantages of the term religion and how it is deployed on the ground by shamans in Norway will be highlighted.

The Class and Culture of Norwegian Culinary Straw Men: A Response to Flemmen, Hjellbrekke and Jarness’ ‘Class, Culture and Culinary Tastes: Cultural Distinctions and Social Class Divisions in Contemporary Norway’

This research note offers a critical-constructive discussion of the article ‘Class, Culture and Culinary Tastes: Cultural Distinctions and Social Class Divisions in Contemporary Norway’, written by Flemmen, Hjellbrekke and Jarness (FHJ) ( Sociology, 2018(1)). Concerns are raised about the methods and the use of the data. A robustness analysis with alternative data and/or alternative methods is suggested. Conceptually, the analysis of FHJ is considered not to engage adequately with a more qualitative body of historical and ethnological literature, as well as the impact of Norwegian agricultural policy. To describe and understand the evolution of social meaning and social patterns of the consumption of ‘traditional’ Norwegian foodstuffs, a qualitative approach could have contributed constructively. Overall, wider implications for Bourdieu-inspired analyses of cultural consumption are addressed.

North by North

[Extract] Seven centuries of cartographic convention has placed north at the top of maps, and by logical extension at the top of the world. This convention has been closely aligned with another, known as the Mercator projection. Devised by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1659, this system of map-making has been uncritically handed down through the centuries to the present time and continues to be the cartographic standard in many parts of the world. Mercator’s projection not only points northward but exaggerates northern landmasses at the expense of the south. For example, it magnifies Greenland to be approximately the same size as Africa, which is actually fourteen times larger. The Greenland example is one of many northern amplifications and conceits that belittle the south. The specific contrast with Africa was presented with deadpan humour and devastating effect in a 2012 episode of Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing. Cartographers for Social Equity lobby President Bartlet’s White House to withdraw all Mercator maps from US schools and replace them with Gall-Peters maps. The Gall-Peters projection represents with greater fidelity and accuracy the relative proportions of the world’s landmasses. The Cartographers for Social Equity fail in their representation but, coincidental or not, five years after the screening of The West Wing episode Gall-Peters maps began to be phased in at schools in two American states. North and south are cardinal directions and polar opposites that refer to exact locations at either end of the globe. Within ice-bound regions, the North Pole defines the Arctic, an old term derived from Latin and Greek to mean north. By contrast, its antithesis—the Antarctic—is a negative term that means opposite to north. It is defined by the South Pole. This linguistic preference suggests that north is the one while south is the other.

‘My home is my castle’. The Norwegian home in times of paid migrant domestic labour

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to explore the cultural meanings attached to the home in contemporary Norway, by way of studying the recent and rather contested increase in paid migrant domestic labour. Based on qualitative interviews with Norwegian au pair host parents, the article explores the ways in which this new monetised and globalised organisation of housework and care work influences both the cultural ideal of the Norwegian home and everyday life within it. Does the increasing occurrence of paid domestic labour bear witness to and contribute to the production of new perceptions of the Norwegian home, or does it instead protect the Norwegian home from societal changes in regard to gender and labour?

Class, Culture and Culinary Tastes: Cultural Distinctions and Social Class Divisions in Contemporary Norway

In this article we analyse class cultures by mapping out differences in ‘original taste’; that is, respondents’ classed preferences for food and drink. By employing Multiple Correspondence Analysis, we produce a relational model of tastes. Using three indicators of social class – occupational class, income and education – we find clear class divisions. The upper and middle classes exhibit diverse and what are typically regarded as ‘healthy’ tastes; this contrasts with the more restricted and what are typically regarded as ‘less healthy’ tastes found among the working classes. Our findings challenge ongoing debates within cultural stratification research where it has become almost usual to demonstrate that the contemporary upper and middle classes exhibit playful tastes for the ‘cosmopolitan’ and the ‘exotic’. We find that upper- and middle-class households also enjoy very traditional foodstuffs. We argue that this illustrates a need for a relational understanding of taste: even the consumption of the traditional peasant food of pre-capitalist Norway can be refashioned as a badge of distinction in the 21st century.

‘I would rather put on warm clothes and go outdoors, than take off clothes to be indoors’ – Norwegian lay men’s notion of being outdoors during physical activity

Current literature shows that different values and meanings are attached to physical activity in different contexts and by different individuals. In this article, we approach meanings and values in a discussion of physical activity using data from a series of 18 interviews. The participants were middle-aged and elderly men, with different education and ethnic backgrounds in contemporary rural Norway. The main finding is that the men preferred to be outdoors when undertaking physical activity. They emphasized the sensory experience of nature, enjoyment of the pleasure of outdoor activities, and the importance of fresh air as meanings and values related to being active outdoors. The talk about being outdoors when participating in physical activity is doxic (in the Bourdieuan sense), both at the individual level of habitus as well as the societal level of field. Nevertheless, there are some differences between individual habitus despite general agreement at the field level.

Influence of Henrik Ibsen on the Social Drama of Rachel Crothers

This study attempts to look at having an influence of Henrik on the social drama, Susan and God of Rachel Crothers, where it focuses on social themes and moral problems affecting women, including- sexual double standard, trial marriage, free love, divorce, and prostitution. Crothers gains a reputation as a young dramatist of serious potential with a very keen interest in an Ibsen style, “Social Problem Drama.” This study highlights Ibsen as a major 19th century Norwegian playwright, who is often referred to as the “Father of Modern Drama.” Today, Ibsen is considered to be the greatest Norwegian author; and is celebrated as a national hero by the Norwegians. However, there was a time when Ibsen was an object of criticism and condemnation not only in his contemporary Norway, but also in the continental Europe, and in the conservative bourgeois society in particular. Moreover, Crothers was an American playwright and theater-director known for her well-crafted plays which deal with the women’s questions and social themes. Among theater-historians, she is recognized as the most successful and prolific female dramatist writing in the first part of the 20th century. Anyway, this study aims to expose Ibsen’s and Crothers’ core philosophy of feminist message as well as social problem. It highlights Ibsen’s prose styled plays, including-Ghosts and A Doll’s House as a model-play with a view to prioritizing on the dominant discussion of Crothers’ play-text, Susan and God. In this regard, it would like to apply the critical comments made by prominent critics and scholars for presenting the influence of Ibsen on the social drama, Susan and God.

Intergenerational transmission of age at first birth in Norway

ABSTRACTUsing data from administrative registers, we examine the intergenerational transmission of timing of first birth in Norway for all men and women born between 1954 and 1964. We assess the extent of any intergenerational transmission using discrete-time event history analysis, and estimate associations between the age at first birth of parents and their children. Results suggest that intergenerational transmission of age at first birth is evident in all four parent–child dyads and at all ages of the first-birth process. This means that even in a society as contemporary Norway, with a welfare state that offers a range of universal social benefits, own fertility timing is correlated with parents’ fertility behavior. Furthermore, our analyses indicate that fathers’ high age at first birth is closely associated with postponed birth of sons. Results from a microsimulation suggest that the fertility timing of daughters is less malleable by changes in parental age at birth than the fertility timing of sons. Controlling for a limited set of possible confounders, we find that the intergenerational transmission of age at first birth largely persist.

Two hundred years of occupational epidemiology in Norway

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The effects of parental income on Norwegian adolescents’ school grades

Associations between family income and offspring’s educational attainment are well-established. A debated topic is whether this association is due to the causal influence of family income per se, or arises because of other family-related circumstances which correlate with income. This study examines the relationship between parental income and Norwegian adolescents’ school grades, using register data on all 16-year-old graduates from lower secondary schools during 2002–2011. Data are analysed both by conventional ordinary least square regression and by sibling analyses using fixed effect models. The sibling analyses control not only for observed covariates but also for unobserved time-invariant environmental and family-related characteristics, implying that the causal effects of income may be better approximated. The results indicate that generally, variations in parental income in contemporary Norway have modest effects on lower secondary school grades. However, noteworthy income effects are found among the 5% of families with the lowest incomes, suggesting that in these families, lack of income hinders children’s school performance.

Post-secular salvation: Hallvard Bræin's Gatas Gynt

This article considers Hallvard Braein’s 2008 film adaptation of Peer Gynt in light of theories of the post-secular. It argues that the film presents a post-secular interpretation of the ambiguous message of salvation at the end of Ibsen’s dramatic poem. Through a combination of analysis of the film itself and examination of its production history, the article evaluates to what degree the film expresses a specifically Christian notion of salvation, and suggests that it opens for non-dogmatic interpretations of what salvation might mean, and who exactly is in need of it in the post-secular era. An examination of the who, what, when, and where of this adaptation (Hutcheon 2006) identifies how the filmmakers use Ibsen’s original text as a vehicle for a specific social message regarding the plight of people suffering from substance abuse and homelessness in contemporary Norway.