Life In Norway Research Articles

Changes in potato consumption in different stages of life in Norway

The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of factors promoting the decline in potato consumption in Norway from the mid-1970s to mid-l990s, as well as with what foods the potatoes have been replaced. The article is based on three surveys, all of them carried out on nation-wide representative samples of the Norwegian population: records of household consumption from 1976 to 1995, N=1000–1500 each year; questionnaire surveys of food frequency from 1986 to 1996, N=3000 every other year; and telephone interviews of yesterday's eating events in 1997, N=1177. The results indicated that it was particularly the young people who lived alone who had dropped eating boiled potatoes. The use frequency increased when there was a partner and it increased even more when there where children in the household. Furthermore, higher socio-economic groups were particularly prone to drop using boiled potatoes, and they had a distinctly different use pattern of alternative staple foods than the others. The data indicated that the potato is more commonly used together with certain foods (fish, carrots and broccoli) than others. Therefore, omitting the potato from the meal may signify other dietary changes than the exchange of staple foods.

Ask the Sun (review)

"Not so very long ago the Middle Kingdom had a sun whose name was Mao Zedong. He called China's children morning suns. Today I ask the sun." This epigraph begins Ask the Sun, a lyrical collection of short stories by Chinese poet and short-story writer He Dong, who lives in Norway, where she is a researcher at the University of Oslo. Born in Beijing in 1960, He Dong describes what it was like to be one of Mao's many "children," to grow up under the influence that he radiated across China. She is part of that generation whose childhood was marked by the sudden disappearances and reappearances of family members, by public humiliations and abrupt reversals of status, and by constant surveillance and self-censorship. It's no surprise that Mao's children became adults who ask the eternal question of childhood: why? The only person who can answer them is dead, so the question hangs in the background, like a dark sun, like the indelible memory of Mao himself.

A Society without Poverty—The Norwegian Experience

Yes, there is another way. I went to Norway to teach American methods of alcoholism treatment and to learn of life in a welfare state. My stay of almost two years informed me in the way that firsthand experience informs--rudely, indelibly. My family and I have experienced the Norwegian community--the schools, social services, the health care system. And I have come to see how each dimension is connected to every other dimension of the cultural whole. In the high quality of life in Norway is the key to the larger pattern. To the American visitor, the lack of poverty is striking, even puzzling. The outsider is inclined to see what is in terms of what is not: the southerner noting, for instance, the complete absence of palm trees. The Norwegian, meanwhile, is aware neither of the lack of poverty nor the absence of palm trees. To understand the lack of poverty, you have to first understand poverty. And I am speaking of poverty in a rich society, there being no need to explain poverty in the absence of resources. The sociologists of the 1960s conceived of the existence of poverty in a prosperous society as functional for the total community. What were the social functions of poverty? (For a literature review, see Blau, 1988.) Poverty or the threat of poverty provided a steady pool of compliant workers; poverty provided jobs for bureaucrats who were to ameliorate the poverty; the poverty of some provided for a natural division of classes. The existence of poverty in America is consistent with teachings of the Protestant ethic and the survival-of-the-fittest mentality. Whereas Americans think individually, Norwegians tend to think collectively. Whereas Americans value competition, Norwegians value cooperation. The thesis of this article is that poverty persists in the United States because our values say it will persist. It does not persist in Norway because the society chooses not to tolerate it. This article examines the general economic conditions in Norway and views them against the Norwegian cultural context--values of egalitarianism and the collective will, trust in the social system, and above all a tradition of kindness to the weaker members of society. Implications for the United States and for American social workers are drawn. Norwegian Economy Norway is a socialist country in terms of social policy but a capitalist nation in terms of the ownership of business. Because of Norwegian control of North Sea oil industries, a great deal of wealth is available to the nation. This fact helps compensate for the poor agricultural conditions--rocky, mountainous land and a short growing season. Personal income taxes in Norway are among the highest in the world. The higher the income, the higher the percentage of taxes paid. The value-added tax is a sales tax of 20 percent on virtually all items sold. Consequently, food and services are extremely expensive in Norway. Income differences across occupational groups are relatively slight. Virtually no group of employees earns more than twice the average earnings of all employees (Selbyg, 1987). The equalization of income is a reality in Norway. Poverty Official estimates put the percentage of people living in poverty at 16.0 percent in the United States and 4.8 percent in Norway (Zimbalist, 1988). In fact, these figures were based on relative income in each country. My personal impression is that the gap between poverty in the United States and Norway is much higher than the numbers indicate. Even in my work with alcoholics, I did not come across one truly impoverished person. When an individual gets into economic trouble, the state provides help. Statistics on poverty thus do not portray the reality in a cradle-to-grave, highly protective society. Kohlert's (1989) description of the universalism philosophy in welfare is pertinent to Norway. Universalism views those in need as no different from other people. …

Muscle pain and coping with working life in Norway: A review

Abstract This paper reviews ongoing research initiated by the Norwegian Research Council for Science and Humanities aimed at improving Health and Living Conditions (HEMIL). Attempts to classify muscle pain states are reviewed, and the pathophysiology and psychophysiology of the condition are evaluated. The psychological aspects are emphasized, in particular relationships to coping resources, coping strateges and to what extent the individual feels able to cope with the environment. Also reviewed are multidisciplinary approaches to treatment, aimed at both psychological and physical aspects. Interventions involving physical as well as psychological training seem to have the best effects. The contribution from physical load is moderate, except for static muscle work. There is a growing concern that the response from the welfare society may produce attitudes that are counterproductive for prevention and treatment. Do we over-react and impose disease concepts on regular complaints that may be a part of normal...

The transformation of the Norwegian notion of everyday life

This article argues that the current prominence of the notion of “everyday life” is tied to a particular stage in the development of modern secularized society and that, therefore, the notion should not be applied cross‐culturally or historically without careful qualification. This argument relies on an examination of the transformation of the notion of everyday life in Norway, based on long‐term fieldwork among working‐class families as well as on analyses of social planning and social science documents. During the 1980s, “everyday life” (hverdagslivet) became a central notion in Norwegian society. Once part of a temporal polarity between the everyday and the festival, it has now become part of a somewhat different polarity, that between everyday life and the sociopolitical system. The fact that the notion's old connotations (drudgery and plainness) coexist to some extent with its new ones (closeness, wholeness, and integration) makes everyday life a rich and potent political symbol. The potency of a political symbol thus rests on what in this article is termed the “span of ambiguity” ofits associated meanings. [political symbolism, history, local community, everyday life, home, Scandinavia]

A Life in Norway

A Life in Norway

Two Museum Houses: A Microanalysis of Cultural Adaptation in the Upper Midwest in the Late Nineteenth Century

6 Two Museum Houses: A Microanalysis of Cultural Adaptation in the Upper Midwest in the Late Nineteenth Century by Reidar Bakken translated by C. A. Clausen The Norwegian Emigrant Museum was established in Oslo in 1952 on the initiative of the Norsemen's Federation (Nordmanns-Forbundet). In 1973 the museum was moved to Hamar, which is centrally located for the two great emigration counties (fylker) of Oppland and Hedmark. The greater part of the museum consists of archives and microfilm copies of important source material, especially from the United States, but it also has a collection of objects and several buildings from the upper Midwest. The museum is being expanded as regards both collection and staff and in 1988 was given the official name of The Norwegian Emigrant Museum (Norsk U tvandrermuseum) . In this article attention will be focused on the two dwelling houses which are located in the open-air division of the museum. The first house acquired by the Emigrant Museum was built in the year 1871 at Norman, North Dakota, by Per Bârderud from Grue, Solor. This dwelling has become accepted by people in Norway as the standard NorwegianAmerican house. (Figures la and b). At Grue the house is still standing which the Bârderud family left in 1870. It is being maintained by the Gruetun Museum at Kirkenaer. By a trip of an hour and a half between Kirkenaer and Hamar one can thus 119 120 Reidar Bakken Fig. la. Borderud house at the Norwegian Emigrant Museum. The house was built in Norman, North Dakota, in 1871, by Peder Borderud from Grue in Soler. Courtesy Hedmark Museum. follow an emigrant family from the home milieu in the old country to their new life in America (Figure 2). The other building is usually called the Gunderson house in honor of the man who built it, the cotter Knut Gunderson from Krodsherad in Buskerud (Figure 3). The house was erected near Vining, Otter Tail county, Minnesota, and the documents which came with the house to Norway state that it was built in 1 883 . 1 This date has been repeated in later historical literature.2 The facts of Knut Gunderson's career, however , suggest that this dating must be revised. In Krodsherad the cotter's dwelling which the Gunderson family left is also preserved (Figure 4). It is in a very bad state of repair; but, with the aid of the Emigrant Museum, work is in progress to assure its future. Thus, here also is an opportunity to compare an emigrant's way of life in Norway and in America. For the Emigrant Museum the most important question is: what happened to Norwegian emigrants, culturally speaking , in their new homeland? The emigrants carried Nor- Two Museum Houses 121 Fig. lb. Scale drawing of Borderud house by Are Vesterlid. wegian folk culture to a foreign land; and the development of a Norwegian-American folk culture forms a part of Norwegian cultural history which the Museum desires to document , investigate, and make known. What can these two houses tell about this subject? It is the dissimilarities between the Norwegian and the American houses which immediately attract attention. Were so few Norwegian traditions carried along to America? Or are the American houses possibly more Norwegian than at first glance they appear to be? Here is a debate which has long occupied American architecture students. TWO THEORIES IN AMERICA In considering American log houses ( lafiehus ) and their relationship to building customs in Europe, one has to deal with two contradictory theories. C. A. Weslager, who has under- 122 Reidar Bakken Fig. 2. The main building on the Bàrderud farm in Grue. The house was probably built toward the end of the eighteenth century. Photograph by Birger Nesholen. taken detailed studies of American log houses during the pioneer era, maintains that during the post-pioneer period it is absolutely impossible to designate a log house in national terms. He argues that the log houses underwent a development in America which turned them into distinctive American cultural products, even though they had European roots.3 He further maintains that it is not possible to select specific elements and say, for example, that...

Dualism in the early history of Norwegian associations

The early forms of organizational life in Norway display many similarities with the other Nordic countries, but also special features of their own. These features to a great extent have their roots and parallels in countries outside the Nordic region, but particularly Norwegian conditions are also part of the picture. The conventional model namely, development from the corporations of feudal society, via the associations of liberalism and the Nachtwachterstaat (which were often closely connected with the ruling elite), to the mass organizations of the late nineteenth century does not entirely fit Norway or at least requires substantial modification. Moreover, in Norwegian the term association has been used both in the nineteenth century and by twentieth-century scholars in a fairly broad sense as synonymous with forming and selskap (both of which mean society), and it will also be used in that way in this article. The term estate (stand) was often used both at the time and by later historians, but the terminology of the classic estate-based society is to some extent inappropriate when applied to Norway. Part of the explanation is that Norway had a small nobility and few towns and that in many parts of the country the peasantry had long been engaged in a wide variety of economic activities, including some fishing, forestry, the handicrafts which led to thinking in monetary terms and to the use of money. Liberal currents of thought were strong in leading circles inside the young state of Norway, especially from the 1830s and 40s onwards. The emancipation of the state from its traditional tasks and the dismantling of public regulations were seen as the ideal.. Britain was the great model in this respect. There are certainly examples of the state/public sector using or encouraging associations in order to avoid direct intervention or activity by the state. Measures taken by the state were generally disguised as

Intrinsic interest and the novelty‐familiarity interaction

According to the interaction hypothesis of interest, the inherent interestingness of a communication or a situation will be maximal when novel and familiar elements are simultaneously present. This is illustrated in three experimental demonstrations, where students were to indicate their interest (a) in book titles (more and less well‐known authors best and least known works); (b) in reports by foreign journalists about everyday life in Norway (familiar topic) and in Honduras (less familiar); and (c) in meeting tourists of different nationalities at more and less familiar geographical locations. The results show that the preference function for novelty will be ascending or descending dependent upon the familiarity or unfamiliarity of other aspects of the situation. Thus, Norwegian subjects were not very curious about unfamiliar British authors least known works, whereas they would very much like to read what journalists from unfamiliar countries write about Norway. Also, they preferred meeting tourists from unfamiliar countries, as long as the meeting took place in a familiar city. In a foreign city, the order of preference was reversed.

The perceived quality of life in Norway: Regional variations and contextual effects

This article deals with perceived quality of life and its relationship to sociodemographic background variables in Norway. We try to answer two questions, viz (1) to what extent does the absolute level of quality of life as well as the relationships between quality of life and individual-level sociodemographic variables vary between Norwegian counties? and (2) are such variations related to specific characteristics of the various counties? Some between-county variation is found, but in most cases the pattern of variation is not replicated across surveys. For variation in the absolute level of QOL as well as in the relationship between an individual's education and QOL, however, there is a moderate degree of stability. Contextual analyses show that the relationship between education and QOL is positive and moderately strong in affluent counties, near zero or negative in economically more backward areas. The results are interpreted within the framework of a person-environment fit model.

Church Life in Norway, 1800–1950. By Einar Molland. Translated by Harris Kaasa. Pp. vii + 120. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1957. $2.00.

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Post-war mortality among industrial insured lives in Norway

Abstract The results of mortality investigations among industrial insured lives with weekly premiums in the Norwegian life insurance company Fram for the period 1931/40 and for the period 1940/46 have earlier been published in this journal.l It is now possible to render the main results of the continued investigation for the post-war years 1946/50.

The mortality among industrial insured lives in Norway during the war

In the Norwegian life insurance company Fram a continuous mortality investigation takes place in connection with the yearly valuation of policies issued with weekly premiums. The investigation gives the aggregate mortality, the unit is the policy and the year of observation is the calendar year. A detailed account of the method used has been given by Fredrik Borch in his paper: “The mortality among industrial insured lives in Norway 1931–1940” in this journal 1943. The most important results of the investigation from the years 1940–1946 are rendered below.

The mortality among industrial insured lives in Norway 1931–1940

Abstract Industrial insurance was introduced in Norway in 1903 by The Norwegian Life Insurance Company FRAM which was alone in this branch of life insurance activity until 1918, when The Life Insurance Company Norske Folk adopted industrial insurance also. Later on other companies too have started industrial insurance, but Fram is still by far the largest industrial insurance company in Norway, and to-day works with industrial insurance with weekly, monthly and daily premiums (calendarpremium).

Appraisement of under-average lives in Norway

Abstract When it was proposed in 1917 to proceed to insurance of »under-average lives» in Norway through the company Norske Folk we had very little statistical data to build upon. There existed no Norwegian or Scandinavian statistics in this field. Some American statistics were, it is true, available, but in many cases these could not be applied direct to Norwegian conditions. However, we could not let ourselves be deterred by this, but proceeded to feel our way forward as well as possible, having constantly ascertained by means of summary annual calculations of mortality that the actual mortality for the aggregate number of insured lay somewhat below the expected figure. The intention was, however, to investigate the mortality in some of the different groups of under-average lives, as soon as the order of magnitude within these groups had become such as to render such investigation possible. The first investigation was made in 1936 for the period from 1917 to the anniversary date in 1935. The results of ...

SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORY VI

SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORY VI COMPILED BY JACOB HODNEFIELD Aakhus, Eivind D. Minne fra Noreg og Amerika. [Kristiansand , Johanssen & Tangens prenteverk, 1932.] 112 p. Recollections of a violinist who made many concert tours in Norway and America during the first quarter of the twentieth century. He immigrated in 1878 and was for a time a farmer in the Red River Valley of Minnesota. Andersen, Annette. Ibsen in America. Scandinavian studies and notes , 14:65-109, 115-155 (February, May, 1937). An annotated bibliography of all books and articles relating to Ibsen's life and works published in the United States. Barton, Albert O. Muskego, the most historic Norwegian colony. Wisconsin magazine of history , 21:129-138 (December , 1937). Birge, E. A. Dr. Anderson in the University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin magazine of history , 20:251-254 (March, 1937). A necrology of Rasmus B. Anderson by his only living colleague on the university faculty. Reprinted in the pamphlet listed below under Einar Haugen. Blegen, Theodore C. Norwegian emigrant songs and ballads. Edited and translated by Theodore C. Blegen and Martin B. Ruud. Minneapolis, The University of Minnesota press, 1936. 350 p. A review by A. P. Hudson appears in American literature for May, 1937, and one by Einar Haugen in Minnesota history for June, 1937. This book was included among the " Fifty books of the year " selected by the American institute of graphic arts for exhibition throughout the United States in 1938. historical association News letter , no. 6, p. 1-4 (August, 1937). An address delivered at the Rynning centennial observance at St. Olaf college , Northfield, Minnesota, May 15, 1937. Br0gger, A. W. Vinlandsferdene. Oslo, Gyldendal norsk forlag , 1937. 207 p. 176 SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS 177 The Vinland journeys. The chapters of this volume appeared serially in Norsk geografisk tidsskrijt during 1936. Clausen, A. C. Lei f Eriksoris discovery of America . Spokane, Washington, The Swedish press, 1933. 16 p. This pamphlet was produced by Spokane lodge, no. 12, Scandinavian fraternity of America. Clausen, Clarence A., trans . and ed. Pioneer town building in the West, an America letter written by Frithjof Meidell at Springfield, Illinois, in 1855. N orwegian- American studies and records, 9:45-53 (1936). Clausen, Otto. Norské ingeni0rer i Amerika. Nordmannsforbundet , 29:215-217 (July, 1936). Norwegian engineers in America, principally Chicago and New York. Dieserud, Juul. Norsk-amerikanske politikere. Nordmannsforbundet , 30:5-8 (January, 1937). This article on Norwegian- American politicians mentions particularly Peter Norbeck, Henrik Shipstead, Thomas R. Amlie, Paul J. Kvale, Harold Knutson, August H. Andresen, Fredrik Biermann, and Knute Hill. Drewsen, Gudrun L. Man minnes mangt. Oslo, Forlagt av H. Aschehoug & co. (W. Nygaard), 1937. 246 p. A varied life in Norway and America, colored with considerable public activity , including suffrage activities; the American period begins in 1894. Early Norwegian Pharmacists. Badger pharmacist, no. 18, p. 1-13 (October, 1937). An essay on early Norwegian pharmacists with lists of names of early pharmacists and samples of early advertisements of medicine. Erikson, J. A. Det forjaettede land. DecoraJi-posten og ved amen, November 9, 1937-March 8, 1938. Also published separately by the Anundsen publishing company. A pioneer novel dealing with life in the Koshkonong and Norway Grove settlements of Dane County, Wisconsin. Field, Iduna B. Recreating pioneer days. American-Scandinavian review, 25:255-258 (September, 1937). An account of the Norwegian- American historical museum at Decorah, Iowa. Foss, L. O. Et oply sende kapitel a v vor norské nybyggersaga. Skandinaven, November 24, 1936, p. 9. A full-page autobiographical account. Gaustad, Ingrid. Grunnlaget for utvandringen. Nordmannsforbundet , 29:207-209 (July, 1936). 178 STUDIES AND RECORDS In this brief study of the causes of emigration from Norway, the author emphasizes the economic factors, resulting from overpopulation and hard times, and the opening of America, which became a dreamland to the growing generation, the emigration beginning in the rural districts where the pressure was greatest and later extending to the cities. The article was reprinted in Sinner af Norge, 33:268 (1936). Gimmestad, L. M. Hundreaars-festen, et betydningsfuldt historisk dokument. Skandinavens almanak-kalender , 1936, 3253 . Appeared previously in Nordfjordlagets aarbok, 1936, 5-29, as noted in the previous list. Glasoe, Paul M. Norse cultural...

The Cost of Cancer in Norway

The various disasters to which death and disease give rise have an economic side, which occasionally makes itself strongly apparent. The author has therefore tried to calculate the economic losses to Norway brought about by deaths from the cancerous diseases (carcinoma and sarcoma) in that country. The calculations are based on one side upon the mortality statistics of Norway for the years 1902–1911, reporting 22,093 deaths caused by malignant tumors; and on the other, upon the valuation of Norwegian lives in 1912, as published by Mr. A. N. Kiaer in Statsovekonomisk Tidsskrift, 1913. Mr. Kiaer, then director of the Norwegian Statistical State Bureau, took for his starting point the average wage and income-tax within all classes and ages of the population, and calculated from these data the capital values of individual lives at the various ages, by discounting the probable income during the remainder of life. As these valuations were calculated for 1912, however, the results would give too high values when applied to the period 1902–1911, for wages, and consequently the value of life in Norway during this period, have risen by at least 1 per cent a year; it has been necessary, accordingly, to reduce Kiaer9s results to the standard of 1906, representing the medium year of the decade 1902–1911. Concerning the age and sex distribution of the 22,093 deaths from malignant tumors, columns 1 and 4 of the subjoined table will give necessary information. It may be mentioned that the number of deaths at different ages during single years shows only flight variations throughout the period under discussion.