Tidsskrift for kulturforskning

Bokanmeldelser

Aud Mikkelsen Tretvik — 2023-01-19

Nanna Løkka, Anne-Sofie Hjemdahl og Bård Kleppe 2021. Frivillig kulturvern. Et kulturvern innenfra.

Ida Hudges Tidlund 2021. Autonomous Åland. A hundred years of borderwork in the Baltic Sea.

Simon Ekström, 2021. Sjödränkt. Spektakulär materialitet från havet.

Marianne Wiik og Ola Alsvik (red.), 2020. Sted, fiksjon og historie. Hvordan former litteratur steder – og hvordan former steder litteratur?

Innledning: Å finne veien – stedsansen som kulturell praksis

Finn Arne Jørgensen — 2023-01-19

I dette temanummeret av Tidsskrift for kulturforskning og i forskningsprosjektet det bygger på, ønsker vi derimot å problematisere påstanden om at avanserte stedfinningsteknologier som GPS og digitale kart erstatter en fram til nå tilsynelatende intern og uavhengig stedsans som mennesker har kunnet stole på gjennom årtusener. Vi er skeptiske til oppfatningen om at stedsansen kan forstås som løsrevet fra de mange og mangfoldige teknologiene som bistår oss i prosessen hvor vi finner, navigerer i og skaper mening i steder. Vi er heller ikke ubetinget enige i påstanden om at stedsansen nå trues av teknologi og dermed står i fare for å dø ut. Enhver ny teknologi som mennesker bruker til å sanse, oppleve og formidle informasjon om verdenen rundt oss vil på ulike måter endre relasjonene mellom de som bruker teknologien og verdenen de befinner seg i (Jørgensen 2017). Vi støtter oss her til lange tradisjoner i teknologihistorien, og da spesielt til en av teknologihistoriens «lover» som artikulert av Melvin Kranzberg: «Teknologier er verken gode eller onde, men de er heller ikke nøytrale» (Kranzberg 1986). I dette temanummeret utforsker vi ulike stedfinningsteknologier – en rik og mangfoldig kategori med teknologier som vi mener er en uadskillelig del av stedsansen. I et slikt perspektiv blir stedsansen et historisk forankret kulturfenomen.

Kulturarv i lendet

Karen V. Lykke — 2023-01-19

The first tourists, trekkers and ramblers in Norway found their way and navigated the paths that ran through pastures, forests and mountains. The paths these first visitors walked on, and indeed the paths we still use walking and trekking today, were created by grazing animals and the people who tended to them, walking habitually rather than occasionally. The everyday and seasonal grazing, labour, and transport associated with transhumance created a heritage in its own right, a movement heritage. Arguably, grazing animals were mediators of the land and movement within the land; by following their paths and their sense of place, trekkers could stay safe. Today the situation has changed, trekking rather than transhumance is the prevalent form of movement heritage. By exploring foreign visitor’s topographical accounts, travel literature and yearbooks from the Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) from 1820–1960, this article sheds light on the transition of this movement heritage and asks, who led the way in the past, who leads the way in the present, and is there still room for the embodied memory of animals, and their heft in the future?

Forestillinger om villhet og kontroll

Erica Colman-Denstad — 2023-01-19

This article explores shifts and tensions in experiences of nature in relation to folklore as a mediating technology that both reflects and affects experiences of nature in a range of ways. The historical material for this analysis is Peter Christen Asbjørnsen’s Norske Huldreeventyr og Folkesagn, first and second collection (1845, 1848), including both the legends themselves and their frame narratives (fictional contexts that Asbjørnsen wrote to frame the legends, and in which the legends were told by fictional characters). In the legends, the relationship between farming communities and surrounding nature is characterized by utility, as well as a tension between familiarity and distrust, whereas the frame narratives emphasize nature as aesthetic experience. Thus, two distinct perspectives coexist, and the legend collections can be interpreted as mediating two cultural contexts: first, as reflecting the concerns of rural agricultural communities, and second, mediating the imagination and perceptions of urban populations toward which Asbjørnsen’s publications were directed. They also contributed to the national Nor wegian identity building of the nineteenth century. The boundaries that were communicated and made alive by the folk legends, were blurred by the familiarizing function these legends came to play in the imagination of the trekker, adding to the aesthetic experience of places that they originally cautioned against. Analyzing this process through the analytical framework of «wilderness as playground», can illuminate how the combination control and «wildness», understood as lack of control, contributed to the development of Norwegian trekking culture, and associated idealizations of nature.

Hvor går grænsen?

Nina Toudal Jessen — 2023-01-19

«Where is the line? Demarcation of protected and arable land in Western Zealand, Denmark.»

This article examines the process of demarcating and designating an area as worthy of protection. It unfolds a case study of negotiations of protection of saline and coastal meadows in the former reclaimed inlet Saltbæk Vig, Western Zealand, Denmark. The case shows how representations, such as maps, became increasingly important in demarcating conservation boundaries. To do so, the article uses Bruno Latour’s notion of «immutable mobiles» as products of translations to investigate how an agricultural place became a biological locality. Concluding, the article discusses the use of map tools, such as Geographical Information Systems, for conservation policy and its impact on the perception of places, such as Saltbæk Vig.

Pilegrimsruter som iscenesatte landskap

Hannah Kristine Lunde — 2023-01-19

Since the 1990s, pilgrimage routes have been developed to several historical shrines in Norway, including to Nidaros Cathedral. Contemporary pilgrimages are provided with historical depth through material traces after and stories about historical pilgrimages to the same destinations, a development also seen in several other countries. Still, for many pilgrims the experiences along the trails when on a pilgrimage is just as important as arriving at the destination. The logos of the contemporary pilgrimage routes are used as visual signifiers making the routes recognisable, as well as functioning as identity markers for pilgrims. This article explores the St Olav Ways to Trondheim as staged landscapes. How are designated pilgrimage routes developed as navigable trails and as recognisable brands by accommodators? How do these framings affect how the routes are experienced by the pilgrims following them? The methods applied are participatory observation, interviews, and analysis of documents and visualisations of the routes online and in print. Particular attention is paid to the relation between how routes are seen from ‘above’ on maps and interacted with from ground-level through signposting in the geographical landscapes. Responses to a qualitative questionnaire and interviews provide examples of pilgrim’s descriptions of how they navigate in the physical and social pilgrimage landscapes.