Originality/value The chapter reflects on a wealth of in-depth research over more than a decade t... more Originality/value The chapter reflects on a wealth of in-depth research over more than a decade to consider the broader implications and outcomes of housing renewal programmes in two countries. It highlights the different balances of power in the two cases and the trajectories of respective urban social politics, including the overlaps between policy objectives and similarities in the government of housing renewal. It also highlights the determination and commitment among residents to the value of housing that is judged from the outside to be ‘poor’.
This chapter considers some views of Norwegian egalitarianism from the outside. English-language ... more This chapter considers some views of Norwegian egalitarianism from the outside. English-language accounts of the Norwegian state describe a welfare state marked by national egalitarianism. This chapter argues that such an impression is misleading, and that the idealistic image is in fact doing the work of nationalism rather than political analysis. It contrasts such accounts with critiques of the notion of ‘likhet’ (“sameness”) in the Norwegian language and with writings on the nationalism of Norway by Norwegian anthropologists. In doing so, it demonstrates how easily social scientists may misinterpret the politics and sociology of other countries when they are represented in international debate by a few centrally placed authors who, intentionally or otherwise, reproduce the myths of nationhood.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
Tourism has been expanding rapidly in the European Arctic alongside growing international interes... more Tourism has been expanding rapidly in the European Arctic alongside growing international interest in the Arctic as a site of extreme, palpable climate change. This chapter explores the idea of tourism ecologies, tracing the development of tourism in the European High North in its colonial contexts, and highlighting the tourism narratives that help to sustain Arctic ecotourism. We ask what entices people to travel from afar to experience something called ‘the Arctic’, what they might be expecting, and how it is promoted and performed in practice. What idea of Nature is it that sustains this tourism, and how are the people of the European Arctic imagined, from inside and out? The chapter outlines the ecologies of this tourism, looking beyond the notion of a natural Arctic, and considering the many people, places and things that come together to make Arctic tourism possible. In the current forms of tourism development in the European High North, we see echoes of earlier colonial images and practices, but we also see attempts to learn from past mistakes that may help to redefine tourism development and reinvent tourism for an ecological future. The chapter thus situates the current growth in Arctic ecotourism in relation to postcolonial European narratives, introducing the chapters that follow.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
Postcolonial Perspectives on the European High North, 2016
Stories about "scrambles," from Africa to the Arctic, tend to hinge on a vision of companies and ... more Stories about "scrambles," from Africa to the Arctic, tend to hinge on a vision of companies and nations racing to gain ownership of resources in other parts of the world, usually areas with rich resources, poor or sparse populations, and weak governments. While the image of greedy states and corporations falling over each other to ransack pristine ecological areas and their peoples is emotionally charged, it is a narrative that merges and dominates what are in fact distinct, complex, and often multi-directional processes with both locally specific and historically peculiar effects. Resistance to new mining concessions in northern Fennoscandia, for example, does not arise from a pristine natural environment, but on the back of historical large-scale mining and industrial exploitation. Sámi activists protesting against colonial exploitation are not a "helpless" indigenous people, but Nordic citizens bounded in familial and social histories of forced relocation and disenfranchisement. Nor has Sámi resistance appeared recently in the history of Nordic colonisation; rather, the crushing of uprisings in the nineteenth century provides the general backdrop for current political activism and the ambivalent unification of different Sámi groups.
This chapter reflects on the methods, tools and experience that make up the practice of qualitati... more This chapter reflects on the methods, tools and experience that make up the practice of qualitative research to consider what data are and what data do. Referring to a range of different research projects I have undertaken or been involved with, I ask what counts as data, and where and how they intersect with experience, and in doing so I question a distinction now increasingly being made between the personal and impersonal qualities of data/experience. Noting another distinction, between methodology and methods, I explore, in particular, the relationship between methods and the idea of ‘bias’ that increasingly seems to worry students that I encounter. And, as I go on to argue, the notion of bias has revived, for me, ideas about both the necessarily embodied nature of the research process and about the ways in which creativity has to be seen as a critical part of the experience of doing qualitative research (see James, this volume).
Planning in contemporary democratic states is often understood as a range of activities, from hou... more Planning in contemporary democratic states is often understood as a range of activities, from housing to urban design, regional development to economic planning. This volume sees planning differently—as the negotiation of possibilities that time offers space. It explores what kind of promise planning offers, how such a promise is made, and what happens to it through time. The authors, all leading anthropologists, examine the time and space, creativity and agency, authority and responsibility, and conflicting desires that plans attempt to control. They show how the many people involved with planning deal with the discrepancies between what is promised and what is done. The comparative essays offer insight into the expected and unexpected outcomes of planning (from visionary utopias to bureaucratic dystopia or something in-between), how the future is envisioned at the outset, and what actual work is done and how it affects people’s lives
Anthropological Perspectives on Local Development, 2003
This collection examines the conflicts and realities of development at a local, empirical level. ... more This collection examines the conflicts and realities of development at a local, empirical level. It provides a series of case studies which illuminate the attitudes and actions of all of those involved in local development schemes. The material is drawn from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. All the contributors use rigorous anthropological methods of analysis to shed light on the place of feelings of personal sentiment and identity in reactions to planned development schemes. In a world where direct action and public protest are routine responses to local development schemes, they show how protesters, developers and politicians often hold very different fundamental views about the environment, society, government and development which go beyond partisan economic and political interests.
This article introduces a series of ideas about the categories of science and politics, by way of... more This article introduces a series of ideas about the categories of science and politics, by way of actor network theory, Gell's theories of index and agency, and governmentality studies. It explores the ways in which science has become a discursive element in contemporary government, and examines the tensions between the purifying categorizations of politics and science, and the re-embedding (or hybridizing) of science into national political discourse. What emerges is a series of practices by which science is nationalized, domesticating the ideal of a generalized science into localized political debates at both national and sub-national levels, practices which may be transformed at national boundaries. While we acknowledge that science in practice is not abstract or generalizable (since it must engage with a world which is not abstracted), it is the abstracting and purifying work attributed to science which makes it attractive as a political alibi for particular political projects. Rather than seeing science as politics by other means, perhaps we should be examining the creation of a rehybridized science-politics.
This article takes a performative approach to understanding the significance of hiking practices ... more This article takes a performative approach to understanding the significance of hiking practices in ‘wilderness’ landscapes. It examines the role of the Norwegian Trekking Association in nationalising hiking practices in Norway through the use of technologies of governance and by incorporating people into particular practices of movement. The paper thus shows how the Association was implicated in the production and continued re-production of anationalised landscape, and how the performance of route-making and route-following have prioritised certain kinds of activities, and hence certain kinds of people, over others.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2011
This is one of those rare books poised from the outset to become a classic. In many ways it is wh... more This is one of those rare books poised from the outset to become a classic. In many ways it is what archaeology is at its best: a creative and scholarly exploration of everyday life. Yet After modernity also offers fascinating explorations of the possibilities of the past in the present, and the contributions archaeologies can make to a range of contemporary social issues. The authors' success derives from their deployment of the approaches of a discipline evolved to explore the distant past as a means to illuminate not only the recent and contemporary past but also the post-industrial and super-modern present, and in doing so to help us to better understand ourselves and change through time. The authors' starting-point was the challenge set by a leading theorist to develop a 'counter-modern' perspective to salvage the discipline for the new age (Julian Thomas, Archaeology and modernity, 2004). Hence, this book and the ideas it contains are a product of the twenty-first century, a time for reflection and reassessment, encouraging the reapplication of skills, methods, and instruments beyond traditional realms. The book is divided into two parts. Part I, 'Surveying the field', sketches out the development of this distinct research stream. A disciplinary (pre)history is provided which notes the crucial role of commercial archaeology, developer funding, and local authorities in its emergence. This is refreshing as the considerable impacts of such bodies often go unrecognized. Coverage is also given to the field methods involved in the archaeology of the contemporary past (ACP). The main conclusion is that there is an amplification of the degree to which our cultural backgrounds influence our practice on material which feels closely familiar. The theoretical imperative for cross-disciplinary working and the shared concerns of archaeology and numerous other disciplines, including Actor Network Theory, psychology, and cultural studies, are asserted. There is an outstanding section on the 'archaeological gaze' and its artistic resonances. The convergence of art and archaeology is bound up with core transdisciplinary debates: art as archaeological record; archaeological investigation as embodied performance; and art as interpretation. In part II, 'Archaeological approaches to late modern societies', detail is offered as to the 'doing' of relevant archaeological engagements, with reference to a series of case studies. There is a dual perspective to consideration of 'functioning' and 'non-functioning' artefacts, sites, landscapes, non-places, and virtual worlds. For instance, the Ford Transit van and the IKEA Billy Bookcase are used to elucidate super-modern relationships with the material world, linked to manufacturing histories, modularization, mass customization, and material meaning. Moreover, through cross-reference with oral testimony, studies of an abandoned peace camp and student halls of residence demonstrate the potency and fragility of memory. This facilitates some discussion of
Originality/value The chapter reflects on a wealth of in-depth research over more than a decade t... more Originality/value The chapter reflects on a wealth of in-depth research over more than a decade to consider the broader implications and outcomes of housing renewal programmes in two countries. It highlights the different balances of power in the two cases and the trajectories of respective urban social politics, including the overlaps between policy objectives and similarities in the government of housing renewal. It also highlights the determination and commitment among residents to the value of housing that is judged from the outside to be ‘poor’.
This chapter considers some views of Norwegian egalitarianism from the outside. English-language ... more This chapter considers some views of Norwegian egalitarianism from the outside. English-language accounts of the Norwegian state describe a welfare state marked by national egalitarianism. This chapter argues that such an impression is misleading, and that the idealistic image is in fact doing the work of nationalism rather than political analysis. It contrasts such accounts with critiques of the notion of ‘likhet’ (“sameness”) in the Norwegian language and with writings on the nationalism of Norway by Norwegian anthropologists. In doing so, it demonstrates how easily social scientists may misinterpret the politics and sociology of other countries when they are represented in international debate by a few centrally placed authors who, intentionally or otherwise, reproduce the myths of nationhood.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
Tourism has been expanding rapidly in the European Arctic alongside growing international interes... more Tourism has been expanding rapidly in the European Arctic alongside growing international interest in the Arctic as a site of extreme, palpable climate change. This chapter explores the idea of tourism ecologies, tracing the development of tourism in the European High North in its colonial contexts, and highlighting the tourism narratives that help to sustain Arctic ecotourism. We ask what entices people to travel from afar to experience something called ‘the Arctic’, what they might be expecting, and how it is promoted and performed in practice. What idea of Nature is it that sustains this tourism, and how are the people of the European Arctic imagined, from inside and out? The chapter outlines the ecologies of this tourism, looking beyond the notion of a natural Arctic, and considering the many people, places and things that come together to make Arctic tourism possible. In the current forms of tourism development in the European High North, we see echoes of earlier colonial images and practices, but we also see attempts to learn from past mistakes that may help to redefine tourism development and reinvent tourism for an ecological future. The chapter thus situates the current growth in Arctic ecotourism in relation to postcolonial European narratives, introducing the chapters that follow.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
Postcolonial Perspectives on the European High North, 2016
Stories about "scrambles," from Africa to the Arctic, tend to hinge on a vision of companies and ... more Stories about "scrambles," from Africa to the Arctic, tend to hinge on a vision of companies and nations racing to gain ownership of resources in other parts of the world, usually areas with rich resources, poor or sparse populations, and weak governments. While the image of greedy states and corporations falling over each other to ransack pristine ecological areas and their peoples is emotionally charged, it is a narrative that merges and dominates what are in fact distinct, complex, and often multi-directional processes with both locally specific and historically peculiar effects. Resistance to new mining concessions in northern Fennoscandia, for example, does not arise from a pristine natural environment, but on the back of historical large-scale mining and industrial exploitation. Sámi activists protesting against colonial exploitation are not a "helpless" indigenous people, but Nordic citizens bounded in familial and social histories of forced relocation and disenfranchisement. Nor has Sámi resistance appeared recently in the history of Nordic colonisation; rather, the crushing of uprisings in the nineteenth century provides the general backdrop for current political activism and the ambivalent unification of different Sámi groups.
This chapter reflects on the methods, tools and experience that make up the practice of qualitati... more This chapter reflects on the methods, tools and experience that make up the practice of qualitative research to consider what data are and what data do. Referring to a range of different research projects I have undertaken or been involved with, I ask what counts as data, and where and how they intersect with experience, and in doing so I question a distinction now increasingly being made between the personal and impersonal qualities of data/experience. Noting another distinction, between methodology and methods, I explore, in particular, the relationship between methods and the idea of ‘bias’ that increasingly seems to worry students that I encounter. And, as I go on to argue, the notion of bias has revived, for me, ideas about both the necessarily embodied nature of the research process and about the ways in which creativity has to be seen as a critical part of the experience of doing qualitative research (see James, this volume).
Planning in contemporary democratic states is often understood as a range of activities, from hou... more Planning in contemporary democratic states is often understood as a range of activities, from housing to urban design, regional development to economic planning. This volume sees planning differently—as the negotiation of possibilities that time offers space. It explores what kind of promise planning offers, how such a promise is made, and what happens to it through time. The authors, all leading anthropologists, examine the time and space, creativity and agency, authority and responsibility, and conflicting desires that plans attempt to control. They show how the many people involved with planning deal with the discrepancies between what is promised and what is done. The comparative essays offer insight into the expected and unexpected outcomes of planning (from visionary utopias to bureaucratic dystopia or something in-between), how the future is envisioned at the outset, and what actual work is done and how it affects people’s lives
Anthropological Perspectives on Local Development, 2003
This collection examines the conflicts and realities of development at a local, empirical level. ... more This collection examines the conflicts and realities of development at a local, empirical level. It provides a series of case studies which illuminate the attitudes and actions of all of those involved in local development schemes. The material is drawn from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. All the contributors use rigorous anthropological methods of analysis to shed light on the place of feelings of personal sentiment and identity in reactions to planned development schemes. In a world where direct action and public protest are routine responses to local development schemes, they show how protesters, developers and politicians often hold very different fundamental views about the environment, society, government and development which go beyond partisan economic and political interests.
This article introduces a series of ideas about the categories of science and politics, by way of... more This article introduces a series of ideas about the categories of science and politics, by way of actor network theory, Gell's theories of index and agency, and governmentality studies. It explores the ways in which science has become a discursive element in contemporary government, and examines the tensions between the purifying categorizations of politics and science, and the re-embedding (or hybridizing) of science into national political discourse. What emerges is a series of practices by which science is nationalized, domesticating the ideal of a generalized science into localized political debates at both national and sub-national levels, practices which may be transformed at national boundaries. While we acknowledge that science in practice is not abstract or generalizable (since it must engage with a world which is not abstracted), it is the abstracting and purifying work attributed to science which makes it attractive as a political alibi for particular political projects. Rather than seeing science as politics by other means, perhaps we should be examining the creation of a rehybridized science-politics.
This article takes a performative approach to understanding the significance of hiking practices ... more This article takes a performative approach to understanding the significance of hiking practices in ‘wilderness’ landscapes. It examines the role of the Norwegian Trekking Association in nationalising hiking practices in Norway through the use of technologies of governance and by incorporating people into particular practices of movement. The paper thus shows how the Association was implicated in the production and continued re-production of anationalised landscape, and how the performance of route-making and route-following have prioritised certain kinds of activities, and hence certain kinds of people, over others.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2011
This is one of those rare books poised from the outset to become a classic. In many ways it is wh... more This is one of those rare books poised from the outset to become a classic. In many ways it is what archaeology is at its best: a creative and scholarly exploration of everyday life. Yet After modernity also offers fascinating explorations of the possibilities of the past in the present, and the contributions archaeologies can make to a range of contemporary social issues. The authors' success derives from their deployment of the approaches of a discipline evolved to explore the distant past as a means to illuminate not only the recent and contemporary past but also the post-industrial and super-modern present, and in doing so to help us to better understand ourselves and change through time. The authors' starting-point was the challenge set by a leading theorist to develop a 'counter-modern' perspective to salvage the discipline for the new age (Julian Thomas, Archaeology and modernity, 2004). Hence, this book and the ideas it contains are a product of the twenty-first century, a time for reflection and reassessment, encouraging the reapplication of skills, methods, and instruments beyond traditional realms. The book is divided into two parts. Part I, 'Surveying the field', sketches out the development of this distinct research stream. A disciplinary (pre)history is provided which notes the crucial role of commercial archaeology, developer funding, and local authorities in its emergence. This is refreshing as the considerable impacts of such bodies often go unrecognized. Coverage is also given to the field methods involved in the archaeology of the contemporary past (ACP). The main conclusion is that there is an amplification of the degree to which our cultural backgrounds influence our practice on material which feels closely familiar. The theoretical imperative for cross-disciplinary working and the shared concerns of archaeology and numerous other disciplines, including Actor Network Theory, psychology, and cultural studies, are asserted. There is an outstanding section on the 'archaeological gaze' and its artistic resonances. The convergence of art and archaeology is bound up with core transdisciplinary debates: art as archaeological record; archaeological investigation as embodied performance; and art as interpretation. In part II, 'Archaeological approaches to late modern societies', detail is offered as to the 'doing' of relevant archaeological engagements, with reference to a series of case studies. There is a dual perspective to consideration of 'functioning' and 'non-functioning' artefacts, sites, landscapes, non-places, and virtual worlds. For instance, the Ford Transit van and the IKEA Billy Bookcase are used to elucidate super-modern relationships with the material world, linked to manufacturing histories, modularization, mass customization, and material meaning. Moreover, through cross-reference with oral testimony, studies of an abandoned peace camp and student halls of residence demonstrate the potency and fragility of memory. This facilitates some discussion of
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