Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique
For decades now, the dominant narrative about indigenous reindeer pastoralism in northern Norway has been that there is a crisis of excess: an oversized reindeer population, poorly held in check by poorly governed herders, is overgrazing the tundra, degrading the pasture grounds, spilling over into...
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2014
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 https://valuationstudies.liu.se/article/download/771/351 |
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crlinkopinguep:10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 2024-10-13T14:09:45+00:00 Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique Reinert, Hugo 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 https://valuationstudies.liu.se/article/download/771/351 unknown Linkoping University Electronic Press https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Valuation Studies volume 2, issue 2, page 153-183 ISSN 2001-5992 journal-article 2014 crlinkopinguep https://doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 2024-09-13T04:00:58Z For decades now, the dominant narrative about indigenous reindeer pastoralism in northern Norway has been that there is a crisis of excess: an oversized reindeer population, poorly held in check by poorly governed herders, is overgrazing the tundra, degrading the pasture grounds, spilling over into urban spaces and precipitating moral crises by starving to death “out there,” on the tundra. Set against the background of this ongoing crisis, the present paper focuses on a set of particularly dense conceptual intersections that cluster around the notion of weight , and the manner in which weight functions both as a crisis indicator and a metric for assessment in contemporary Norwegian pastoral governance. Tracing the work and structure of the weight concept as applied to reindeer–against a dominant government narrative that parses numerical indicators as neutral, objective and apolitical–the paper outlines some of the erasures that the weight metric simultaneously carries out and occludes. The aim of the exercise is to specify and critically reframe certain core issues in the current management of Norwegian pastoralism, by problematising the supposedly neutral, scientific operation of quantitative metrics and assessment practices. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Norway Tundra LiU Electronic Press (Linköping University) Norway Valuation Studies 2 2 153 183 |
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Open Polar |
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LiU Electronic Press (Linköping University) |
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crlinkopinguep |
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description |
For decades now, the dominant narrative about indigenous reindeer pastoralism in northern Norway has been that there is a crisis of excess: an oversized reindeer population, poorly held in check by poorly governed herders, is overgrazing the tundra, degrading the pasture grounds, spilling over into urban spaces and precipitating moral crises by starving to death “out there,” on the tundra. Set against the background of this ongoing crisis, the present paper focuses on a set of particularly dense conceptual intersections that cluster around the notion of weight , and the manner in which weight functions both as a crisis indicator and a metric for assessment in contemporary Norwegian pastoral governance. Tracing the work and structure of the weight concept as applied to reindeer–against a dominant government narrative that parses numerical indicators as neutral, objective and apolitical–the paper outlines some of the erasures that the weight metric simultaneously carries out and occludes. The aim of the exercise is to specify and critically reframe certain core issues in the current management of Norwegian pastoralism, by problematising the supposedly neutral, scientific operation of quantitative metrics and assessment practices. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Reinert, Hugo |
spellingShingle |
Reinert, Hugo Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique |
author_facet |
Reinert, Hugo |
author_sort |
Reinert, Hugo |
title |
Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique |
title_short |
Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique |
title_full |
Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique |
title_fullStr |
Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique |
title_full_unstemmed |
Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique |
title_sort |
weight, density and space in the norwegian reindeer crisis–notes towards a critique |
publisher |
Linkoping University Electronic Press |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 https://valuationstudies.liu.se/article/download/771/351 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Northern Norway Tundra |
genre_facet |
Northern Norway Tundra |
op_source |
Valuation Studies volume 2, issue 2, page 153-183 ISSN 2001-5992 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 |
container_title |
Valuation Studies |
container_volume |
2 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
153 |
op_container_end_page |
183 |
_version_ |
1812816805039702016 |