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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Linköping University Electronic Press
2014
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:625396e937bb49cfa4d4b9e370c80b21 2023-05-15T17:43:29+02:00 Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique Hugo Reinert 2014-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 https://doaj.org/article/625396e937bb49cfa4d4b9e370c80b21 EN eng Linköping University Electronic Press https://valuationstudies.liu.se/article/view/771 https://doaj.org/toc/2001-5992 doi:10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 2001-5992 https://doaj.org/article/625396e937bb49cfa4d4b9e370c80b21 Valuation Studies, Vol 2, Iss 2 (2014) Social sciences (General) H1-99 article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 2022-12-31T09:08:36Z 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 Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Norway Valuation Studies 2 2 153 183 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Social sciences (General) H1-99 |
spellingShingle |
Social sciences (General) H1-99 Hugo Reinert Weight, Density and Space in the Norwegian Reindeer Crisis–Notes Towards a Critique |
topic_facet |
Social sciences (General) H1-99 |
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 |
Hugo Reinert |
author_facet |
Hugo Reinert |
author_sort |
Hugo Reinert |
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 |
Linköping University Electronic Press |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 https://doaj.org/article/625396e937bb49cfa4d4b9e370c80b21 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Northern Norway Tundra |
genre_facet |
Northern Norway Tundra |
op_source |
Valuation Studies, Vol 2, Iss 2 (2014) |
op_relation |
https://valuationstudies.liu.se/article/view/771 https://doaj.org/toc/2001-5992 doi:10.3384/vs.2001-5992.1422153 2001-5992 https://doaj.org/article/625396e937bb49cfa4d4b9e370c80b21 |
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 |
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1766145574109708288 |