Spiritual Entrepreneurship in a Northern Landscape: Spirituality, Tourism and Politics

• Published in: Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
• Main Author: Fonneland, Trude
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: the Finnish Society for the Study of Religion 2013
• Subjects: Esther; Norway; Northern Norway
• Online Access: https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/7510; https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.7510

A cultural turn in the economy has led to growth in what might be called ‘spiritual entrepreneurship’.1 This term refers to entrepreneurs inspired by a New Age philosophy marketing spiritual values such as ‘self-development’, ‘holism’ and ‘deep values’. To shed light on this type of enterprise, the article examines one of its practitioners; Esther Utsi at Polmakmoen Guesthouse in northern Norway. My focus is on how New Age spirituality is here localized, wrapped in local indigenous culture and landscape, and turned into a commodity with market value for both tourists and conference participants. The staging of spirituality simultaneously involves marketing a vaca- tion destination to outsiders, and is also linked to the formation of a reimagined local identity, and incorporated into the redefinition of images and dreams about the northern region. Keywords: spiritual entrepreneurship, New Age, tourism, indigenous spirituality, local reinvention