Creating Attractive Places for Whom? A Discourse-Theoretical Approach to Knowledge and Planning
We aim to find a way to produce knowledge of attractiveness of place that is representative of the variety and complexity of what attractiveness entails and the same time productive for place development and planning. On the basis of a study of an INTERREG IV A-project in Norway, we question how and by whom the discourse regarding what is attractive about places is constructed and how the implicit or explicit knowledge is treated in local planning. We find that planning must produce knowledge in which the different narratives about place confront each other, and highlight differences and mutual debate between adversaries. We conclude by arguing the case for applying a model of agonistic plu…
The logic of the construction of rural politics: political discourses on rurality in norway
Two competing discourses emerge from a careful reading of parliamentary debates in Norway on rural development. One regards rural values as intrinsic, while the other regards the rural as an actor ...
Local hegemonies resisting a green shift and what to do about it: the introduction of a regional park in southern Norway
In the Lister region in the southern part of Norway, attempts are currently being made to facilitate for a green shift. The paper discusses two different approaches towards such a challenge. The fi...
Global capitalism guided by desire- Solvang, CA, as a “real” place
Abstract How to deal with the transformation of place in the face of global capitalism is marked by many active debates. This paper dives into the transformation of the city of Solvang in California, from an agricultural village to a tourist destination. One way to analyse the process is to treat it as commodification, where values produced in places are being turned into exchangeable commodities. What results from such critical studies of capitalism too often result in apathy rather than positive action, it tends to deal less with ‘the real world’ than thought experiments about possible worlds. Another approach connects to the relational turn and the application of assemblage theory in stu…
Is culture-led redevelopment relevant for rural planners? The risk of adopting urban theories in rural settings
In the paper, the author argues that cultural strategies and theories about urban planning may be irrelevant or even counterproductive outside urban and suburban contexts. In many rural settings the problem is not the destruction of the cultural heritage or how to counterbalance the influence from corporate interests, but rather the absence of such interests in the first place. From a study of two rural municipalities in southern Norway, the author demonstrates that culture-led strategies may be more of a distraction than an instrument for creating economic growth. Measured by the common goals for rural development in Norway, the cultural strategy has only been a success in one of the cases…
A crisis of definition: culture versus industry in odda, norway
AbstractThis article addresses the influence of dominant and traditional ways of grasping the reality in social and economic processes of change. Our point of departure is how the perception of cri...