This article engages in the debate about the origins and nature of nationalism. The argument is a modernist one, but it qualifies this narrative by focusing on landed property rights as the basis for the emergence and development of nationalism. The argument complements Ernest Gellner's theory of nationalism by suggesting that nationalism was at first a landed agrarian phenomenon which later became ideologically functional to industrial society due to its property assumptions. A historical‐sociological comparative analysis of land rights and national development in the United States and Norway between 1770 and 1884 forms the basis of the argument. The key point is that nationalism emerged as a consequence of the emergence of the more widespread individual ownership of land, which spawned the idea of national popular sovereignty. This original connection to property rights made nationalism ideologically functional for industrial society. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, vol 18 (3)

The early nineteenth century was a transitional time in western Europe; from the old feudal and imperial order, modern nation states and capitalism emerged. The Norwegian nation state emerged out of the flames of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814. But changes in landed property structures in the eighteenth century lay the ground for Norwegian nationalism in the early nineteenth century. This article explores early nineteenth century nationalism through a focus on property rights and the positive view on the odesrett – an allodial right to land – arguing that an examination of the positive view on the odelsrett can shed new light on Norwegian nationalism in the early nineteenth century. Such an examination suggests that the Norwegian property structure contributed to reinforcing certain property rights element in the Norwegian nationalism where ownership of landed property and national, popular sovereignty were closely interconnected. Journal of historical sociology. Vol 31 (3)

The six articles in this special issue explore alternative pathways of agricultural modernisation. The authors argue that such pathways, and the strategies needed to embark on them, are commonly overlooked in policy and the formal agricultural knowledge and information system which tend to concentrate on the conventional, unilinear, modernisation trajectory that involves scale-enlargement, specialisation and, more and more, digitalisation. The focus of these papers is on development strategies that can increase the resilience of farms, the agricultural and agri-food sectors and rural areas, and that can enhance the prosperity and well-being of farmers and rural communities, issues of growing importance. The papers set out what these alternative strategies might mean for the future of farming, and how we might move towards them. Four theoretical, but also practical, issues that will influence this transition play a key role here: resilience, prosperity and well-being, governance and the role of knowledge and learning. Journal of Rural Studies. Volum 59, s. 194-196. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.09.018

This paper analyses the profound structural transformations that took place in Norway's horticulture industry between 1999 and 2010. The aggregate industrial outputs from the industry remained stable in this period. However, the number of horticulture farms dropped by 40.5% and the remaining farms became accordingly larger. We analyse how this development was related to changing labour strategies on Norwegian farms during this period, in part affected by labour market deregulation following the EU enlargements in 2004 and 2007. The analysis utilises Agricultural Census data covering the full population of horticulture farms in Norway in 1999 (N=5,105) and all farms in the country in 2010 (N=46,624, of which 3036 now were horticulture farms). Results suggest that the enhanced availability of inexpensive and flexible global labour is strongly associated with a stepwise proletarisation of Norwegian horticulture. Family labour is being systematically replaced by wage labour and domestic workers are being replaced by lowwage migrant workers. European Countryside. Volum 10, hefte 4. DOI: 10.2478/euco-2018-0030

I Szolucha, A. (ed.) Energy, Resource Extraction and Society. Impacts and Contested Futures. Routledge 2018: 140-158.

Worldwide semi-natural habitats of high biological value are in decline. Consequently, numerous AgriEnvironment Schemes (AESs) intended to halt biodiversity loss within these habitats have been implemented. One approach has been the application of “adaptive management”, where scientific knowledge is applied alongside the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of stakeholders in order to establish an integrated approach that is adjusted as outcomes are assessed. In this paper we examine the effectiveness of the adaptive management approach of Norway’s Action Plan for Hay Meadows (APHM). Twenty-nine hay meadows from fourteen farms in the county of Møre og Romsdal were ecologically surveyed over a 2 year period. Interviews were also conducted with owners and land managers to explore TEK and management issues. The interdisciplinary study found that the disembedding of hay meadow management from its initial commercial purpose (in particular the loss of much of the livestock from the region) has contributed to a significant loss of TEK – which is now largely limited to knowledge of how the fields were managed recently. While, the APHM is limiting biodiversity decline by promoting traditional practices there were indications that the standardisation of management actions might negatively affect species composition in the long term. More critically, continued farm abandonment within the region means that without alternatives to management by farmers many of these meadows are likely to disappear in the next couple of decades. We conclude that adaptive management provides an effective short-term means of preserving hay meadows, but long term conservation will require a means of addressing the continued decline of local farming communities. Land Use Policy. Volum 72, s. 259-269

Blyttia : Norsk botanisk forenings tidsskrift Volume 75 Hefte 4, s.209-216