Fra slektsgård til oljeplattform: Norsk identitet og Europa

Abstract

Part one presents the academic literature on the Norwegian identity formation, from the historical and sociological contributions in the 1970s, via historical studies of Norwegian nation building in the 1990s, to anthropological and sociological studies of immigration and Islam as the constitutive Other for the Norwegian identity. The main point is here that there has been a major shift in the national project of self-identity; whereas Denmark, Sweden and Europe were in the past seen as the constitutive Other, this role is now assigned to immigrant minorities and Muslims more generally. Part two asks whether the demonstrated shift in the professional literature is consistent with a similar shift in Norwegian identity formation as such. We conclude that the EU and Europe appear to be peripheral in the discourse over Norwegian national identity in 2011. In part three, we identify a chasm between discourse and material conditions: Whereas the identity formation by and large neglects Europe, Norway remains - politically and economically - dependent on events and developments in Europe. Norwegian identity in 2011 increasingly brackets an increasingly undifferentiated «outside» which is chiefly interesting for Norwegians for recreational purposes, and is instead fueled by processes, such as globalisation and migration, which are perceived as typically Norwegian, but which are in fact European. © Universitetsforlaget.