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Main objectives
Study of social perceptions of and attitudes to nature and the way these are created and changed in various cultural, political and institutional contexts.
Areas of research
l. Study of narratives about natural environment ranging from literature, philosophy and art to popular culture and media;
2. Exploration of the relationship between human experience of place, identity and quality of life;
3. Studies in environmental philosophy and environmental ethics;
4. Studies of the relationship between environmental discourse and practice, especially with regard to the use and abuse of natural resources;
5. Investigation of the impact of cultural institutions and power structures on attitudes to nature;
6. Studies of the formation of public opinion on the environment in situations of the conflict of interest;
7. Elaboration of methodology and theory re. social constructions of nature.
International Master Programme
Culture, Environment and Sustainability,
starting August 2003
Contact Person
Nina Witoszek
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Moral Communities and the Challenge of Modernisation: A Comparative Approach
The purpose of the project is threefold:
1) To establish in what way cultural preconceptions inform, enable and limit what is "politically possible" in the world of ostensibly rational interest;
2) In particular, to identify the ways in which cultural legacies (morally charged "founding traditions") in different European cultures have supported or resisted the project of modernisation;
3) To throw light on the much neglected cultural dimension of European integration, especially the ways in which varying cultural legacies support or conflict with the challenge of European citizenship. In what ways are existing narratives of national identity today reactivated, sidelined - or replaced - by new images and stories?
The study tackles these questions by comparing the ethical traditions of six European cultures: those of Germany, Sweden, Norway, England, Ireland and Poland.
Contact: Nina Witoszek
Rural Landscape Perceptions in Norway and in Scotland (PDF)
The aim of this project is to explore the shift in values and perceptions with regard to selected landscapes in Scotland and Norway from 1950 – 2004. The study will focus on the rural population’s identity and the way it is connected to landscapes at an individual and local level.
Contact: Karen V. Lykke Syse
Nature Mythologies: From the Eddas to Ecophilosophy
Despite the fact that nature symbols are pervasive in Norwegian culture and that nature romanticism is one of the most discussed topics in modern Norwegian intellectual debate, there has been no systematic, historical approach to nature-informed cosmology and its transformations over the centuries. This research project is an historical-semiotic attempt to systematise and explore a tradition which stretches from the Nordic saga-literature of the pre-Christian period through Petter Dass, Henrik Wergeland, Fridtjof Nansen, Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun and Arne Næss. The main argument contests the widely accepted view that the sources of modern Norwegian perceptions and representations of nature are to be found in the period called "National Romanticism". Romanticism in the European sense, it is argued, has never taken roots; it has been overshadowed by the values of a native, "pastoral enlightenment" and by an earlier, pragmatic adaptation code to be found in the Eddas. The study focuses on the ecological narratives, images and actions (e.g. myths, national rituals, art and literature) which have cemented Norwegian identity and which have all been drawn into the magnetic field of the native "nature tradition". Results from the project are be published as a book (in Norwegian by Pax Forlag, 1998, and in English by Hurst Publishers, London (forthcoming 2004).
Philosophical Dialogues: Arne Næss and the Progress of Deep Ecology
There have been a number of works devoted to ecophilosophy but none to-date has presented the ways in which deep-ecological thought has matured through dialogue and polemic. In designing this volume Witoszek and Brennan have had a threefold objective:
1) to present the most crucial confrontations between Næss and his critics over the last 30 years drawn from sources as diverse as published scholarly articles, correspondence, television and radio interviews and unpublished polemics;
2) to bring the debate up to date by inviting Norwegian and international scholars to comment on the relevance of Næss's vision for present environmental concerns;
3) to probe the areas of greatest tension and vulnerability within Deep Ecology and hence to open it to outside critique. Philosophical Dialogues were published by SUM in 1996 in a limited, leather-bound edition and the revised edition was published in 1999 by Rowman and Littlefield.
Contact: Nina Witoszek and Andrew Brennan
Dynamics of the relationships between wildness and identity
Marie-Dominique Ribereau-Gayon
Ornitologer, naturkunstnere og Trysiljegeres natursyn sett i lys av kultur, persepsjon og praksisteori
Contact: Michael Hundeide
Norwegian foreign policy and the issue of power
The Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) organized a debate on development aid, foreign policy and power around Terje Tvedt's book Utviklingshjelp, utenrikspolitikk og makt – den norske modellen. See video here (In Norwegian)
Contact : Terje Tvedt
Former Research Projects
The relationship between private organisations, the state, and the multilateral system
Contact: Terje Tvedt
Environmental Ethics and the Humanist Legacy
The purpose of the project is (1) to re-examine the present critique of the Enlightenment legacy as a main source of environmental crises; (2) to explore the thought and representations of pre-modern Renaissance humanism, especially its underestimated sceptical, pluralist and ecological aspects; (3) to determine the ways in which Renaissance ideas of the relationship between humanity, nature and science provide a starting point for a renewal of environmental ethics and for rethinking ideas of sustainability. A partial aim is to extend the range of humanist studies of the environment, which have been neglected in Norwegian post-Næssian thought and discourse.
Contact: Nina Witoszek, Andrew Brennan & Peder Anker
History of Ecological Architecture
The importance of ecology to architects in helping to solve environmental problems is currently an intensely debated issue within the architectural community. Yet, there exists little historical research on the history of this type of design. This research project will result in a scientific study discussing the relationship between buildings and the environment in which they are placed. What is the connection between households and various understandings of the household of nature? An investigation into changing construction materials and technologies, as well as social and political ideas will be used to understand the historical development of the relationship between design of built structures and ecosystems. The project starts with an investigation of shacks built by deep ecology philosophers, proceeded by a discussion of visionary ecological design inspired by the Bauhaus style of architecture at the Tennessee Valley Authority. This is followed by the work of Buckminster Fuller (famous for his domes), and finally the research by human ecologists designing the space cabins and stations for NASA. The notion "spaceship earth" emerged in the context of these projects. The aim of the project is to show how architecture has been used for management of human and natural resources.
Contact: Peder Anker
Ethics, Science and Law
This research project, based at City University, Hong Kong, has two objectives: (a) to build a model of risk for devising credible policy processes to deal with uncertain environmental hazards posed by new technologies; (b) to contribute to the theory and practice of urban environmental ethics, laws and policies, by drawing on Asian experience and carrying out cross-cultural comparisons.
Contact: Andrew Brennan
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Oslo Sustainability Initiative (OSI)
Seminar: 8 October 2007
James Lovelock seminar on creative adaptation to climate change
Beyond Apocalypse:
Can Scientists, Businessmen, Politicians and Humanists Save the World?
See Programme
Arne Naess Chair in Global Justice and the Environment
As one of the university centres established in Norway to follow up the report "Our Common Future", the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo, is pleased to announce the launch of Arne Næss Chair in Global Justice and the Environment.
Seminaret i miljøetikk
Seminaret i Miljøetikk skal være et forum for tverrfaglig diskusjon og debatt omkring temaer knyttet til miljø og etikk. Gjennom forelesninger søker seminaret å bringe sammen studenter, forskere og andre med en interesse for miljøetiske problemstillinger og spørsmål.
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