Master's theses in visual cultural studies
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(In)voluntary entrepreneurs. A study of tradition usage as a departure for rural entrepreneurship
(Mastergradsoppgave; Master thesis, 2018-05-15)People from Kenozerje ceased to be citizens of the Soviet state on December 26, 1991, and two days later received a citizenship of the Kenozersky National Park, a new incredible country stretched on the borders of the Arkhangelsk region in Russia. The Park uses traditions established on its territory as a departure for activities and constructing an everyday life in Kenozerje. The Park is constantly ... -
Expansive Encroachments and Challenging Changes - Shifting landscapes and adaptive measures among reindeer- and sheepherders in a city-near environment
(Mastergradsoppgave; Master thesis, 2022-06-01)In the outskirts of Tromsø, the largest city in northern Norway, both reindeer herders and sheep farmers are trying to navigate through a changing landscape. The animal husbandries that have been practiced here since time immemorial, are experiencing increasing challenges as the city continues to grow and develop. This study aims to bring forth some of these challenges, such as land encroachment and ... -
A girl, a dog & some boys - Identity and sense of belonging among Greenlandic youth in Nuuk
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2011-05-29)In classical anthropology and literature in general, the connection between nature and man was a way to perceive cultural adaption, where nature and skills in the Arctic often have received the most attention. Up to a few decades ago, the Greenlanders lived close to nature in rural areas spread around the island. Today most of the population live in towns. The main focus of this thesis looks into ... -
A Journey towards Fatherhood: The importance of embodying a new role
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2018-05-15)This thesis explores the complex transformations involved in first-time fatherhood, when adult men undergo one of the most important changes of status in their lives. How is this new status reached? What are the stages of this transition? What other social factors influence the way this transition takes place? The study is primarily based on audiovisual material of my husband, a Spanish researcher ... -
The survival of dugnad. Exploring the meanings and adaptabilities of dugnad as a concept and function in contemporary Norwegian society
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2021-05-31)The thesis explores the concept of dugnad, its meanings, and functions in contemporary Norwegian society. Dugnad is a tradition of unpaid voluntary work that can be traced back to agricultural society. Despite Norway undergoing substantial social, political and economic changes, it did not lose its relevance. In my thesis, I attempt to answer why practice so old prevailed in the modern world and how ... -
The Tourism of the Authentic in a Rural Idyll: The Case of a Family Organized Activity in the South of France
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2021-05-18)Ethnography is a multi-method human-conducted examination of what humans do, say, think and believe. As Sherry Ortner flawlessly explains: “ethnography has always meant the attempt to understand another life world using the self – as much of it as possible – as the instrument of knowing.” (2006: 3) My thesis will be devoted to study how people experience alternative lifestyles and new ways of living ... -
Individualization, Agency and Hope: Chronicle of a summer of four women in Tromsø, Northern Norway
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2021-06-01)In the Covid-19 summer of 2020 in the arctic city of Tromsø, four women embarked on a research and film project about their lives. Elisa (a 28-year-old Italian woman), Sunniva (a 31- year-old Norwegian woman), Magalí (a 36-year-old Argentine woman) and Tove (an 85-year- old Norwegian woman), engaged through intimate conversations with me a researcher/filmmaker, where they exposed essential aspects ... -
Adaptation and Staying Social: Ways of Coping and the Use of Virtual Spaces During the Covid-19 Pandemic as Observed in the USA
(Mastergradsoppgave; Master thesis, 2021-06-01)The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the entire world (Worldometer 2021). Some regions are worse off than others though. One of these areas is the United States of America which has been recorded having the highest number of Covid cases and deaths in the world, with 33,419,113 cases and 594,912 deaths from Covid-19 as of May 08, 2021 (Worldometer 2021). Despite its alarming numbers, citizens there ... -
”A living life” - Exploring Place attachment and ”The good life” on Sandøya, an island community in Southern Norway
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2016-05-18)The concept of lifestyle has become much more important in contemporary, and especially western, social life. This must be seen as part how individual are more free to choose who they want to be, and consequently how and where they want to live. Eith refers to lifestyle there is a growing number of people who relocate on the basis of a belief that there is a more fulfilling way of life available ... -
Ethnodrama: The making of a dramatized ethnographic film to give collaborators a voice
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-11-02)The production project of a fictional film through the collaboration between an ethnographer and a theater group from Ngaoundéré, Cameroon resulted in a film genre coined ‘ethnodrama’. This model of collaboration limits the authorship of filmmakers while preventing the ethnographic relevance of the film to be corrupted by them. This thesis describes the creative process behind the development of the ... -
Search for Sustainability and Connection in The Finnish Forest. "Figuring out the new lifestyle" - Reconstructing nature in a time of ecological crisis
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2019-05-22)This thesis is a discussion of the data that arose out of the ethnographic fieldwork I conducted over the summer of 2018 in Finland. I took part in discussions and practices at various locations in the the Finnish forest about engaging with nature in particular ways, some of which I will present in this paper. These interactions have played a role in furthering my understanding of my research ... -
Nous sommes ensemble. Uncertain contingencies and hope in urban Ngaoundéré
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-06-02)Uncertainty is becoming a fundamental new conceptual tool for anthropologists in order to understand the complex ways in which the vulnerable people living at the margins of African fast- growing cities create meaning out of a routinized sense of crisis. Many studies (Cooper & Pratten 2015; Whyte 2009; McGovern 2012; Waage 2015; 2018; etc.) have highlighted the importance of hope and social contingency ... -
Ancestral Medicine on the Rise. Reemergence of ancestral medicine and spirituality in Saraguro, and its transformative effects.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-06-01)The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the revival of pre-Columbian ancestral medicine and spirituality in Saraguro, Ecuador, catalyzed by a minority within the indigenous population of Saraguro. In the thesis, I look at how this resurgence is affecting and contributing to a meaning change towards their cultural identity by looking at local, global and historical influences. The methods I have ... -
Egyptian Diaspora, Power, and Resistance. An ethnographic study of the Egyptian diaspora in Berlin and Paris, summer 2019.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-06-02)The Egyptian revolution in 2011 ended dramatically in 2013 with the military taking control of the country in a coup. The current repressive government has forced many activists, journalists, professors, and other citizens to leave the country permanently, in fear of imprisonment and other penalties and harassment. Others left because of the deteriorating economic situation in the country. New ... -
Anak Hutan: Relationships to the West in Bukit Lawang and the effects of tourism on the masculine identities of young men.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-06-01)The focus of this thesis is on the young men working as guides in the village of Bukit Lawang in Indonesia. These men are influenced by and impacted by a dual side to the society in which they live: on the one hand, by the traditional and local norms of an Islamic community, and on the other, by the Western tourists and the industry of tourism in their small village. What the thesis grapples with ... -
A glove for two hands. Life history of a fisher-woman along the Adriatic coast
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2019-05-16)Abstract thesis The reflections contained in this thesis are a chronicle of my fieldwork in Italy. I explored a coastal community in a peculiar area called Trabocchi's Coast located in the Abruzzo Region, along the Adriatic Coast. My inquiry has been a video camera based fieldwork within and around the maritime area where I was born, thus identifying my fieldwork as a kind of anthropology at home. ... -
Earth, Air, Fire, Water and the Big Smoke. Urban Paganism: Ritual performance, identity construction and meaning making within and without the city.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2019-05-15)The dilution and/or disappearance of religious ideals throughout western societies has been identified as a result of the turn of the enlightenment, the advent and advancement of scientific rationale, processes of industrialization and fundamentally the political and societal separation between church and state (Nietzsche 1882, Jung 1964). Post-enlightenment philosophies have worked to distance ... -
Behind the mask. A Traditional Circus in Times of Change
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2018-11-01)This thesis is describing the life of the circus community, considered to be a specific type of group recognized by a traveling way of life, behavioural signs, different values, or cultural practices etc. This research is based mainly on participant observation with and without a camera following a small, traditional family from a Czech circus, consisting of 16 members founded in 2010. In this ... -
The montage of the life course of Alexander Maloletov: searching for happiness in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2017-05-12)This work is focused on the life course of 67 years old Alexander Maloletov. In my study I question the role of happiness for the individual, connected to present self-identity and «personal memory museum». I am considering happiness as an emotional lens, through which it is possible to think evaluatively and narratively about people’s selves and lives. The main informant is an eccentric man named ... -
Mater omnium. A study of belonging, care and social change in superdiverse Italy
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2017-05-16)Crisis can be considered a context in the modern European narrative, as economy, mass-migrations and environmental factors create a superdiverse, ever shifting social and cultural pavement. Set in Ostia, a suburban area of Rome, under the spotlight due to the influence of organized crime and the raising conflicts between socio political realities, this paper investigate how solidarity and belonging ...