The Research Fellowship

I have mentioned in general terms that I am in Norway on a research fellowship this summer. So, I thought I’d dedicate a few paragraphs to peeling a few more layers off of that particular onion.

There are a group of students working on the research project this summer. We are a mix of students from the University of Texas at Austin and the Business School art the Univeritetet I Nordland in Bodø. Our general focus is on a region called the High North that encompasses the northern part of Norway. Norway has 19 regions that we, in the U.S., might call counties. The three northernmost counties are Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark. These three counties are included in the High North, which I’ve heard one person describe as the area of Norway that is above the Arctic Circle. This summer, I am living in Bodø, which is the most southern of the three counties, but still north of the Arctic Circle. Each student has a particular focus that falls under the umbrella of topics related to the High North. Another common theme that ties us together is that we are taking a narrative approach. That is, we are collecting data with a focus on finding an interesting character whose story captures an aspect of the larger topic in an interesting and informative way.

My focus is on rural migration. The rising trend in Norway is that many people, when they reach adulthood, are moving away from small communities in the north in favor of more urban and metropolitan communities in the south. Places like Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim are where more folks are moving these days. Many (but not all) northern Norwegian communities are shrinking in size and are trending towards an older demographic. Addressing the shrinking population and northern infrastructure is a priority for the government. I am working on making contacts and scheduling interviews with people who have moved from the north and have been affected by the population shifts. For example, I was talking to a church pastor on Sunday after services and he told me about two other pastors he knows who stopped delivering services on Sundays because the number of attendees have dropped so much in recent years. Tomorrow I am interviewing the father of a young woman who works in the local Tourist Information Center. I was telling her about my interests and she beamed. She explained that I was describing her father’s experience. When he was old enough, he had to leave his home to find work. He misses his childhood home and experiences and loves to talk about these things. I am going to their home tomorrow evening for coffee and to interview the two of them.

By the end of the summer, my goal is to have a narrative that will become a chapter in a book that will be a collection of all of our works.