Ingrid Guldvik

New Protected Areas in Norway: Local Participation without Gender Equality

Abstract In Norway, as in many other countries, new protected areas are currently being established and managed with strong policy references to “local participation.” Is this policy implemented in a way that incorporates the concern for gender equality? The present article provides data from a study of 2 cases in which new protected areas have recently been established. The first is the Dovre Mountains Conservation Plan ( Verneplan for Dovrefjell), which was adopted in 2002 and includes Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park. In the second case, the focus is on an area which was established in 2004 as the Geiranger-Herdalen Landscape Protected Area (landskapsvernområde). It is argued that one could expect Norway—perhaps more than any other country—to implement local participation in protected area establishment in a way that ensures gender equality. However, the results of the study show that local participation within the context of conservation issues ignores policies and legislation on gender equality. These findings are analyzed and causes for this state of affairs are shown to reside in structural features on the one hand, and the lack of demand for female candidates in local elections and appointments on the other. It is concluded that the main factor explaining this situation is neglect by Norwegian conservation authorities of their responsibility for gender mainstreaming. Efforts to legitimate conservation with reference to local participation are seen as problematical when local women are involved only to a very limited extent.

Strong and Weak Gender Quota Regimes

A study of the introduction and adoption of gender quotas that does not examine both the interpretation of the problem and the process of implementation is insufficient. A gender quota regime may be promising in its formal features, without guaranteeing the intended results in more informal practices. Six criteria form the basis for a strong gender quota regime: (1) unambiguous and concrete goals, (2) rank order of candidates, (3) evaluations and adjustments of the regime, (4) information from superior authorities, (5) satisfactory implementation by the actors involved, and (6) control and sanctions. An evaluation of these six criteria presupposes the use of a variety of methodological approaches. The development of specific criteria for strong versus weak quota regimes makes it possible to identify both the weak points of the legislation and the failures of implementation. In addition, these criteria will contribute to comparative studies on gender quota regimes and supplement the work of cumulative research. This study applies the six criteria in order to evaluate the Norwegian gender quota regime in local politics and shows that even if four criteria are fulfilled the result is still not satisfactory. The practices of implementation among politicians at the local level as well as among the supervising bodies (county governors) vary. Different discourses create various practices that force or obstruct the implementation of gender balance.

Political citizenship and local political participation for disabled people

The theme of this article is political citizenship among people with disabilities. Political citizenship on the basis of gender and ethnicity has received attention internationally. However, there has been little attention on political citizenship of persons with disabilities. The article sheds light on political representation at the local level in Norway. The data used are from a survey sent to 767 political representatives in local politics and 50 administrative representatives. Our study shows that disabled people are under-represented in local political assemblies, and thus, their political citizenship is not fully acknowledged. We apply Fraser (N. Fraser, 1997. Justice Interruptus. Critical Reflections on the ‘Postsocialist’ Condition. New York and London: Routledge) concepts of redistribution and recognition to analyse the lack of representation of disabled people. According to the dimension of redistribution, the analysis shows that neither the physical conditions nor the organization of the different meetings is particularly well adapted for disabled people. The dimension of recognition shows that disabled representatives are expected to be more occupied with issues concerning disability than other representatives. The analysis also shows that over time it has become more important for elected disabled representatives to put issues concerning disability on the agenda.

Personal assistants: Ideals of social care‐work and consequences for the Norwegian personal assistance scheme 1

Ideal models of care change over time. In the case of personal assistance services, the major actors are influenced by different ideals of social care work. This article is based on a survey among personal assistants in Norway, with a central finding that assistants emphasise, to various degrees, the ideal of caring rationality or a service orientation model The personal assistance scheme has many inbuilt dilemmas, such as user‐control in contrast to co‐determination of assistants, as well as continuity of help in contrast to continuity of relations. This article discusses whether matching assistants and users with mutual interests and similar expectations can help to reduce the inbuilt systemic dilemmas.

User participation in the Norwegian Welfare Context: an Analysis of Policy Discourses

This article argues that the social construction of user participation policies includes both differences and similarities regarding three user groups: older people, disabled people and people with mental health problems. The article is based on a historical discourse analysis of national documents in Norway. It points at a democracy/social rights discourse, based on the idea of social citizenship, as a common and historically stable discourse for all three user groups and relates this to the specific characteristics of Norwegian welfare policies. A contrasting consumer discourse, stressing users’ consumer role and related to the impact of New Public Management reforms, is only evident in the case of older people and from the 1990s. A co-production/co-partnering discourse, stressing user/professional-partnership, is evident in the current policies directed at older people and those with mental health problems. Both the consumer and co-production discourse remain marginal in the case of disabled people.

Disability, social groups, and political citizenship

The problem raised in this article is whether disabled people can and should be considered as a social group with respect to political representation. The question is first discussed on the basis of theories of social and status groups. Next, the article examines how the topic is reflected empirically at the local political level in Norway, expressed by party political leaders and elected disabled representatives. The authors suggest that disabled people can and should be considered as a social group in relation to political representation. Not doing so, they argue, will in effect delay the process towards full recognition and active political citizenship.