Den norske pilegrimsrenessansen: En analyse av tilretteleggere, interessenter og prosesser
Abstract
The last twenty years we have witnessed a considerable revival regarding pilgrimage in Norway. This was first seen in the simple fact that pilgrims once again began arriving in Trondheim at the cathedral of Nidaros - the shrine of St. Olav.
In 1992, the Ministry of Environment started a project in order to re-establish the pilgrimage route from Oslo to Trondheim, involving both church and national environmental authorities. This has further led to a broad response from a vast collaboration of actors, eager to play a part in re-establishing this old route and new pilgrimage activity.
My objective has been to investigate these different actors and their specific ways of interpreting and ascribing meaning to the terms pilgrim and pilgrimage, in this re-creation process we are witnessing today. Further on, I would like to pinpoint how pilgrimage in Norway is a complex matter, with many different fields of interests. One must grasp the whole picture in order to properly understand the modern phenomena of pilgrimage within our specific context.
The approach used is discourse analysis. The method is complex, and for this analysis I have applied the theoretical groundwork from Iver B. Neumann, a discourse analysis specially intended for social research.
The method is applied on central written and published material from the most important actors. In the first part of my analysis I am searching for different views and understandings of the pilgrim both explicitly and implicitly presented in the texts. Three major actors are analyzed; National management authorities within natural and cultural heritage, The Church, and Public authorities within business development and value creation.
The second part uses the results found in part one as a starting point for further discussion of the broad and complex social phenomenon pilgrimage. More specifically, I argue that pilgrimage must be seen in relation to a somewhat broader context than often applied, including outdoor recreation, cultural heritage and tourism.