Abstract for WCEH 2009.
In the beginning of the 1800s, Norwegians were rediscovering their national identity after gaining independence from Denmark. They turned to nature as a source of this national identity. The Norwegian Trekking Association, founded 1868, encouraged Norwegians to trek on the association’s trail networks and to stay in its cabins. The experience of nature was thus a collective experience. The traditional public access to uncultivated land in Norway reflects this. Even though uncultivated land can be privately owned, anyone had the right to use the land for leisure purposes – for trekking, skiing, and tenting – as long as you respected the land and other users.
Beginning in the 1930s, Norwegians increasingly built new, privately owned cabins or converted old work cabins for leisure use. The experience of nature then became a more individualized phenomenon compatible with the emerging consumer society. This was not unlike the use of automobiles in the experience of American national parks. The private cabin owners found new ways to “get back to nature” through their individually-owned pieces of wilderness. In the post-WWII period, cabin construction increased so much that it was getting harder to find good locations in certain areas. Furthermore, many land owners subdivided larger empty holdings and sold off the parcels for cabins. Land that was previously legally and practically accessible to all was divided and built on so that it in many cases it became inaccessible.
In 1957, the Norwegian parliament passed the Friluftsliv (outdoor life) law to guarantee the traditional land access that was under pressure at the time. This paper will investigate the relationship between private cabin ownership and this law and subsequent amendments. How did these two concepts of experiencing nature (private cabins versus public land access) conflict? How did actors understand the relationship between public and private land? How did these understandings change throughout the twentieth century?