Our first task was an afternoon visit to the Norwegian Folk Museum at Bygdøy in Oslo, where Thomas Walle gave us a tour of the possible locations for the project exhibition in 2019. Giving us a sneak-preview of the museum’s latest addition, a 1930s DNT cabin, now safely installed in a small hillock looking out over the museum site, Thomas noted that our exhibition would be perfectly timed to highlight the museum’s anniversary and the inauguration of the new cabin in 2018.
The next morning, we reassembled to present an overview of our project plans. Our guests - professor Sarah Blandy from Sheffield University Law School, Professor Marianne Holdgaard from Aarhus University Law School, Professor Bodil Selmer from Aarhus University Anthropology department, Signe Howell from Oslo University Anthropology department, and Ingun Grimstad Klepp from the Norwegian Consumer Research Institute – were joined by Thomas Walle and Haakon Harriss from the Norwegian Folk Museum, and by the project staff, Marianne, Simone, Anita and our research assistant Catharina Bjerke Sletner. Our Doctoral researcher Anita Nordeide presented her doctoral plans and picked up useful advice and suggestions from all present.
Lively discussions throughout the day covered insights from ‘house society’ theories; the legal framework for inheriting cabins, and how we conceptualise property and ownership in relation to European kinship practices. After short presentations and discussion, we used workshop techniques to identify key issues for the project’s progress, including theoretical concerns and methodological challenges.
We will look forward to meeting the advisor board again in 2017 as we move into the active research phase of the project, and to updating them on our progress as we go.
The project organisers would like to thank the members of the advisory board for joining us and giving so generously of their time, ideas and advice. We would also like to thank Irene Svarteng for helping with the arrangements, and the staff of Lysebu for making us feel welcome.