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“Here we are just inside out gáktis”
Get PDFThe Fovsen actions consisted of three events that influenced the Sámi society throughout 2023. In February/March, a week-long action began in the capital of Norway, where both Sámi and non-Sámi gathered to take actions against the Norwegian state. Among other things, gáktis turned inside out and civil disobedience was used as ways to show resistance to an ongoing human rights violation against the reindeer herding district Fovsen-Njaarke Sijte.
This master’s thesis is based on the observations that many of the front figures and other active participants during the Fovsen actions were young Sámi women. It has further been observed that there are generally many Sámi women who are active participants in the public sphere of Sámi society today. This combined has led to a desire to investigate young Sámi women’s society engagement using citizenship and birget as a theoretical framework.
This master’s thesis presents three main findings based on an analysis of five interviews with young Sámi who have participated in the Fovsen actions. The first finding concerns how an inclusive Sámi community is important for the research participants, both for cultural socialization and managing being a minority. The second finding concerns how the research participants’ engagement is based on a dimension of care which I have called caring citizenship. The last finding concerns the Fovsen actions and how it created an inclusive Sámi community which was embedded in mutual care. The last finding shows how mutual care is important for the well-being of the Sámi society, the Sámi community, and the Sámi citizen
Modelling of Snow Particle Settling Dynamics in Boundary Layer Turbulence: Evaluating Maxey-Riley and Reduced-Order Models with Nonlinear Drag
Get PDFAccurately modelling snow particle settling dynamics in the atmospheric boundary layer remains a fundamental challenge. These dynamics influence snowfall transport and ground snow accumulation which in turn impact hydrology, weather predictions, and climate modelling. While the foundational work of Maxey and Riley (1983), which introduced equations describing inertial particles in a fluid flow, has been used widely, the original formulation assumes linear drag and can suffer from numerical stiffness and instabilities. To gain computational efficiency and more accurately represent the settling behaviour of snow particles, this study incorporates a nonlinear drag formulation into the original Maxey-Riley equations and derives a corresponding Reduced-Order model based on perturbation theory and nonlinear dynamical system tools.
The results showed that the nonlinear Maxey-Riley model successfully reproduces key inertial particle behaviours observed in previous studies, such as loitering and sweeping. For the cases considered, vertical flow structures were found to be the primary driver of these behaviours rather than nonlinear drag alone. The Reduced-Order model replicates these hallmark features with a significant reduction in computational cost, from 24 hours to 20 minutes, while remaining numerically stable. Even though the Reduced-Order model deviates from the Maxey-Riley for larger particles, the agreement improves significantly when using model-specific terminal velocities. This highlights the Reduced-Order model's potential to capture inertial particle behaviour in atmospheric turbulence, even in its simplified form
Thin Sea Ice Detection with CryoSat-2
No full textArctic sea ice plays a vital role in the climate system, influencing atmospheric circulation, oceanic processes, and Arctic ecosystems. Thin sea ice is particularly important, as it governs seasonal transitions and contributes to feedback mechanisms such as Arctic amplification. Reliable estimates of sea ice thickness (SIT), especially within the thin ice regimes (less than 1 m), are essential for improving forecasting systems and reducing associated biases. This thesis investigates the performance of altimetry-based SIT retrievals from CryoSat-2 below 1 m, with a focus on the performance of the CryoSat-2 UiT product created by the Earth Observation Group at UiT. That incorporates a physical retracking algorithm known as LARM and a snow accumulation model called SnowModel-LG. The analysis includes an intercomparison with established CryoSat-2 SIT products from AWI, CPOM, and a Warren 1999 climatology configuration with LARM, using the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) AWI product as reference. The intercomparison highlights the influence of waveform retracking methods and snow climatology inputs, with the UiT product demonstrating the closest alignment with the SMOS AWI product. Validation against independent measurement from Operation IceBridge, the BGEP moorings, and the SMOSice campaign confirms that the UiT product provides reliable SIT estimates down to approximately 0.4-0.5 m. SMOS, in contrast, captures thin ice more consistently below 0.4 m but tends to saturate at thicknesses above approximately 0.5 m. These findings support the inclusion of CryoSat-2 thin-ice returns in data assimilation and the floe classification algorithm to improve model accuracy and enhance sea ice monitoring. The results also highlight the value of a complementary approach, where SMOS data is suited for early freeze-up periods and marginal ice zones, while CryoSat-2 products are preferred in thicker or mixed ice regimes. A tentative lower threshold of approximately 0.4 m is proposed for standalone use of CryoSat-2 data, guiding future data assimilation methods in sea ice forecasting
Developing General Guidelines for the Public Procurement of Artificial Intelligence in Digital Health Services in Norway: Addressing Legal and Practical Challenges
Get PDFAbstract
Background – Norwegian health trusts face significant challenges translating complex regulatory requirements from GDPR, the Medical Devices Regulation, the AI Act, NIS2, and public procurement law into concrete technical specifications for AI procurement. Current "one-size-fits-all" templates and prescriptive specifications often stifle innovation, overlook algorithmic risks, and expose trusts to privacy and security non-compliance.
Methods – The study employed an interdisciplinary, research design combining legal doctrinal analysis, case study examination, and literature review. Legal requirements were systematically mapped to technical AI capabilities. Three Norwegian health trust procurement processes and regulation were analyzed to identify current practices and challenges. Academic and grey literature provided broader context. The Adaptive Compliance Integration Framework (ACIF) was developed through iterative analysis and received preliminary validation through structured interviews with three procurement professionals.
Results – Analysis revealed four persistent gaps: (1) legal-framework mismatch between static laws and dynamic AI lifecycles; (2) process rigidity where over-prescriptive specifications block outcome-based innovation; (3) documentation deficits where vendors seldom supply evidence on bias-mitigation, transparency, or continuous-monitoring plans; (4) fragmented expertise where procurement, clinical, and legal teams work in silos. ACIF addresses these gaps through six cyclical stages: needs identification and justification, legal compliance and market analysis, risk management and stakeholder engagement, procurement process design, implementation and monitoring, and validation and feedback. The framework emphasizes legal-to-technical translation, risk-based accountability, and multi-stakeholder alignment. Validation interviews confirmed the framework addresses recognizable challenges and could improve current procurement practices.
Conclusions – ACIF enables Norwegian health trusts to move from checklist-driven purchasing to adaptive, outcome-oriented governance that keeps pace with evolving AI regulation, safeguards patient data, and encourages market innovation. The framework provides systematic guidelines for bridging legal requirements with technical implementation in AI procurement. Future research should pilot ACIF at scale and evaluate its impact on procurement outcomes, compliance effectiveness, and stakeholder satisfaction.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; digital health; public procurement; GDPR; AI Act; information security; Norway; adaptive compliance integration framewor
Nordic word order
Get PDFThis article gives an overview of the word order patterns found in the Nordic
Word Order Database (NWD), providing maps that illustrate variation in
argument placement and verb placement across the North Germanic
languages. All investigated phenomena show variable word order in at least
one of the languages, and categorical word order in other languages,
considering at least one of the investigated variables. Apart from the differences between the languages, the data in NWD reveal little regional variation
(apart from non-V2 in questions and particle-subject order in regional Norwegian). Instead, variation found within languages is very often within
speaker variation. Different speakers can have different preferences, but the
preferences are not geographically determined
Fortifying Border Memories: Memory Politics in the Post-Soviet Russian North
Get PDFMemory politics involves public efforts to shape and circulate certain representations of the past for political purposes. By engaging with memory politics, social actors participate in mediating the collective representations of the past and influencing historical consciousness. As a powerful tool for legitimation, identity building, and production of consent, memory politics is a usual part of the agendas of state actors. In contemporary Russia, the power elite has been actively involved in memory politics, particularly by centralizing memory institutions and promoting state-centric interpretations of the country’s history while suppressing “inconvenient” initiatives. Over the last decade, these efforts have also expanded regionally, reflecting the federal center’s ontological anxiety about memory repertoires in peripheral regions and a desire for greater control over them.
This article-based dissertation explores memory politics in contemporary Russia by focusing on a set of three regional cases exemplifying how the representations of the violent past have been perpetuated and reframed locally. First, it analyzes the monumental memory politics of the Great Patriotic War in the Murmansk region. Second, it scrutinizes the state-patriotic redevelopment of the Mudyug Museum in the Arkhangelsk region dedicated to a Civil War prison camp. Third, it unpacks the recent changes in the memory of the violent past, particularly the Stalinist repressions and the Finnish occupation of 1941-1944, in the Republic of Karelia. Through analyzing local and federal media discourses, consulting local history (kraevedcheskii) accounts, and interviewing the experts, the study identifies the mnemonic actors involved as well as assesses the narratives and memory infrastructure they utilize to influence local memory politics.
The findings highlight a diversity of local-level actors and agendas, revealing complex strategies and discursive tools used for interacting with the federal-level actors. Unlike previous research that largely explained Russia’s memory politics by the Kremlin’s expanded control over the production of the representations of the past, this dissertation demonstrates a variety of modes of federal-regional interplay in this sphere. While interacting with local actors, the federal state may integrate, valorize, or securitize local repertories of memory, depending on multiple parameters and characteristics of these repertoires. The federal-regional interplay also entails patriotic rebranding (representing regional cultural features as parts of the national patriotic heritage) and symbolic fortification (strengthening notions of defense and security) of local memory repertoires in the Russian North. The study provides new insights into the Russian regime’s authoritarian memory-political practices by evaluating the effectiveness and limitations of their implementation in the peripheries.Minnepolitikk omfatter offentlige tiltak som har som mål å forme og spre fremstillinger av fortiden for politiske formål. Ved å delta i minnepolitikk bidrar sosiale aktører til å formidle kollektive forestillinger om fortiden og påvirke den historiske bevisstheten. Som et sentralt maktmiddel for legitimering, identitetsbygging og konsensusproduksjon, benytter statlige aktører ofte minnepolitikk i sine agendaer. I dagens Russland har makteliten aktivt sentralisert minneinstitusjoner og fremmet statssentrerte tolkninger av landets historie, samtidig som «uønskede» initiativer har blitt undertrykt. De siste tiårene har disse utviklingene også fått en regional dimensjon, med økende bekymring fra føderale myndigheter over minnerepertoaret i perifere regioner, samt et ønske om å utvide kontrollen over dette.
Denne artikkelbaserte avhandlingen undersøker minnepolitikk i dagens Russland gjennom tre regionale casestudier fra landets nordlige regioner. Avhandlingen belyser hvordan fremstillinger av den voldelige fortiden har blitt videreført og omformet lokalt. Først analyseres den monumentale minnepolitikken knyttet til Den store fedrelandskrigen i Murmansk oblast. Deretter studeres den statspatriotiske utviklingen av Mudyug-museet, tidligere borgerkrigsfangeleir, i Arkhangelsk oblast. Til slutt analyseres det endringer i minnet om den voldelige fortiden, særlig Stalins undertrykkelser og den finske okkupasjonen (1941–1944), i Karelia-republikken. Ved å analysere lokale og føderale mediediskurser, regionale historiske kilder (kraevedcheskii) og intervjuer med eksperter, identifiserer avhandlingen minneaktørene og vurderer de narrativene og den minneinfrastrukturen de benytter for å påvirke lokal minnepolitikk.
Funnene fremhever et mangfold av lokale aktører og agendaer, som bruker komplekse strategier og diskursive verktøy for å samhandle med føderale aktører. I motsetning til tidligere forskning, som i stor grad forklarte Russlands minnepolitikk gjennom Kremls utvidede kontroll over fremstillinger av fortiden, viser denne avhandlingen hvordan føderal-regional samhandling (interplay) finner sted. Når statlige aktører samhandler med lokale aktører, kan de integrere, verdsette eller sikkerhetisere lokale minner, avhengig av ulike parametere og karakteristikker. Føderal-regional interplay innebærer også patriotisk rebranding (representasjon av regionale kulturtrekk som en del av den nasjonale patriotiske arven) og symbolsk befestning (forsterkning av forestillinger om forsvar og sikkerhet) av lokale minnerepertoar i Nord-Russland. Denne avhandlingen kaster nytt lys over det russiske regimets autoritære praksis innen minnepolitikk, ved å vurdere både deres effektivitet og begrensninger i landets periferi
Turens start: Frihet, frisk luft, helse og forvaltning
Get PDFEi bok om friluftslivets historie, samfunnsmessige betydning, verdigrunnlag og forvaltningskonteksterTrolltunga, Preikestolen og Besseggen er tre ikoniske steder i den norske f jellheimen – og blant de mest besøkte turmåla, som står på besøksønskelister over hele verden. Jo mer oppmerksomhet slike steder har fått, desto flere har kommet for å gå dit. Som nordmenn er vi stolte over dette, men også litt bekymret: Hvor mye tåler disse stedene? De nevnte stedene er bastante fjell og kanskje ikke så utsatt for slitasje, men trengselen gjør det ikke alltid like trivelig å være der. Man går i kø dit, står i kø for å komme fram til kanten eller ut på tuppen (tungespissen), og går i kø tilbake til en overfylt parkeringsplass. Men du verden for opplevelser det er – i fint vær! Mens de tre stedene for noen år siden hadde problemer med køer, sikkerhet og redningsaksjoner, er de i dag eksempler på god forvaltning. Det er satt inn hensiktsmessige forvaltningstiltak, blant annet utbedring av parkeringsanleggene og stiene, bedre skilting, og ved Trolltunga også nye kjuz ledwo na ommersielle tilbud, som adkomst via en via ferrata. Det er imidlertid stort sett køgåing til alle de tre nevnte stedene. Dette betyr at turen i dag fortoner seg svært forskjellig fra idealene om det enkle friluftslivet som lenge rådde i Norge. Med den populariteten som stedene har, minner køene man kan oppleve enkelte steder mer om køene på Aker Brygge i Oslo enn om friluftslivet slik det er beskrevet og idealisert i norske bøker og filmer. Dette er unektelig et paradoks: Jo mer ikonisk naturen er, jo større blir trengselen og misbehaget ved å besøke stedene. Dette er noe av bakteppet for denne boka – friluftslivets vidunderlige turmål nedtråkket av folk som hovedsakelig besøker stedet for å kunne si at de har vært der. For at dette skal gå i hop, trengs det besøksforvaltning; derfor har vi kalt boka Friluftsliv og besøksforvaltning. Det henger i hop
Verdier i norsk besøksforvaltning; Egenverdi, nytt og relasjoner i verdisetting av natur
Get PDFHvorfor forvalter myndighetene naturen? Naturen er per definisjon det motsatte av menneskelig forvaltning, den er selvgående basert på mange og mangfoldige elementer og prosesser. Kanskje er det derfor at norsk naturforvaltning er begrenset. Et vesentlig element i naturforvaltninga har vært folks bruk og stell av sine eiendommer og naturområder, altså at det har eksistert ulike former for uformell forvaltning tilpasset lokale sedvaner, skikker og tradisjoner – kulturer med omsorg for naturen. Blant folk er det selvsagt mange slags meninger og verdisyn – og rett som det er dukker det opp saker som viser at mange ikke deler myndighetenes synspunkt. Debattene om vannkraft noen år tilbake, og om vindkraft, havbruk og gruvedrift de seinere år, viser at meningsforskjellene er store, og at verdiene vi tilskriver naturen er svært varierende. Hvordan uformelle normsystemer har vært og er viktige elementer i forvaltninga er diskutert i kapittel 5 i denne boka. Dette kapitlet handler om hva slags verdier den offentlige forvaltninga i feltet representerer
Singular NPs and the expression of genericity in Norwegian
Get PDFThis paper explores the capacity of singular noun phrases (NPs) to express genericity in
Norwegian, examining how definite, indefinite, and bare singular forms map onto generic
meanings. A timed acceptability judgment task was used to investigate how each form
correlates with generic expressions, delving into the subtleties of their usage in native
language. Thirty-three Norwegian native speakers completed the study. Our results
indicate that all three NP forms can convey some type of generic meaning, but there are
preferences in their application. The definite singular is well-suited for kind and
characterizing generics, whereas the indefinite singular, though less favored, is still
acceptable in characterizing and type-denoting contexts. The bare singular shows a strong
inclination toward type-denoting meanings, possibly due to its intrinsic emphasis on types
over individuals. We discuss the multifunctionality of Norwegian singular NPs and the
implications of individual variation among native speakers for learners of Norwegian