Browsing by Author "Sevatdal, Hans"

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Commons: Old and New
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Berge, Erling; Olwig, Kenneth; Carlsson, Lars; Jansson, Ulf; Sandell, Klas; Wedin, Maud; Pardo, Mercedes; Oses, Nuria; Sevatdal, Hans; Sandberg, Audun; Brown, Katrina Myrvang; Sellar, David; Humphries, David
"The document is a proceedings from a workshop 11-13 March 2003 in Oslo. It presents case studies on commons in Norway, Spain, Sweden, Scotland, and Wales (UK) along with 3 papers with more theoretical discussion of 1) characteristics of protected areas seen as a type of commons, 2) the symbolic value of commons, and 3) the problem of managing commons across levels of organization."
Legislation Concerning the Norwegian Commons
(1995) Rygg, Ola; Sevatdal, Hans
"Norwegian commons comprise forests and mountain areas, and are, at present, of two types: 1) State commons owned by the State, in the sense that the State has the title to the land, while most of the resources are owned and used by the local community. 2) Parish communes are owned by a group of local farms, while the local community has the same rights as in State commons. Up till now the legislation, which derive from medieval times, have been fragmented and dominated by traditional rather than statuary law. In 1992 this legislation were codified. The nature and peculiarities of ownership, rights to use and the institutions for management, are discussed in this paper."
Norwegian Commons: History, Status and Challenges
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sevatdal, Hans; Grimstad, Sidsel; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper will look at the Norwegian Commons with the following focus: How these ancient institutions have evolved during the last 200 years; The interests of the different stakeholders and the ensuing conflicts up to the present; How the institutions managing the commons have adapted to the changes in the Norwegian society from agrarian towards an industrialised and more urbanised country. By investigating the history and the privatisation and formalisation processes the commons have undergone, we are able to see how the institution has been able to adapt to changing economic and political environments. It illustrates the tension that has been and still is between the central power and the local community concerning the state commons. These tensions are however only one aspect of conflicts relating to the commons; at times there were equally high tensions between different local communities and also between various stakeholders within local communities. But maybe the most important is that it shows that the institution of the commons has persisted for nearly a thousand years, and that it may exist side by side with 'ordinary' private and public ownership of land. It can also adapt and modernise into becoming an important voice of the local community in local and central politics. It has also been a goal of this research to provide documentation of one example (of many) of the thriving existence of common property ownership in modern western countries, showing that this ownership form is not an 'archaic' or outdated form that only exists in poorer developing countries. Furthermore the report shows that the commons have not been a stagnant form of ownership, but has changed and still changes according to the tendencies particularly in the rural/agricultural sector. It discusses some of the modern time challenges for the commons in society."
Some Notes on the Terminology of Norwegian Property Rights Law in Relation to Social Science Concepts about Property Rights Regimes
(1995) Berge, Erling; Sevatdal, Hans
"The paper finds that the concepts of property rights law seem to be independent of the social science concern about divisibility of benefit and excludability from consumption. However, in the borderlands to property rights law, in human rights law and public rights to joint use of natural resources, some interesting constructs exist, like 'bygde'-commons and some relations best described as quasi-ownership. These may be of interest to the design of new management systems. In social science recognition of a distinction between indivisibilities of the ecological production system and divisibility of benefit may help clarity the management problem. It will for example largely rule out the use of geographical boundaries as a means for shaping motivations of just distribution of benefit is a goal for the management system."