Fra “den norske hytta” til “norske hytter”

In one of our interviews I was told by the friendly man at the Hedda booth that I look like a typical Hedda customer. This little episode created an unexpected link between the phenomenon I am studying and me. I could be a hytte-owner, couldn’t I? Well, no, I could not, a regular associate professor at NTNU without noteworthy capital cannot afford this kind of hytte.

But the whole thing reminded me of Bourdieu’s writings on distinction. In other contexts I find Bourdieu too sociological and somewhat outdated. I do not want to do any longer what traditional sociologists do: Performing order claiming to describe order. In this respect, I am following Ranciere’s and Latour’s critiques. But in the context of hytter Bourdieu’s sociology may have its virtues because it can be used to perform disorder.

Let me explain: Societies are ordered by different kinds of capital: education, income, social networks etc are defining which position you have within a given society.  Now Bourdieu is saying that economic capital is not necessarily identical with having cultural capital (e.g. having a lot of education) or social capital (e.g. knowing the right people). Rather it is certain combinations of these different kinds of capital which determine which clothes we find disgusting or cool, which furniture we buy, or — which hytte we spend our leisure time in. Hytter, clothes, furniture etc at the same time are markers which we use to position ourselves in society. So, I guess in terms of cultural capital I could be a Hedda customer. In terms of economic capital I could not.

Why is this relevant in the context of hytter? When it comes to hytter there is so much talk about the Norwegian “we” in relation to nature that internal distinctions in terms of education, income and social networks are under-communicated. Maybe this is the change, which this blog hints at in its title: That this “we” is finally meeting its reality, which is much more fragmented than everybody thought. There are people looking like Hedda customers who are not. There are real Norwegians who experience their hytte as a source of stress and inconvenience. There are people who prefer holidays in the mountains with après-ski and exciting nightclubs.And there are also Norwegians with tree fetish nourishing on elk-sausages.

Count me in if you need someone to describe this “new” disorder.