Sustainable Rural Environments: Practicing, Managing, and Performing the Gendered Outfields

Many different actors across local, regional, and national level are involved in Norwegian outfield management. We have done a comprehensive mapping of the gender representation among 19 central actors in outfield governance. We have also looked at the distribution of leadership positions between men and women among nine key actors responsible for various outfield issues: In state-appointed boards responsible for protected areas, large carnivores, and wild reindeer management, and in local boards responsible for mountain areas , rural commons and river management. In addition, we have mapped the gender distribution in the national federations, the Norwegian Mountain Board Association, the Norwegian Salmon Rivers and the Norwegian Public Land Association. We have also mapped the gender distribution among male and female leaders in national and regional administration (ministries, directorates, and state administration offices). At regional and local level, we have delimited the mapping to the three case areas Sunnfjord, Salten and Forollhogna. The survey confirms previous studies which show that the state-appointed boards reach the requirement in the Equality and Discrimination Act with a minimum of 40% representation of both sexes. However, this is not the case for the boards at the local level, where the proportion of women is as low as 10% in the river owners' associations, 17% in the rural commons and 35% in the mountain boards. Although different board appointment processes, the findings show a clear difference in comparison with the boards where the Norwegian Environment Agency plays a coordinating role. The survey of board chair positions shows a predominance of male board leaders in all outfield boards, except the regional carnivore boards. The proportion of female board leaders is lowest for the boards with administrative responsibility at the local level (river owners' associations, rural commons, mountain boards and outdoor councils). For the latter, we have also looked at the age composition among the board members and find that the female board members are younger than the male ones. These findings confirm previous studies that have shown a skewed gender representation in Norwegian outfield management, with few women in key positions across all levels of government - also in leadership positions in the regional state administration. Currently we are working to supplement this with qualitative interviews with actors at different governance levels to explore whether the skewed gender representation affects outfield management. We will also shed light on the importance of gender roles and relationships in outfield management. We have carried out a first fieldwork in the three case areas Sunnfjord region, Salten region and Forollhogna in the project. Through local resource groups, we have received help to map important uses and key users, and we have worked to delimit the areas geographically in order to conduct walking interviews. Preliminary findings show that it has a lot to say how we as researchers define outfields when we approach our informants prior to walking interviews, where the goal is that the users themselves define and show us their outfields. We therefore continue to work with a diversity of concepts for outfields to embrace a multiplicity of use and users. In the analysis of how Norwegian outfields are represented in traditional media, we have chosen to focus on three local newspapers that cover the case areas. We have also chosen to map how outfield issues are covered in a selection of national media. The analysis will also reveal who is used as sources in the news on outfield questions and whether there is a focus on conflict between different user groups. To supplement this content analysis, we have chosen to make a qualitative discourse analysis of how outfields and outfield users are presented in the two magazines "Vi menn" and "Det nye". Preliminary findings from the media search show that there is variation in the coverage of topics across the three case areas, and we also see that this varies between the seasons. We find that outfields and nature experiences in the three case areas are linked to moving to the region. We also find that the corona pandemic has contributed to several articles about the importance of local hiking areas, outdoor life close to the city and nature experiences. We have continued to work with the project's presence in social media. After the hashtag #minutmark was launched on Instagram in the summer of 2020, there are over 1200 posts that have been tagged with #minutmark. The posts show a variety of uses and users. The selection of different outfields, outfield use and users forms an important starting point for further work in the project, especially related to the analysis of how influencers present outfields on social media. We will continue to use the account @minutmark on Instagram actively to disseminate results.

Gender perspectives are often missing in policy and research on natural resource management and use in a global North context. The gender dimensions of outfield use can facilitate discovering alternative uses and understandings of the outfield. For instance, men and women use different parts of the landscape in different ways. Today, the diversity of outfield users and activities are increasing, reflecting a multitude of values, interests and perceptions of how – and by whom – these areas can be understood and managed. Sustainable governance requires that the diverse and sometimes competing use of outfields is acknowledged, which requires an openness to multiplicity of voices about what the outfields are, and to the kinds of practices that constitute the outfield. Lack of women in governing bodies, and lack of women's and children's uses and knowledge in governance has likely created blindspots. Gender equality underpins Norwegian governance, and gender mainstreaming is key to Norwegian policy, including the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Indeed, gender equality is a foundation for reaching all 17 Goals. OutGen's interdisciplinary team of researchers will engage closely with stakeholders and formal management at different levels through participatory research activities, workshops, and targeted dissemination in social and traditional media. Through walking interviews and social media analysis in three field areas, and knowledge co-production with governance, the project will (i) investigate how gender influences the management, practice, and symbolic representations of the outfields; (ii) investigate how experience-based knowledge of outfields inform policies and governance practices, and; (iii) develop a critical feminist studies lens to examine governance and policy at local, national, and international levels, to promote sustainability of outfields.