Symbolic-Material Articulations of Place: Examples from Research on the Iditarod of Alaska and the Finnmark Race
This talk by Trine Kvidal-Røvik of the Arctic University of Norway examines how events matter – both in symbolic and material ways – in terms of articulating place. Based on insights from research conducted on the Iditarod of Alaska and the Finnmark Race in Norway, the talk will explain how events constitute a vehicle for expressing collective belonging to a place and (re)producing local knowledge, history and heritage. Importantly, difference and marginalization are played out and re-created in as part of such place articulations, while the same articulations can challenge problematic understandings and stereotypes. An important question the talk brings up has to do with what kind of place is created in light of an event, and what affordances is then brought about as part of the place being articulated.