Cry Wolf!: Narratives of Wolf Recovery in France and Norway*

Abstract Due to strict protection through the last decades, wolves have returned to many areas from which they have been absent for a long time. This is a conservation success story, but the wolves also cause conflicts wherever they arrive. We have studied the situation in southeastern Norway and in the French Alps, where the conflict patterns are similar. Diverging interpretations of the situation are supported by narratives, and two varieties have become increasingly significant in both countries. Rumors about the secret reintroduction of wolves are common among wolf adversaries. Another narrative, important to the pro‐wolf camp, is based on the notion that particular sheep husbandry practices (unattended rough grazing) are unique to either Norway or France—whereas there are in fact more similarities than differences. Yet, while the reintroduction‐conspiracy rumors are ridiculed, the notion of unique national conflict patterns has achieved a status almost of official truth. Furthermore, the story about natural wolf recovery is itself a value‐laden narrative, and not only “scientific fact.” The different status of these narratives tell us something about power relations: Given their different social basis, it seems relevant to consider the national uniqueness image and the natural recovery theory as tightly interwoven with symbolic power and the reintroduction conspiracy rumors as similarly interwoven with patterns of cultural resistance.     

Youth and the environmental movement-symbolic inclusions and exclusions

The present study set out to use qualitative interviews in an effort to understand why young people from highly educated groups, especially from ‘non‐productive’ sectors of the economy (public services, teaching, ete.), are found to have a rela‐tively strong affmity to the environmental movement. Young people aged 15–20, who were members of organizations associated with the protection of or use of nature, were interviewed. In conclusion, we suggest that to some extent the class differences can be interpreted in the light of forms of symbolic inclusions and exclu sions. There are a number of ‘symbolic fences’ that working‐class youngsters have to cross in order to become members of an environmental organization. These fences are related to: the style and cultural identity of the members, expectations of a sort of self‐enclosure as part of participation in the organization, the somewhat androgynous gender‐identity of the members, the perceptions of nature that are dominant among the members and the organization's intellectual image.     

Budgeting design and organizational capabilities: Multicriterion planning of telephone services

Telephone services are one example of a type of activity where the measure of success tends to be multidimensional: for example, costs and several service criteria are often used as performance indicators. Budgetary planning should be adapted accordingly, using different ‘mixes’ of service and cost as the alternatives that are discussed in a decentralized planning dialogue. Such a dialogue has to be designed with attention to the abilities of the organization: people's knowledge of possible alternatives and preferences, their ability to communicate this knowledge, etc. In this paper, the requirements of some alternative ways of designing multiobjective planning are related to show such abilities in a particular case, that of the National Swedish Telecommunication Administration.