Build Bridges, Trust the System: Volunteer Work and Trust in The Norwegian Trekking Association

Abstract

This thesis is about central values connected to The Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT). Values connected to volunteer work, and values connected to their self-service cabins. I have conducted fieldwork as a volunteer for DNT over a six-month period, participating in the building of bridges, and a five-week consecutive stay at two different self-service cabins. The building of bridges is organized through a volunteer group of bridge builders. In the thesis, I show how this organizing is done, and how values like knowledge and experience are emphasized. I also show how the jackets worn by the bridge builders is a material representation of the values important to the group. During the five weeks I volunteered as a warden at two of DNT’s self-service cabins. I was able to observe and take part in practices relating to trust. At these cabins I paid special attention the trust-based system on which they are built. In the thesis I show how this system functions, but I also take into consideration how trust has a wider significance. In relation to this I also discuss different understandings of individualism both within a regional ethnographic context, but also beyond. I connect this to practices of inclusion and exclusion.