Abstract
The carnivore issue has been a much debated issue in the Norwegian public for well over a century. After a longer period of trying to eradicate the animals through government issued shooting rewards from the middle of the nineteenth century, the carnivores were reintroduced into society through different political processes in the latter part of the twentieth century, following an increased scientific focus on the value of specie preservation and biodiversity (Richardsen 2014, Stokland 2014). This has been the source of an ongoing conflict surrounding the carnivores place within Norwegian society. Especially, how to create a viable social structure based on the co-existence of carnivores and grazing industry in the Norwegian outfield has been the center of the conflict in later years. The thesis treats the active value construction of lynx in Norwegian carnivore management by studying several political processes known as the carnivore settlements, through a document analysis of several policy documents documenting these processes. Valuation practices may refer to the active production of values in relation to something, an object or entity, with which it is ascribed. This is a social process, and as such, values must be studied in relation to both the object/entity of study as well as the social reality they create. The thesis looks at the political valuation processes of the lynx and the subsequent effects the enactment of these has on the social and physical reality it inhabits. Following Asdal s (2015b) argument, Paperwork does not simply describe an external reality out there : Documents also take part in working upon, modifying, and transforming that reality (p. 74), the thesis follows a practice-oriented approach, looking at how the frames presented by the settlements very concretely transforms a physical reality, and in turn transform the issue itself. The results of this exploration show that the natural reality of Norwegian outfield is settled in very concrete ways as the result of the values enacted on it in treating the lynx as a member of society. However, this is a continuous process of modification, and although the system on which it is built is settled within the bureaucratic machinery of Norway, the frames for how it is performed continue to shift. In large part due to the lynx itself.