A Sense of Place: Creating Local Identity in a Superdiverse Suburb

Lecture by Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen (University of Oslo). The lecture examines ways in which local identity is being built, consciously and otherwise, in a suburb of Oslo.

Some communities look backward for their collective identity, while others look ahead. Furuset, one of many suburbs built in eastern Oslo from the 1960s to the 1980s, belongs to the latter category.

Its inhabitants have backgrounds from many countries; some have lived in Oslo all their lives, while others arrived last month. The mobility and flux of the community is a continuous feature both in the long and the short term, and creating a sense of belonging and local identification is hard work.

Everyone is welcome!