Kirsti Gurholt

Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH) · Physical Education and Pedagogy

This article explores multilevel governance networking and innovation to better understand how nature-based public health can be promoted at a grassroot level within an urban context. Hence, the leading research question examines the extent of networking and collaboration within state and municipal policymaking and the implementation of socially in...

This study reviews the research literature on blue health promotion and the value of multiple forms of coastal and marine recreation and activities across societal contexts, with contributions from the Nordic region. It re-emphasizes the need for interrogating whose benefits and interests are promoted and the diversity of physical cultures and acti...

Analyses discourses on female education and the role of "women's gymnastics", dance and "PE for girls" between 1945 and 1955. A Norwegian case analysis. Published in the journal Moving Bodies, edited by Matti Goksøyr and Lars Tore Rongland, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

There is a tendency in European education policy to emphasise more and better deliberate learning outcomes. The tendency is criticised for taking an instrumental view of education [Biesta, G. (2010). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy. Routledge,; van Manen, M. (2008). Pedagogical sensitivity and teachers practical...

Lek i og med natur utgjør en stor del av mange barnehagers didaktiske praksis og blir i mange tilfeller legitimert som motorisk utvikling og risikolek. I vår forskning har vi observert og analysert barns selvstyrte lek i natur. Vi argumenterer for at barn skaper forståelser om seg selv og sine omgivelser mens de leker i natur. Lenke til publikasjo...

This paper aims to explore interconnections of outdoor activities and subjective wellbeing by investigating sea-kayaking, dynamic forms of vitality, salutogenesis and Integrated Quality of Life (IQOL). The research was participatory and based on in-depth qualitative interviews, during and after a seven-day sea-kayaking journey. It took place in the...

Rapporten Studie av friluftsliv blant barn og unge i Oslo er resultatet av et forskningsprosjekt som Norges idrettshøgskole (NIH) har utført på oppdrag for Oslo kommune ved Bymiljøetaten. Studien er en bestilling fra Byrådsavdelingen for miljø og samferdsel og en oppfølging av tiltak i Oslo kommunes Behovsplan for idrett og friluftsliv 2019–2028. P...

This is an unusual article in that it brings together the perspectives of many on this journal’s editorial board, around the issue of contending with COVID-19. Twenty statements showcase a range of thoughts and experiences, highlighting the differences and similarities in the way the pandemic is impacting on the educational practice of outdoor and...

This is an unusual article in that it brings together the perspectives of many on this journal’s editorial board, around the issue of contending with COVID-19. Twenty statements showcase a range of thoughts and experiences, highlighting the differences and similarities in the way the pandemic is impacting on the educational practice of outdoor and...

How should contemporary societies promote both physical activity in nature and preservation of the natural environment? Friluftsliv [outdoor life] occupies a central and contested position on this question in all of the Nordic countries. In Norway, a 1957 Act of Parliament took a major step in the promotion of friluftsliv by guaranteeing free publi...

This chapter investigates and discusses the idea of a shared Nordic model of outdoor physical culture, a passion for nature – known in the Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and to international communities as friluftsliv (lit. ‘free-air life’). By introducing critical eco-cultural and eco-philosophical perspectives, the aim is to r...

For many children living in Northern and mountainous regions, playing in snow is enticing and connotes childhood for many adults. Even so, researchers have paid little attention to children’s play in/with snow and ice. This paper aims to contribute to the growing knowledge on children’s competencies and child-nature relationships by exploring how a...

This chapter aims to explore the introduction of digital technology and digital narrative methodology in outdoor studies and research as innovative tools to investigate, represent and communicate outdoor fieldwork-pedagogy, landscape perceptions, and adventure practices. Thus, the approach compares the legitimisation of outdoor studies as a scholar...

In ancient and early modern times, Nature was respected as a living organism and personified as a female being, a nurturing and caring mother. According to Max Oelschlaeger (1991: 310) this idea of Magna Mater – of nature as feminine – is nearly as old as self-consciousness itself. The idea persists among archaic peoples today, e.g. it is known as...

The indigenous Sami people have lived in Northern Fennoscandia for thousands of years, and are spread across four countries; Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Russia. A majority live in Finnmark, Norway's northernmost county. Formerly known as Lapland, most Sami today prefer Sapmi as the name of their homeland. Sapmi, however, is no longer only a homegr...

Membership in organized sports is as common in Finnmark as in the rest of Norway. There are large regional differences within the county. In the Saami areas, there are fewer sports club members than in the coastal and fjord areas. Football and skiing are the largest sports among both the Saami and the Norwegian populations. In 1980-1981, a separate...

How should contemporary societies promote physical activities in and preservation of nature? In the Nordic countries, friluftsliv, meaning outdoor life, holds a central, contested and symbolic position in this regard. In Norway, an Act of Parliament in 1957 protected a friluftsliv expressing the democratic principle of free public access to all unc...

The article describes the overall objective of the implementation of an international master in Nordic Friluftsliv, NORFRI (Nordic Outdoor stduies) to facilitate a multi-disciplinary, cross-border and high-academicquality learning environment for students. The relevance of NOFRI is found in need to address the rapid environmental, climatic and soci...

Aktive liv er en atologi med 14 bidrag skrevet av forskere med tilknytning til Norges idrettshøgskole. Boka henvender seg til studenter i kroppsøving, idrett, lek, dans og friluftsliv og til lærere opptatt av fysisk fostring, kroppsøving og idrett i skolen, og hva idrett og andre former for bevegelseskultur betyr for formingen av barns og unges liv...

Gurholt in this Chapter provides a gendered ecocultural and ecocritical analysis of the alluring notion of natural intimacy between “child and nature”. In children’s literature, as in Western culture at large, a link between male enculturation and explorations of wild landscapes is a firm trend. Applying a combined narrative/discourse methodology G...

On 15 June 2013, Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway opened a marked mountain trail in the Lofoten Archipelago, near the Arctic Circle. Its inauguration was part of the Norwegian National Jubilee of Women’s Right to Vote (1913–2013). This chapter examines the connection between a remote hiking trail in northern Norway and the women’s suffrage movemen...

An international two-year Erasmus Mundus MA, Transcultural European Outdoor Studies (TEOS), uses the journey as a central metaphorical concept, the “peregrinatio academica”, and experiential pedagogy. Students study human nature interactions through the lens of outdoor education and recreation while travelling for a semester at a time in three Euro...

How should contemporary societies promote physical activity in nature and preservation of the natural environment? Outdoor life occupies a central and contested position on this question in the Nordic countries. In Norway, a 1957 Act of Parliament took a major step by guaranteeing free public access to both public and private uncultivated land. Thi...

This article discusses my experiences as an ethnographer in a `wilderness' community located in far northern Norway. The main aim of the fieldwork was to study how the ideologies, practices and experiences of outdoor life structured relationships between women and men and how this, in turn, affected ideologies of gender. I analyse the relationships...

This article explores the concept of ‘curious play’ as a theoretical framework to understand and communicate children’s experiences of free play in nature. The concept emerged interactively from three sources of inspiration: an ethnographically inspired study of children playing in nature; as a critique of the concept of ‘risky play’ being the domi...

Naturkontakt, naturerfaringer og naturopplevelser (ferdsel og opphold i natur), omtalt som friluftslek, utflukter, skolehage, leirskole, turer, idrettsaktiviteter, ekskursjoner og undervisning i det fri har vært en del av skolens virksomhet siden begynnelsen av 1900-tallet. Med Mønsterplanen 1974 blir begrepet friluftsliv mer synlig i skolens lærep...

Autobiographies of prominent environmentalists describe that their early lives have been rich in personal experiences of nature. The early childhood experiences of philosopher and climber Arne Næss (1912–2009) inspired the development of deep ecology philosophy, which markedly influenced the emergence of Norwegian friluftsliv (literally: free-air l...

Children's outdoor play and experience with nature, or the lack thereof, have gained increased attention among researchers in Western countries. To understand the attraction of nature in children, one dominant discourse is expressed by the concept of risky play. By employing a phenomenologicalhermeneutic approach and a triple- angled methodology co...

Lov om naturområder i Oslo og nærliggende kommuner (markaloven) trådte i kraft 1. september 2009. Med dette har Norge fått sin første lov som verner et naturområde begrunnet i menneskers behov for rekreativ livsutfoldelse. Lovforslaget, odelstingsproposisjonen, som miljøvernminister Erik Solheim legger frem som «en gave til Oslofolk» i desember 200...

A juridical law (markaloven) preserving the surrounding forests of Norway's capital city was initiated September 2009, with the intention to encourage and accommodate outdoor recreation, aesthetical experiences of nature and sports. When the law was presented for public hearing the environmental minister named it a gift to Oslo's citizens. An oppos...

This paper exams the largely under-researched spheres of educational and adventurous activities occurring in 'nature' in UK and Norway. Whilst the broad areas of outdoor adventure education, friluftsliv (Norwegian open air life/life in nature) and nature-based sports are, to varying degrees, considered to be culturally, socially and environmentally...

Norwegian friluftsliv or outdoor life is often identified as a ‘simple way of life’ and as exemplary of green life-philosophy and environmental practices. This article argues that friluftsliv rather must be conceptualized as a complex social phenomenon and an example of long-standing Western discourse linking ideas of nature, gender, and education....

1993 var Friluftslivets år i Norge. Denne markeringen av friluftslivets betydning i norsk kultur og hverdagsliv falt sammen med feiringen av Den norske turistforenings 125 års jubileum. Det sammenfallet er ikke tilfeldig. Den norske turistforening og utviklingen av fjellturismen som denne foreningen har fremmet er knyttet til sterke symboler på nor...

Abstract 1993 var Friluftslivets år i Norge. Denne markeringen av friluftslivets betydning i norsk kultur og hverdagsliv falt sammen med feiringen av Den norske turistforenings 125 års jubileum. Det sammenfallet er ikke tilfeldig. Den norske turistforening og utviklingen av fjellturismen som denne foreningen har fremmet er knyttet til sterke symbol...