Law Abiding Citizens

On Popular Support for the Illegal Killing of Wolves

in Nature and Culture
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Olve Krange Senior Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway olve.krange@nina.no

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Erica von Essen Stockholm University, Sweden erica.von.essen@socant.su.se

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Ketil Skogen Senior Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway ketil.skogen@nina.no

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Abstract

Conflicts over wolf management are a stable feature of Norwegian public debate. In some segments of the population, nature management, and especially predator management, have a very low legitimacy. A strong expression of these controversies is the illegal killing of wolves, a practice sufficiently extensive to impact wolf population size. In several studies, the killing of wolves is interpreted as politically motivated resistance/crime of dissent. This study contributes to the research field by examining the support for such illegal actions. We ask if the Norwegian public find such illegal actions to be acceptable or not. Analysis shows that acceptance joins a broader pattern of controversies, expressed by phenomena such as xenophobia, climate change denial, anti-elitism, and low confidence in institutions working to preserve nature.

Contributor Notes

Olve Krange is a sociologist and a senior research fellow at the Norwegian institute for nature research. He has studied conflicts related to land use and conservation for several decades. He has emphasized the interconnectedness of such conflicts and more general patterns of sociocultural and sociopolitical cleavage, not least related to contemporary social change in rural areas. Lately he has brought these perspectives into the study of climate change skepticism and denial. Email: olve.krange@nina.no.

Erica von Essen is an associate professor of Environmental Communication. She works with human-animal relations, particularly problematic or conflictful ones that include wild animals, at Stockholm University's Department of Social Anthropology. Von Essen regularly engages with questions of crime, ethics, aesthetics, resistance, and representations when it comes to human interactions with wildlife. Her current three projects, “License to Cull,” “Challenges Facing Modern Hunting Ethics,” and “Pig non Grata” all deal with aspects of accommodating—or rejecting—animals that are deemed out of place in society, often from the perspective of hunters. Email: erica.von.essen@socant.su.se.

Ketil Skogen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research NINA. He is a sociologist and has studied conflicts related to land use and conservation for several decades. He has emphasized the interconnectedness of such conflicts and more general patterns of sociocultural cleavage, not least related to contemporary social change in rural areas. Skogen has published widely and has collaborated extensively in interdisciplinary projects with ecologists. Email: ketil.skogen@nina.no.

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