Mange politiske mål på få mål jord - ein analyse av partipolitikkens rolle i forvaltinga av norske jordressursar

The point of departure for this thesis is the inconsistency between national goals to conserve farmland, and the local management of this natural resource, which prevents Norway from complying with its national goals. The research question is: What role do party politics play in the management of Norwegian land resources? The state wants a high level of food security, and therefore needs land to be conserved for food production purposes. On the other hand many municipalities are experiencing growth and have needs for houses, industries, public buildings and infrastructure. According to theory on multi-level democracy the state will apply hard governmental tools when there is a conflict between national and local goals. Even though such a conflict exists in this case, I find that local politicians have a relatively large room for manoeuvre in the management of farmland. I expect the parties’ agricultural ideology and municipal ideology to play out in how local politicians manage farmland. By content analysis of the party programs I place the parties along these two cleavages and find that the political parties do differ considerably on how strongly agricultural property should be regulated, and how much power should be decentralised on issues concerning land use. Through a survey question on land use in the seventh round of the Norwegian Citizen Panel I further find that respondents differ in the same way as the parties they would vote for along the cleavage of agricultural ideology. Still, regression analysis on farmland conversion in Norwegian municipalities shows that none of the cleavages have a statistically significant effect on the local management of farmland. To find out why this is not the case, I execute a comparative case study of the two municipalities of Spydeberg and Hobøl. They are chosen through a Most Similar Systems Design as they are equal in every geographic and demographic respect, but they converted a very different amount of farmland in the four-year-period before and after 2011. Both also experienced a change in party leadership in 2011, and therefore reflect the apparent lacking party effect on local management of farmland. By interviewing politicians and others working with farmland conversion, I find that most of them consider party politics to be very important locally, even though it is not reflected in how much farmland that is actually converted. The main finding of the thesis is that conservation of farmland is weighted in a local context, not in a party political one

Jordressursar under press:

Artikkelen tar utgangspunkt i gapet som eksisterer mellom nasjonale jordvernmål og den lokale forvaltinga av jordressursar i Noreg. Teori om fleirnivådemokrati seier at styringa frå staten si side vil vera hard når dei nasjonale og dei lokale måla er i konflikt. Sjølv om måla her er i konflikt, finn me at lokalpolitikarane har eit stort lokalt handlingsrom i arealpolitikken. Problemstillinga for artikkelen er: Kva rolle spelar partipolitikk i lokal forvalting av norske jordressursar? Dette undersøker me ved å fyrst kartleggja partia sin jorbruksideologi på nasjonalt nivå, for deretter å sjå om denne nasjonale konfliktlinja påverkar den lokale forvaltninga av jordressursar der jordvernet står mot omsynet til private eigedomsrettar. Ein innhaldsanalyse av partiprogramma viser at det er stor usemje mellom partia langs denne konfliktlinja. Gjennom regresjonsanalysar av omdisponeringa i norske kommunar, finn me likevel ingen statistisk signifikant effekt av partipolitikk på forvaltinga av jordressursar lokalt. For å finna ut kvifor, utfører me ein komparativ casestudie av Spydeberg og Hobøl. Dei to kommunane er valde ut frå eit Most Similar Systems Design. Gjennom intervju med lokalpolitikarar og andre som jobbar med jordvern, finn me at partipolitikken også lokalt vert oppfatta å vera viktig i jordvernspørsmål. Likevel er det ei rekke lokalspesifikke årsaker til at omdisponering av dyrka jord skjer uavhengig av kva som står i partiprogrammet til partia som sit med makta. Hovudfunnet er at jordvernet vert vekta i ein lokal kontekst, ikkje ein partipolitisk. I så måte vil synleggjering av matjorda som eit kollektivt gode i lokalsamfunnet kunne styrka jordvernet

Rhinoviruses

Picornaviruses, which include the human rhinoviruses (HRVs) and enteroviruses (EVs), are the most frequent cause of acute human illness worldwide. HRVs are the most prevalent cause of acute respiratory tract illnesses (ARIs) which usually commence in the upper respiratory tract (URT). ARIs are the leading cause of morbidity in children under 5 years and occur in all seasons. ARIs linked to HRV infections are associated with excessive and perhaps inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and with significant direct and indirect healthcare expenditure. ARI incidence is highest in the first 2 years of life, with up to thirteen episodes per year including up to six positive for an HRV, and it is not uncommon to average one infection per child-month