So 'the Science™' claims, with researchers blowing 150K on a study that had no results (publications) other than a fawning legacy media piece that contradicts the project's premises
I could write that report for 1/10 the pay. Not that living in the country-side here means less social interaction than in a city. In reality, and it's the same in Norway I'm sure, there's more of it in the country than in the city.
Difference is, out here it means something real. Chatting for five minutes with your Über-driver or Foodora-delivery migrant isn't really much of social interaction: talking to someone from the same village or area is, because the information exchanged is much more personal and important.
Plus out in the boonies, it's up to the newcomer to prove he or she is someone others want to associate with. Make a nuisance out of yourself, or be snobbish and rude and snooty and you'll be immediately ostracised, in a quiet and polite manner.
But a journo/researcher living in the mental Ivory Tower of Babble so common to that class today, might not be able to understand or feel their way to the way things are in the countryside.
Of course you could do that; remember, this is extra 'project' funding, which came on top of Prof. Meyer's regular professorial salary. (Technically, these funds cannot be used for anything that smacks of salaries, so it was spent on something else.) There was apparently a questionnaire, which was 'analysed' or something; and the two authors went to a workshop or two. 150K for 18 months, no publications, a nice to have slush fund for experts™. The point, I'd argue, isn't that you or I or anyone else could have written that report for a fraction of the money; the question is--why was that funded?
As to living in the countryside, well, here are my 2 cents (or øre, if you prefer): I've never had so many conversations with my neighbours or people in the municipality (small town, pop. around 2,200, if you count the outlying hamlets) I live in in my life; sure, if you live in, say, NYC (which I did for a few months in 2018), you have a lot of small conversations, but that's it; when my farming equipment needs a mechanic (as my sickle bar mower did last autumn), I can ask my next-door neighbour who is a mechanic and he'll help me out. Try that in the city.
As to the newcomer thing, well, we moved here in spring 2022, and people were like, we'll see how long these last (the previous two owners of our farmstead stayed for about a year each), but once we started cleaning up, owning livestock, and renovating the house, attitudes changed quickly; they further improved once the neighbours--really: everybody--saw us setting up a greenhouse, making hay, and putting up a chicken coop. And, yes, there's always this kind of 'distance', or 'reservation' as I'm a 'university professor', but our neighbours also see me doing a lot of not very professorial work, hence I think we're kinda quite alright.
As to the 'journo™/researcher™' who leaves his reservation--which, I think, you allude to with your 'mental Ivory Tower'--is utterly lost out here. Sometimes city people come, mainly in summer, to cosplay outdoor life and go hiking here while we're outside working. Of course, they have no idea, because to them, this is all totally alien, almost like ancient history, and, of course, everybody who does so is retrograde, backwards, and, as Hillary Clinton intimated, 'deplorable'.
I could write that report for 1/10 the pay. Not that living in the country-side here means less social interaction than in a city. In reality, and it's the same in Norway I'm sure, there's more of it in the country than in the city.
Difference is, out here it means something real. Chatting for five minutes with your Über-driver or Foodora-delivery migrant isn't really much of social interaction: talking to someone from the same village or area is, because the information exchanged is much more personal and important.
Plus out in the boonies, it's up to the newcomer to prove he or she is someone others want to associate with. Make a nuisance out of yourself, or be snobbish and rude and snooty and you'll be immediately ostracised, in a quiet and polite manner.
But a journo/researcher living in the mental Ivory Tower of Babble so common to that class today, might not be able to understand or feel their way to the way things are in the countryside.
Of course you could do that; remember, this is extra 'project' funding, which came on top of Prof. Meyer's regular professorial salary. (Technically, these funds cannot be used for anything that smacks of salaries, so it was spent on something else.) There was apparently a questionnaire, which was 'analysed' or something; and the two authors went to a workshop or two. 150K for 18 months, no publications, a nice to have slush fund for experts™. The point, I'd argue, isn't that you or I or anyone else could have written that report for a fraction of the money; the question is--why was that funded?
As to living in the countryside, well, here are my 2 cents (or øre, if you prefer): I've never had so many conversations with my neighbours or people in the municipality (small town, pop. around 2,200, if you count the outlying hamlets) I live in in my life; sure, if you live in, say, NYC (which I did for a few months in 2018), you have a lot of small conversations, but that's it; when my farming equipment needs a mechanic (as my sickle bar mower did last autumn), I can ask my next-door neighbour who is a mechanic and he'll help me out. Try that in the city.
As to the newcomer thing, well, we moved here in spring 2022, and people were like, we'll see how long these last (the previous two owners of our farmstead stayed for about a year each), but once we started cleaning up, owning livestock, and renovating the house, attitudes changed quickly; they further improved once the neighbours--really: everybody--saw us setting up a greenhouse, making hay, and putting up a chicken coop. And, yes, there's always this kind of 'distance', or 'reservation' as I'm a 'university professor', but our neighbours also see me doing a lot of not very professorial work, hence I think we're kinda quite alright.
As to the 'journo™/researcher™' who leaves his reservation--which, I think, you allude to with your 'mental Ivory Tower'--is utterly lost out here. Sometimes city people come, mainly in summer, to cosplay outdoor life and go hiking here while we're outside working. Of course, they have no idea, because to them, this is all totally alien, almost like ancient history, and, of course, everybody who does so is retrograde, backwards, and, as Hillary Clinton intimated, 'deplorable'.
Having Michelin key rated meals had to be expensive when delivered. But taxpayers got their money's worth I am so totally sure.
Well, it's a scam on top of massive grift-freeloading for well-connected players, and everyone else got shafted. Call me surprised (not).