Paparazzi Ethnography

10/22: I headed back to Kafe Oslo to complete these notes, taking stock of the estate sized homes along Embassy Row, directly behind the King’s Palace.

I could not help thinking in detail about my exchange this morning with Tom von Nikolaus, having just taken place in a cafe near the American Embassy, a section of Oslo I am familiar with from my August visit to the Fulbright orientation at the Nobel Institute.

My assistant Annamots, refers to him as “The Oil and Gas Man“.

To me, Tom von Nikolaus is the Dick Cavett of Norway’s Oil and Gas Industry, thoroughly networked, and at the same time, standing as front man for its high-end ritualized appointments.

For the reader, I call him Tomvon.

Tomvon was my first informant on Norwegian oil and gas issues, having first met him summer 2010. Agreeing to meet over coffee, I introduced my conception of knowledge flows and actors on Barents Sea Shtokman development.

With maturity, humor, and thoughtfulness — Tomvon instructed me on several research aspects.

In particular, there is a need to consider the role of oil and gas majors in employing independent experts to justify developments that might prove delicate if presented as in-house social relations campaigns.


During our next meeting, I accepted his invitation to attend the prestigious Scandinavian Energy Forum (another pseudonym), wherein I mingled with heavies of Western European industry and finance.

With several I have established agreeable relations, in London for example, with former CEO of Amerada Hess, philosopher-capitalist, Francis Gugen.


Tomvon —

alongside several others from Norwegian social life who straddle the higher lattices of government and industry —


including Norway’s Consular General in Houston, Jostein Mykletun


— provided a letter of support for my US Norwegian Fulbright Award 2012-2013. I thanked him in person over a handshake this morning.

Let me set the stage further:

I had enlisted Annamots to create a thank you letter for the Fulbright award to acknowledge persons providing strong support. It was on the basis of this support — as told to me by Fulbright Officers, in addition to my proposal — that my application entered into the winning circle.

The bar on my application was high. 5 years previously, I received a Fulbright for Canada. Having completed the mandatory hiatus period for re-applying, receiving a second award so close to the first (given there are only two opportunities per career), seemed unlikely.

There is a longer story.

But I learned years ago the importance of a well crafted thank you letter.


As part of my ethnography on Alaska politics serving as volunteer for the Gretchen Guess State House election campaign, we crafted a letter of appreciation to acknowledge financial contributors.

At the time, it seemed to me ridiculous that one letter, replicated to all donors, but signed in the hand of the candidate, could be viewed as anything more than a cynical gesture. And yet, evidence revealed to me the exact contrary, that it remains to be said, when crafted with earnestness — an acknowledgement of thanks is a signature of sincerity.






A final set of points:


I had spent considerable time preparing to meet with Tomvon —

I knew it would be brief — 30 minutes between his travels between Stavanger and Moscow.

I began by noting that U. Tromsø had invited me to establish a research presence in Norway, including support for the Fulbright; an appointment to apply for national and European grants (having submitted four); a teaching course on methods; and establishing partnerships with other academics, e.g., a recent workshop to consider High North futures.

I wanted to follow a step further, to build long term capacity for the University on topics around leadership, decision-making, and expertise related to High North energy, based upon personal connections between academia, industry, government, and experts, but also, stressing the importance of valuing the proprietary nature of exchanges.

My meetings at U. Tromsø last week, taking place with Vice President for Research, Curt Rice (avid supporter also of my Fulbright), and in-house High North Oil and Gas Guru, Peter Arbo, was focused on an Institute for Social Science research, of which I will write more in the future.

Thus, at issue was a request of Tomvon to keep me in the loop of Energy Forums and other meetings; establish introductions with key persons with whom we could create a baseline social network for learning about Norwegian energy development;  and hold internship possibilities in energy knowledge firms.

And this was the context of our discussion as we sat down over two lattes and warm bread buns filled with blue cheese.

Our conversation began with Tomvon’s present trip to Moscow —

on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to be accompanied by a small core of academics in order to engage with government and industry leaders of both Norway and Russia.

“The opening of a new ocean”, as the topic of the Arctic was put to Tomvon by the US State Department this past September, when he visited the United States, along with meetings with the Marine Corp. and other significant US government attachés on this topic.

It came as something of a surprise to me, that he mentioned the names Gunnar Sander and Arild Moe, the former — a professor with whom I had participated in a workshop last week at U. Tromsø, on the topic of High North Futures; the latter — who also provided a support letter for my Fulbright and current Deputy Director of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute — both of whom would accompany Tomvon en route to Moscow today.

After discussion of aims of the trip, and touching on more names, mentioning my visit to China this past March, in response to a point he made about India’s interest in the Arctic, a reminder to a presentation by Shyam Saran, Former Indian Foreign Secretary and Special Envoy for the Indian Prime Minister on Climate Change, from whom we both heard a speech on India’s emerging role in the Arctic at the 2011 Scandinavian Energy Forum, mentioned above


— Tomvon asked what were my intentions?



I responded with the request, “to be included in discussions over The Opening of a New Ocean”.