The Other Village
Narvik, Norway (wikipedia)
I’m currently reading Managed by Markets: How Finance Reshaped America about which I’ll offer substantive comments later. One thing I will note is that the book contains several different references to “Norwegian villagers” losing money in the great Panic of 2007–2008. The reference is to the Terra Securities Scandal in which several town pension funds, including Narvik, in Norway lost money in speculative hedge fund investments. The rhetorical force of the term “villagers” seems to me to be a bit curious in this context. Narvik is a small town (population 18,000) and fairly isolated, but we never refer to anyone in the United States as a “villager” no matter where they live. Senator Susan Collins, for example, is from Caribou, Maine which is an even smaller town (population 8,000) and I’d say just about as isolated.
The reason is that “villager” carries with it a certain connotation of primitivism. But Norway’s per capita GDP is higher than the United States’ — either a bit higher if you use PPP or much higher if you use current exchange rates. They perennial rank at the very top of the UN’s Human Development Index. They have the world’s highest proportion of college graduates. Narvik itself contains a college with 1,200 students.
39 Responses to “The Other Village”
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July 12th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
we never refer to anyone in the United States as a “villager” no matter where they live
You’re kidding, right?
Someone is not aware of all internet traditions?
July 12th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
My sense is that in Europe, “village” is freely used for clusters of homes smaller than what they consider to be “towns” and bigger than what they consider to be “hamlets”, and there is nothing particularly “primitive” in the connotation (other than the standard big city snobbery).
I’m not sure why we don’t use “village” (and thus “villager”) more in the United States, but for whatever reason it seems to have been largely replaced by “small town”. So, for example, it is hard to imagine John Cougar Mellencamp singing, “I was born in a village”, but again I’m not sure why.
July 12th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Village is still a political division in the US, particularly in the North East. I myself am from a village on Long Island. In fact, in Suffolk County alone there are at least 32 incorporated villages spread out among the 10 townships including Montauk, Sag Harbor and the famous Amityville.
Just saying.
July 12th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
The Village People
The village idiot
It takes a village
etc.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I think the term “village” in this context is less about implying being primitive (in the sense of being bavckwards) and more suggesting that a municipality is old with a longer history.
Europe’s municipalities are thought more of as villages because they started hundreds and thousands of years ago, wehn a lot of them were thought of as villages, and this stuck. Most American towns have a much shorter history, and do not therefore have the same association.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Villagers in the primitive sense is exactly how a lot of financial douches regard the public. Witness the CNBC tirades against losers and idiots. Witness Bernie Madoff. Witness the Enron guys laughing it up how they’re screwing Grandma on her electric bill.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
In the US, you can incorporate three trailers and a gas station with a bit of effort. I’ve timed the driving distance between “cities” on various road trips, and one took about 20 seconds to get through.
On the other hand, “fishing village” is a cliché, and DTM is right that “small town” has different connotations. “Port town” or “harbour town” makes more sense.
My sense is that in Europe, “village” is freely used for clusters of homes smaller than what they consider to be “towns” and bigger than what they consider to be “hamlets”
In English geography, what distinguishes a hamlet is that it lacks a church. That goes back to the days of administration based upon parishes. The distinction between towns and villages is often administrative as well, though you’ll often find older areas of Victorian towns given the “Village” moniker, reflecting their original status.
(And American developers do like calling their McMansion subdivisions “Olde Village Pointe” or similar shit.)
July 12th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I’m originally from Skokie, Illinois, the largest village on earth. Or so I was told when I was 7. Skokie, a village, has more than 3 times the population of Navrik, Norway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skokie,_Illinois
Illinois villagers also lost a great deal in the global financial meltdown.
July 12th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Narvik of course was where the allies hit the road in 1940, bigger villages in France were under threat, lessons learned?
Today we move with fewer troops from Baghdad to Helmand, no exit strategy, an existential battle for survival?
July 12th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Narvik’s HiN is a Høgskole (transliterally “high school”), which is not a college as we understand it, but rather more like an applied trade school (and not much of one either, think ITT Tech). I know, my uncle went there.
July 12th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
The only reason the bestial Norwegians are doing so good is because they have oil. They got lucky, that is all.
Oh wait…yes…um hm…yes…I see. I just been informed that the United States has a lot more oil than Norway. In fact, according to the voice in my head, the US apparently had more oil than just about anybody, ever.
This is a dilemma. I still believe -must believe- that Norway is getting lucky. I am going to have to look into this.
July 12th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I get the impression that Matt hasn’t actually lived in a small town. The smallest town I lived in was about 500 people. My neighbors were about at half mile away, and I had enough property to get lost in. Seriously, my dog had to lead me back to my house one night, and I hadn’t left my property. I had so much land that I had no idea what it looked like. I never really found out where the borders really were. And my dog learned a very valuable lesson about horses. Don’t fuck with them, they’re strong. And he learned how to fish, too. I didn’t even know I had a stream on my property until my dog came back with fish guts all over him. And then he comes back with an otter in his mouth. Strangely enough, he didn’t kill it, and he let it go when I told him to do it. I guess I’m really not cut out for Small Town America. But at least I know what it is. It’s kind of freaky. And the bar was really freaky. There’s three people sitting at the bar, and they’ve all been sitting there for at least three decades. And they won’t serve me because they think I’m one of those crazy Cornell educated people. And they were actually right on that, but don’t you want to make some money? Apparently not. I’ll stick to medium sized towns.
July 12th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I was cycling in England once and asked a teenaged boy how to get to the center of town. He thought I wanted directions to London. To me, we were in a small town, but to him, we were in a village – a place with a central business district of shops and offices. Since just about every Norwegian speaks English, of the British variety, I can see how British usage would be picked up by Americans writing about Norway.
July 12th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I don’t think “village” necessarily suggests “primitive”. If Americans are talking about Europe, it suggests Old World, quaint and pretty. Unlike American small towns, which urbanite writers imagine as a Wal-Mart surrounded by trailer parks.
July 12th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Hey fostert, I’m Cornell too! Man, those townies are mean drunks. Between them and the weather, it’s no wonder the suicide rate is so high.
July 12th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I guess I’m really not cut out for Small Town America. But at least I know what it is. It’s kind of freaky. And the bar was really freaky.
Clearly you were living in a bustling metropolis. Listen, buddy, in real small town America the VFW’s the only place that’s got a liquor license.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:21 am
“Listen, buddy, in real small town America the VFW’s the only place that’s got a liquor license.”
Umm dude, this town was way too small for a VFW. You had to go to the great metropolis of Ithaca for that. We just had a guy with a few bottles of whiskey and a keg of Genesee. Not shure if he had a liquor license, but it wasn’t like anyone cared about that.
As an aside, why is the word ’shure’ suddenly a misspelled word? Firefox is obviously useless on spelling. Anyone know of a good plug-in?
July 13th, 2009 at 12:29 am
“Man, those townies are mean drunks.”
Not as mean as me. I may have had a good GPA at Cornell, but I could still out-townie the townies. I may be some kind of Ivy League hipster, but I have a redneck streak a mile wide. Trust me, you better hide your whiskey.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:37 am
“Listen, buddy, in real small town America the VFW’s the only place that’s got a liquor license.”
And if you really want to know what a small town is like, let’s put it this way. If the bar and post office are in separate buildings, it ain’t a small town. Small Town is when the Postmaster is also your Bartender and Mayor. And he’s the guy to go to for your hunting license. If your population exceeds your elevation, you ain’t a small town.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:28 am
And I’d add that if you even have a mayor, you might not be a small town. I lived in a town that was too small to have a mayor. Whatever government functions that might have occured were perfomed by that huge city next to us, Newfield. Newfield had a couple thousand people. And I have no idea what those government functions might have been. I’d say maybe paving roads, but there were no paved roads anyway. The only government function I can think of was the postal service. And that’s federal, and they didn’t even come every day. If he had a hangover, he wasn’t coming.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Colatina in #14 said what I was trying to say in #5.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:44 am
And while my neighbor to the east was a competent person (she taught electrical engineering at Cornell). The next neighbor over was a very different story. He was an old hippie guy who lived in a bus. I’m guessing he made his money growing pot, but that’s the kind of question you don’t ask if you want to live. Needless to say, I didn’t ask. But if that guy ever filed a tax return, I’d be shocked. And the hippie chicks living in tents there probably haven’t filed their tax returns either. Just a guess. This is what real small town America looks like. Some combination of pot growing and moonshine. And guns.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:59 am
fostert
Pot, moonshine and guns. Sounds like my kind of town. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, if it weren’t for weapons, weed, and whiskey, life wouldn’t be worth living.
July 13th, 2009 at 2:25 am
This is a rather thin pretext for Matt to indulge once again his infatuation with Blue-Eyed Utopias.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:18 am
“Pot, moonshine and guns. Sounds like my kind of town.”
Yeah, but you can do it in a medium sized town. I may not have the moonshine, but I’m drinking Woodford Reserve right now. And the pot I’m smoking puts anything from Amsterdam to shame. As for my guns, I have ten. To put it briefly, my AK-47 isn’t the best one. Maybe Boulder ain’t so bad after all.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:36 am
I believe you’re missing the fact, as some others have pointed out, that the book was likely written in British English.
according to the OED:
village: A collection of dwelling-houses and other buildings, forming a centre of habitation in a country district; an inhabited place larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town, or having a simpler organization and administration than the latter
town: In general English use, commonly designating an inhabited place larger and more regularly built than a village, and having more complete and independent local government (esp. one not created a city); applied historically not only to a ‘borough’, i.e. a corporate town, and a ‘city’, a town of higher rank, but also to an ‘urban district’, i.e. a non-corporate town having an ‘urban district council’ with powers of rating, paving, and sanitation more extensive than those possessed by a parish council or the administrative body (where such exists) of a village. Sometimes also applied to small inhabited places below the rank of an ‘urban district’ or its equivalent, which are not distinguishable from villages otherwise, perhaps, than by having a periodical market or fair (‘market town’), or by being historically ‘towns’.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:56 am
I’m not one to denigrate the Oxford dictionary, but even they don’t understand the world very well.
Village: a bunch of dumbfucks who can’t elect a Mayor.
Town: a bunch of dumbfucks who can elect a Mayor.
I’m not sure which is better.
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July 13th, 2009 at 5:53 am
“I’m not one to denigrate the Oxford dictionary, but even they don’t understand the world very well.
Village: a bunch of dumbfucks who can’t elect a Mayor.
Town: a bunch of dumbfucks who can elect a Mayor.”
In England, many towns don’t have mayors. Indeed, until a few years ago, we didn’t have any elected mayors.
July 13th, 2009 at 6:48 am
we never refer to anyone in the United States as a “villager” no matter where they live.
I add my voice to those above and say “Matt, the Northeast is not too far away from DC … you should visit us sometime. We have ‘villages’, although oftentimes ‘village’ here is indeed just a term of art because in the Northeast they don’t call every little place with enough dumbfucks to elect a mayor a town or city”.
Actually, many Indians of my acquaintance will indeed describe small town Americans as “villagers” with the implication of primitiveness. They also will describe the local-yokels as “natives” or “tribals”. Essentially they map the descriptions that they would use in India to equivalent peoples in the US.
The mapping seems to work quite well for them: they oftentimes understand our culture (being that we are both former English colonies) quite well and are confused as to why Yurpeans have such problems with our bureaucracy (one Yurpean I know when we were in grad school had the darndest time trying to get a driver’s license: because you need a license to be insured and insurance to get a license): “I’m from a third world country and can survive here — why can’t those first world Yurpeans”. It’s fun to try and explain to them that the relevent distinction is between English and Continental bureaucracies not first vs. third world ones. Usually references to Monty Python make the point.
Of course, this is why we can’t compare whatever our government run health care will be like to France or Germany: we have DMVs which require you to show proof of insurance to get a license and insurance companies that will only insure licensed drivers. For better or for worse, when the righty-tighties scare us by using the British NHS (which evidently isn’t actually that bad) as their picture of socialized medicine, that is indeed how socialized medicine would look here: for better or for worse (largely for better), our governance is English not Continental.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Americans are never villagers or refugees, even when they are. Also, when buses drive off the road they always ‘plunge.’ there are certain tropes of journalism that must be honored.
July 13th, 2009 at 10:21 am
…we never refer to anyone in the United States as a “villager” no matter where they live.
Rural Alaska, which is part of the United States, is home to thousands of villagers.
July 13th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Americans are never villagers or refugees, even when they are. Also, when buses drive off the road they always ‘plunge.’ there are certain tropes of journalism that must be honored. – Bosch’s Poodle
Let’s not forget the abuse of “embattled”. Or Riverdale (an upper-middle class neighborhood in the Bronx) is always referred to as “a quiet community in the Bronx”) in the NYC area press. Or my favorite: “first annual”:
I actually at one point wrote a news article for my college paper (I was trying to get hired as an opinion writer and the rule was that you had to write for two departments before you could get officially hired). I was given a story about some march to raise awareness for something or other — and I covered it (not well, I admittedly suck as a journalist). One thing was that this march was supposed to be a one-off occurrence (but this was before people started using the phrase one-off, so I didn’t use it in my piece). The editor added (the paper was submitted write before the Sunday publication deadline as the march was on Sat. or some such) “first annual” to the description of the march … which was untrue. When I asked the editor about this, he said “well, if it’s not weekly or monthly, it must be annual — and it’s the first one, so it’s the ‘first annual’ march”.
I’m sure the editor now has a career in journalism. Gotta love the “thinking in tropes” mindset of journos.
The adjectives still drive me crazy though. My junior year in HS English teacher was an old-school journo. She always taught us that good journalistic writing eschews wasted adjectives and flowery speech — there isn’t the room for it in getting out a story in limited column space. So why do I always see in papers unnecessary uses of “quiet community”, “embattled”, etc.?
July 13th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I think anciently the distinction was that villages have a church and towns have a market. Or maybe that distinction was first made in the 1960s.
To look at me you wouldn’t guess that I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Wouldn’t the distinction be that Collins is a wealthy person who lives in Washington, DC, and like many wealthy New Englanders, owns a house in Maine?
I fail to see how this would make her a villager.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I have lived in hamlets, villages, towns, townships, unincorporated counties, cities.
@fostert Oh man, you are prepping me for the HS reunion. I’m sure people will reminisce over old times, including cornfield parties where much Genny was imbibed. No wonder I don’t live there any more. (That was a village, surrounded by towns, which were all combined into a consolidated school district, by the way.)
July 13th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Narvik is the busy port from which the iron ore pellets from Sweden’s rich Kiruna mine leave for shipment around the world.
It is also the turn around port for tour ships, and right now I’m guessing it has 24 hours of daylight.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:07 am
MY is correct. “Villager” suggests “peasant” which suggests “primitive,” “ignorant,” etc.