Eco-philosopher and community activist Per Ingvar Haukeland is the co-author, with Arne Naess, of the Norwegian bestseller Livsfilosofi, (published in English in 2002 with the title “Life’s Philosophy: Reason and Feeling in a Deeper World” ). He is a researcher at the Center for Nature and Culture-based Innovation at Telemark Research Institute, and an associate professor at the College of Telemark in Bø, Norway. Haukeland collaborated closely with philosopher Arne Naess (founder of deep ecology) from 1990 until Arne’s death in 2009, teaching in tandem with Naess in Norway and abroad.
Per Ingvar holds a Masters in education from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in ecological education, rural community economic development and green entrepreneurship. In 2003 Per Ingvar published a book about the Norwegian healer and visionary, Marcello Haugen (1878-1967). His own research and activism is concerned with small communities in the rural periphery of Norway. In such communities, Per Ingvar and his colleagues work to revitalize the intimate reciprocity between culture and the living land by reviving place-based farming and forestry traditions, renewing traditional storytelling and traditional handicrafts like ski-making, and integrating the management of both private and collective goods.
Per Ingvar is currently writing an introduction to ecosophy and the deep ecology movement. He is also editing a book titled The Cultural Landscape, which explores a global-local (or “glocal”) alternative for rural development, an approach grounded in the ecology of place, bringing tradition and innovation together in new forms of bioregional living while accentuating international solidarity.
Haukeland is what he calls an Earth Quaker, a longtime member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Norway, where he strives to recognize and celebrate the inner light of all beings, including the Earth herself. He lives at the foot of Lifjell mountain in rural Telemark with his wife, two children, and two Alaskan huskies.