IT-Fornebu – næringspolitikk og skiftende virkelighetsforståelse[IT-Fornebu – Industrial policy and shifting conceptions of reality]

When it was agreed to move Oslo's main airport North of the city, the area of the previous airport Fornebu - on a peninsula close to the city itself - was freed for alternative uses. Norsk Investorforum (Norwegian Investor Forum) was commissioned by the government entity in charge (Statsbygg) to develop plans for the old airport. In the spirit of Joseph Schumpeter and based on succesful examples from the United States and Europe, Norsk Investorforum recommended the establishment of a combination of an high-tech incubator with a residential community, providing high-skilled jobs that would be able to sustain the high wage levels brought by the national boom in the petroleum sector. However, the project became very controversial: IT Fornebu was discussed in Parliament eleven times. This paper discusses why these plans, at the time a mainstream idea in the West, met so much resistance - both from the the political right and the political left - in the Norwegian setting.