ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses place-making and mobility. It commences with a discussion of ritual theory and the relationship between the global and the local between mega-events as civil ritual and the emergent features of a global civil religion. A fear of cultural homogenization is crucial to this emerging global civil religion. The regional centre of Northern Norway, Troms has 62,000 inhabitants. It is the largest Norwegian town north of the Arctic Circle and in terms of educational and cultural facilities it is by far the most developed. In Troms, these forums particularly Nordlys have taken an editorial stance in favour of new and more ambitious place stories. More than any other living statesman, Nelson Mandela embodies such values and, like that of Troms, his is a voice from the margins. Mandela has also been granted a place in the revised proposal for the Olympic Games in Troms 2018, through a Mandela Hall', perhaps even a Mandela skating hall' on Mandela-sletta'.
