“The Coast” as an affective chronotope

This article develops the concept of affective chronotope, as a synthesis of rhetorical topos, affect heuristics, and place-based argumentation, to examine how configurations of time, place, and affect shape political debate. Empirically, we analyze the 2023 Norwegian parliamentary debate on a proposed ground-rent tax on the profitable salmon farming industry, where representatives on both sides repeatedly anchored fiscal and technical arguments in The Coast. Drawing on rhetorical criticism of the debate transcript and video recordings, we identify 132 text fragments invoking a coastal topos and assess them through three criteria: proximity, concreteness, and intensity. The analysis shows how the affective chronotope constituted proximity to The Coast as a source of expertise, forged an unlikely alliance between blue-collar workers and billionaire owners, and sidelined environmental concerns by naturalizing a growth-oriented rationale. In shifting the premise from public welfare to place-based privilege—from commons to commodity—the affective chronotope proved a strategic mobilizing force. We argue that the framework offers a more nuanced account of place-based arguments and their affective and temporal entanglements in political rhetoric.