About Luise Noring

Luise Noring is a Danish citizen who has spent more than fifteen years living in different countries across the world, broadening her understanding with people, cultures and languages. When asked why she has spent so many years living and traveling abroad, Noring answers, “Curiosity.” In fact, curiosity best captures her pursuit of knowledge that has guided her entire life.

In her previous careers, Noring was an academic scholar of city finance and governance supported by a Ph.D. in supply chain management. She ran her own international consultancy company counting numerous cities as clients. The book draws on in-depth research knowledge and practical experience with the people, countries, and cultures of the world. Through travel and career, Noring has gained an intimate knowledge of cities — their layers, their secrets, their propensity for human suffering.

Timeline

Country of Residence     Employment     Education     Advisory Board Position     Publication

2025

2016

2015

2014

2012

2011

2007

2003

2001

2000

1999

1997

1994

1992

1989

1987

One key element of my life trajectory that is unique and strongly impacts the book is my extensive travel and living aboard. I have spent 15 years in many European countries, in Latin America, and (for a short time) in the US. I began traveling with my parents at a very young age, and have since seen Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. I usually travel alone.

When I look back, I realize that I have always been profoundly curious and unafraid of trying new things and of going to new places. I have an inborn faith in myself as well as in other people. I think that the key to travel and living aboard is to observe, to mimic and to try to blend in. And never neglect to take care of yourself. There is a time and a place for everything. My international experiences have granted me a broad perspective on the world and its people. I also have a long career as a researcher and consultant. I am analytical and spend a lot of time trying to figure stuff out. Trying to connect the dots. Make sense of things. Make sense of life.

At this stage of my life—having lived abroad for multiple years—I am reflecting on societal and cultural differences. The book draws from my own experiences. Many ways, the first book is quite autobiographical: I relate strongly to the storyteller. She has flashbacks of her life before the war. In this way, connections are made between today and the world at war. Her daughters and other characters in the book are also inspirations from my world. Nevertheless, the further into the book we move, the more the story becomes pure fiction. Pure imagination. The story takes on its own life. I think it is a strength that the book in anchored in our time and reality, and then moves from this reality into an imagined future. By rooting this future in current near-reality, the future becomes more real. More tangible.

 

I have already written the second book in the trilogy, which is not based on my life at all. I think that I needed to bring life to all my own personal experiences and reflections before being able to proceed with pure fiction. I also have a crime story up my sleeve, which is not autobiographical in the least.

I have spent years researching and writing as an academic. Mainly lengthy reports, studies, and articles. My current writing uses the medium of the novel to capture the complexities of modern life, including intrusive technology, continuous global conflict, loss of privacy, and loss of community. After years in academia, I have increasingly come to believe that these complexities are best acknowledged, comprehended, and shared through imaginative fiction. Going Places teases out a future that can seem daunting and even dystopian at times. But it also holds a promise for a new reality, in which resilient and highly adaptive people find a new way forward.

It is about a mature woman and her twin daughters, and how they navigate through the Third World War. The circumstances are undeniably harsh, but there is a core strength of love in their relationship. Our ability as humans to not just survive but to also successfully adapt to a new reality on earth is inspiring. I believe that a Third World War is a realistic possibility. It is not something I go around wishing for. Obviously. But I think, it would be wrong to stick our heads in the sand and act as if it is not a real threat. The book tries to map out why the war started and how it plays out. I am also very interested in understanding how humans navigate such a war and how they live post-war. Creating new societies. Growing families and building new futures.

I would like to start a global dialogue on the different options that will be available to us in the near future. I believe that we all want the same things. We want to find love, to give and receive love among our family and friends. If you travel the world like I have, you realize how very alike we all are. Yet, political, technological, and economic forces are disrupting everybody’s lives without considering the consequences to humanity and our planet. There is a dark side to humanity. One that is driven by greed and fear.

 

I ask myself: why are we all running so fast to amass wealth and status? For what? What will an “extra something” give you in terms of real quality of life? In our part of the world, we are shamed for not working ourselves to the bones. How often do you ask someone how they are, only to hear, “I am so busy!” As if being busy deserves a medal. And then we are surprised that we are riddled with illnesses caused by our unhealthy lifestyles! Because we are so busy running around, we lose ourselves. How about enjoying life? We have to ask ourselves why it is that the wealthier we become, the more lifestyle illnesses we get, including a lot of mental illnesses.

Geopolitical tension

Our propensity and readiness to use bombs to solve conflict. And the mass migration that follows because of war. In Europe, we feel the consequences of war (that is, mass migration) more than in the US. War and mass migration are major themes that permeate the book. There is also the remoteness of war. We drone drop bombs somewhere far away, where we have never been. Killing civilians without consequences. We can sit in our warm and safe homes, while wreaking havoc to unknowing people in some faraway country. But mass migration is the tangible outcome of intangible wars.

 

In the book, online communities constitute the factions on the ground. The factions use their online platforms to coordinate their communities and wars. The problem is that, with time, the algorithms take on a life of their own. With time, the algorithms become the masters of human beings. Technology takes over. This might be unintentional but is, I think, inevitable.

 

Online presence

There is a fragmentation of people, ideas, ideologies and so on that is rooted in everybody everyone’s being connected globally but (at the same time) disconnected locally. People are able to connect with people across the world that share their preferences, ideas, politics, etc. The individual thus becomes the center of his or her own universe, which further undermines traditional ways of organizing societies.

 

Life has taken on a new online dimension that impacts all of us. There is a disorientation on a massive scale. It is the age of anxiety, as the world with all its complexity and uncertainty is brought to your doorstep. People try to control the small things that are within their grasp to avoid tackling the big things, such as extreme poverty, wars, terror, religious extremism, climate, etc. Half the world’s population is living on a dollar a day.

 

Global north / global south

I think that for a lot of people from northern regions—young and old alike—the world is incomprehensible. It is chaotic. So, we try to control things that are very personal. Maybe we even focus on these things exclusively in order to avoid having to confront the big, disruptive changes in the world. Online connectivity helps us become hyper-individualized. Nevertheless, focusing on the very personal may make the world even more complex.

 

Life in the global north is characterized by complexity and anxiety. Everything is up for debate. Your sexuality, politics, ideologies, religions, history, and so on. Everything is debated again and again. I am not saying this is wrong. But the constant questioning and analysis of this new kind “me” generation lead to complexity and anxiety. Thus, we see a massive rise of these people taking anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medications and other pharmaceuticals.

 

The situation in the global south is characterized by survival in a turbulent world. The stakes are higher in the global south because survival alone is their primary concern: war, famine, access to clean water, to health car, and to a decent education.  Life is about the basics. There is little time for questioning and debating.

 

In short, the global north is focused on “self” and the global south is focused on survival.

 

The question is, then, which type of youngster or adult is best equipped to survive a Third World War? I believe that a Third World War will shift geopolitics powers. In some ways, it will force us to reset the global power balance. After the Third World War, we must start the “game” from scratch, maybe on a levelled playing field that does not distinguish between nationality, race, religion, and so on. In the book, new societies emerge that are not based on nation-states, nationality, race, religion and so on. Fighting persists along faction-lines. No one is bounded by the physical borders.