Proximity and distance in a northern Värmland forest landscape : A study of practices and meanings in new time-space contexts

This thesis examines the contemporary forest landscape of northern Värmland in Sweden in terms of practices, meanings and time-space relations. The increasing urbanization worldwide also affects the countryside landscape to produce what is generally referred to as “new ruralities”, which are the result of changed conditions for livelihood and leisure. What does the concept new ruralities mean in relation to the sparsely populated forest landscape of northern Värmland, Sweden? The thesis adopts a relational approach to landscape, which means that landscape entails and forms relations between the material, the immaterial, and the human. Landscapes stretches out in time and space, which means that they rests on and progresses from layers of earlier and contemporary activities. Landscape practices and meanings are therefore important for understanding changes as well as continuities in the context of new ruralities. Inspired by the Heideggerian basic assumption about dwelling the thesis methodologically draws on phenomenology, but also on ethnography to clarify the relation between the individual and the society. Interviews, field studies and participant observations with special focus on the settlement, community engagement, and forest and hunting were conducted in four parishes in northern Värmland. Proximity and distance turn out to be the common denominators in the meanings of the forest landscape that emerge from the study, but attention is also clearly drawn to the problems of depopulation, changing social relations, and the tension between the private and the common good. The new ruralities of the northern Värmland forest landscape seem to rest on the tension between flow and fixity, between change and continuity, as traditional practices are performed with new meanings and extended time-space relations.I den här avhandlingen studeras det samtida nordvärmländska skogslandskapet och nya ruraliteter utifrån praktiker, betydelser och tidsrumsliga sammanhang. I takt med en tilltagande urbanisering i Sverige och världen uppstår nya relationer till och inom landsbygder som har sin grund i förändrade betingelser för försörjning och fritid, något som brukar beskrivas som nya ruraliteter. Vad innebär då nya ruraliteter i det glesbebyggda nordvärmländska skogslandskapet? Vilka praktiker, upplevelser och betydelser framträder i fast- och fritidsboendes relationer till det individuella, skogen och det kollektiva, och hur kan dessa förstås i förhållande till tidsrumsliga sammanhang? I avhandlingen behandlas särskilt praktiker knutna till det egna boendet och fastigheten samt jakten och jaktmarkerna. Närhet och avstånd visar sig vara gemensamma nämnare för vad som ger skogslandskapet betydelser, men rymmer såväl möjligheter som svårigheter. Frihet, gleshet och oberoende framträder som positiva upplevelser bland intervjuade i studien, men uppenbarar samtidigt en avfolkningsproblematik, förändrade sociala relationer och spänningsfält mellan det privata och det gemensamma. Nya ruraliteter i det nordvärmländska skogslandskapet syns vila i skärningsfältet mellan bevarande och förändring.