Paper short abstract

In Norway, there is a renewed interest in moving to abandoned rural smallholdings reflecting a desire to escape urban pressures, seek digital detox, and reconnect with nature. This paper explores how such rural ‘peripheries’ gain value and emerge as new centers of longing and meaningful living.

Paper long abstract

In Norway, a country of rugged landscapes, smallholdings (small farms) have historically formed the backbone of the national settlement pattern and played a major role in shaping ‘the Norwegian model’ of dispersed settlement. While 90 per cent of the Norwegian population lived in rural areas of this kind in 1835, today around 80 per cent live in cities, and more than 30,000 smallholdings are abandoned. In late modern Norway, however, there is a renewed interest among young adults in returning to rural smallholdings. This interest is typically driven by desires to escape urban pressures and digital stress, to be closer to nature, to gain a greater sense of autonomy, and to do meaningful physical work. The trend is reflected in the popularity of social media accounts documenting the refurbishment of abandoned smallholdings—which often attract (hundreds of) thousands of followers. For over a decade, ‘smallholding’ has also been one of the most frequently searched terms on Norway’s dominant online marketplace, Finn.no. Similarly, the long running TV series Where No One Would Believe Anyone Could Live (2002–), which showcases people living in remote places, remains one of the national broadcaster NRK’s most-watched programmes. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in rural and urban Norway in 2020–2026, this paper examines how the return to rural smallholdings—seen by some as the epitome of the periphery—has become the central site of longing and a meaningful way of life for others.