Paper short abstract:

The presentation focus on the international migration of young people to the Westfjords, Iceland; a region previously affected by depopulation. The migration was often mobilized by idea of remoteness, imagined as small, intimate communities, proximity to nature, slow life away from the modern rush.

Paper long abstract:

The presentation builds on data from three-months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Westfjords in the North-West Iceland. The region is often described as one of the most remote parts of the country. It has suffered significant population loss in the last decades, while the share of immigrants in the total population of the region increased. In 2021, 18% of Westfjords inhabitants were of foreign origin compared to 15% in the country generally. In this presentation, we focus on the migration of young people, most of whom came to the Westfjords for the purpose of education. The majority studied at the local university centre that specializes in interdisciplinary sustainable development studies. In recent years, the university centre has become a transnational hub, attracting students from around the world. Although, most of them leave after completing their education, a considerable number prolong their stay. The decision is often motivated by specific qualities ascribed to the Westfjords that commonly signify rural areas – small, intimate communities, proximity to nature, slow life away from the modern rush – attributes typically associated with peripheral and distant communities. Our participants emphasise the unique conditions of the Westfjords that enable them to implement new knowledge and innovative technologies for sustainable development and future preservation of these places, directly addressing the current ecological emergency. Consequently, in migrants’ narratives, the Westfjords’ remoteness is represented simultaneously by notions of authenticity, lives in communion with nature and archaism, as well as ideas of progressive, mobile communities responding to global challenges.

Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the Finnish South Karelia. How do people born in the 1970s remember their previous home region? Which connections do they still have to the place? Has the Covid-19 pandemic had any influence on their possibly multilocal life between the current permanent home and South-Karelia?

Paper long abstract:

The topic of my paper is Multilocal Karelians in the 2020s. After the Second World War a new border crossed the Karelian areas in south-eastern Finland. The Karelian Isthmus and the Ladoga Karelia passed to the Soviet Union, and approximately 400 000 refugees had to be resettled elsewhere in Finland.

My research questions concern, however, Karelians from the region South Karelia, which remained on the Finnish side of the new border. While the lost part of Karelia stayed in memories, this part continued its development together with the rest of Finland, going through the manifold transformations of society.

I am interested in memories and experiences of people born in the 1970s, who spent their childhood and youth years in South Karelia in the 1970s and the 1980s, and who as adults are now living somewhere else, in Finland or abroad. How do they remember the region? Do they as adults identify themselves nowadays as Karelians and how does it manifest?

Additionally, I am interested which connections do the interviewees still have to South Karelia at present. Parents or a summerhouse, for example? Has the Covid-19 pandemic had any influence on they possibly multilocal life between the permanent home and South Karelia? When thinking about the future, could they imagine moving back to South Karelia, and if, under which conditions?

Perhaps the potential returnees, multilocal lifestyle, multiple residences and remote working could bring something positive to the development of South Karelia and the modern Karelian culture in the 2020s.

Paper short abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new interest in the countryside. Statistics afford important information on rural change, but oral history research provides information on people´s everyday lives, experiences, and expectations.

Paper long abstract:

Finland is one of the most rural of the OECD countries. In recent decades, people have moved from the countryside to the cities. The countryside can also be important for urban dwellers. Finland urbanized quite late, so many people have experience of living in the countryside. Nostalgia is part of many rural memories.

The pandemic period has led people to turn their attention to the countryside. There are also many types of countryside: villages far from everything, villages near towns and cities.

The paper discusses the different meanings of the countryside. The analysis is based on written memories focusing on rural experiences. I pay attention to how people describe the impact of countryside on their lives, even if they live in urban environments. In my presentation I focus especially on experiences and memories of food.

Paper short abstract:

Based on the results of fieldwork in Southern Transylvania, the presentation investigates the complex relations between locals and foreigners in the competition for the local resources, and links the successes of strangers with the innovative (re)interpretations of what can be considered capital.

Paper long abstract:

Transylvanian villages witnessed a massive depopulation starting from the beginning of socialist modernization. From the late 1990s, early 2000s however, the depopulation stopped, and even more, urbanites and foreigners discovered the idylls of Transylvanian countryside; or they sought opportunities for investments benefiting from low prices of houses and agricultural lands. Nowadays it is quite often that strangers buy houses or start businesses even in remote villages. The presentation investigates one such case in a Southern Transylvanian region and focuses on the stories of two businessmen – a former manager from music industry and a CEO of a sports equipment factory – who invested in local tourism and agriculture. They are among the most successful investors in the region. The presentation gives an overview of their enterprises and examines their relation to locality (in Appaduraian sense of the term), to locals, to local administration and argues that besides the general fact that local success requires external links to (international) markets (which holds true for local entrepreneurs, too), their innovative approach regarding local resources and their social and cultural capital is also a key element in the successful reinterpretation of countryside capital. In order to build the argumentation, concepts of what can be considered local, notions and reinterpretations of traditions and authenticity, local and non-local grounds of competition are brought into discussion.

Paper short abstract:

Urban-to-rural seems a trend in the pandemic. However, it is questionable that the rural will really benefit: the diagnosis seems premature and it does not consider the increasing asymmetry of the urban-rural relationship. Deeper societal transformations are needed to break with this asymmetry.

Paper long abstract:

For a long time, “depopulation” dominated mountain research. Meanwhile, urban-to-rural migration has become the dominant discourse. It is conducted under different labels (multilocality, amenity migration, lifestyle mobility) based on phenomena such as second homes, co-working spaces or the return in old age. With the pandemic, we see a certain euphoria to be a trend reversal of metropolisation. Indeed, we have examples of a more intensive use of mountain areas to avoid the risks of urban density (Alpine Arc, Taurus Range) with simultaneous population decline in large cities (diminishing school enrollment in Paris, Lyon, Marseille). However, the euphoria about a " revaluation " of rural areas seems to be premature. On the one hand, figures from New York already show that the exodus is likely to be temporary; in large cities real estate prices continue to rise sharply. On the other hand, the question arises whether the new interest is really a revaluation of the rural.

This paper confirms the thesis that current upgrading efforts of so-called rural areas are again drivers of commodification of social practices in peripheral regions (urbanization). A real countertrend in the interest of transformative social innovation would only be possible if the new interest in mountain areas is not be exhausted in the expansion of double residences, but if peripheral areas would regain parts of their lost productive capacity. This seems possible if new forms of cooperation, institutions and work models are developed.

Key words: commodification, multilocality, urban-to-rural migrations, transformative social innovation, productive mountains