Paper short abstract:

Presenting results from a study on collective responses to wildfires we stress the importance of community resilience through local geographical knowledge and proximity, socio-economic networks and cooperation which we argue is a rural hidden resource of preparedness for unsustainable futures.

Paper long abstract:

In the project “Mobilized villages: local community agency during the Swedish wildfires in 2018 and the process of re-orientation towards the future” (FORMAS), we have investigated three communities affected by the large and numerous wildfires in Sweden in 2018, in the regions most impacted (Dalarna, Gävleborg and Jämtlands län). By taking an ethnographic local perspective, we have been able to grasp the local collective response and mobilization from different angles, interviewing local actors involved in this very intense period: for example, farmers, hunters, landowners, care takers of children, pizzamakers, owners of enterprises, entrepreneurs and volunteers. They have described the events of the wildfire as an unfolding period of cohesiveness and collective mobilization based in local communities. In their descriptions of the events the wildfires appear as a liminal situation where the activities they engaged in dissolved social hierarchies and created a strong sense of unity toward a common challenge. One of the results of our study is the importance of local geographical knowledge and proximity, networks of social och economic relations that were activated in the local community and how this mobilization connected to, or failed to communicate with, external actors of different levels in society, from the municipality level to international help. Addressing the theme in this panel, we would like to present results about everyday-practices among people in these communities, showing community resilience or a capability defined as social sustainability, as a hidden resources in rural Sweden, prepared for an unsustainable future, but in need for external support.