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Accepted Paper:
The summerhouse as a cultural heritage in relation to protecting the nature and the sea
Julia Öhman
(Åbo Akademi)
The paper focus on the usage and experiences of summerhouses as a place and a cultural heritage in the Finnish coastal region and how this can be connected to the protection of the sea.
Paper long abstract:
Generations of summerhouse users create a cultural heritage by upholding old traditions and values in connection to their summerhouses and thereby they also recreate a landscape. In 2019 there were 512 000 summerhouses in Finland, which gives us an idea of the importance and impact of summerhouses in the landscape. The theoretical approaches are 1) sense of place 2) biodiversity and 3) ecosystem services. Through these I want to open up new interdisciplinary perspectives to look at landscapes and open up questions as: How does a summerhouse correlate to the landscape and nature around it? Which values are connected to a place that should be close to nature but still often harms it in many ways? How does making of a cultural heritage like the summerhouse landscape correlate to biodiversity and ecosystem services?
The fact that nature and different landscapes are experienced and valued differently might be problematic, as the way values are understood, admitted and addressed are complex and have a big impact on the decision making. To value ecosystem services, as the ones connected to the usage of summerhouses, is challenging but invaluable for protecting the wellbeing of both nature and people.