Paper short abstract:

Hydro-electric dam construction in northern Finland has caused a dramatic environmental change for the local people in the last decades. How do elderly people reconstruct their belonging and sense of place in the new setting? How do they adapt to the physical, social, economical and cultural change?

Paper long abstract:

The construction of human controlled watercourses for the needs of hydro-electric power during the last 60 years has substantially changed freshwater ecosystems as well as socio-economical and cultural dynamics of many local communities, or even their history of existence. Dam construction in northern Finland has caused a dramatic change for the local people and has quickly led e.g. to the loss of migratory fish.

In my research, I have interviewed elderly people, who have experienced the change in their environment. How do they reconstruct their belonging and sense of place in the new setting? How do they adapt to the new environment? How do they justify or explain the change, which, in the end, is not only physical, but also social, economical and cultural.

The sudden push for modernity forced local people to look at their environment in a new light. Change of values also took place in the course of modernisation. The values changed from self-supporting, hard-working and productive to modern and consuming. That which used to be personal and immediate changed to being shared and touched by modernity. Local residents had to make concessions in order to benefit the whole nation's welfare.

The data demonstrates an interesting connection between human emotions and the physical environment. The river is used as a metaphor for human life, and the emerged emotions become evident metaphorically in the environment. The previously free river is now dammed and captured, and this resembles people's emotions in the changing world.