Paper short abstract:

I carry out releasing a book of collected stories of oral history, poems and articles concerning an old pilot village, Lypyrtti. I also write my dissertation work about the same subject on the topic of Narrated environment. In my paper I’ll reflect what I understand by sensitive listening.

Paper long abstract:

To sense is to be part of the environment. I've collected oral history in Lypyrtti, an old pilot village in the south-western coast of Finland, at the villagers' own request. During the interviews I found how sensitive listening led me to understand the ways different local people interact within their environment. The emotional narration included mainly the concern or fear of losing the local knowledge, especially the memories of preceding local people, their knowhow and relationship with nature. At the same time people were sad for the lost clear waters. Water is the centre, the fairway and the all around essence of the village. Emotions could be interpreted as signals or clues, through which also the environment reminds of its' demands.

While I do the interviews, plan and carry out releasing the book of collected stories, poems and articles dealing with the village, I do my dissertation work. My role as a scientist is an anthropology at home. My own experiences in the village, living there in summer, listening its voices and silences has helped me understand that the sense-scape has its history, too.

The history of a village is a collection of narratives picked from the stream of events in the ever-changing landscape. What methodological tools could I use to express the still indescribable experiences such as intuition or sense of place? Could that help me find the connecting thought, the main thread through the whole story? If there is such a thing.