Uncertainty has been a chronic condition of dwelling in the Riga port neighbourhoods. Their residents’ narratives abound in motifs of displacement, territorial restrictions, landscape degradation and ecological concern. The paper problematises trans-corporeal environmental embeddedness of urbanites.
Paper long abstract:
Based on an ethnographic study of five Riga neighbourhoods, the paper attempts to interpret narratives of their residents. Uncertainty has been a chronic condition of dwelling beside the Port of Riga. The environmental talk of local communities abounds in motifs of displacement, territorial restrictions, landscape degradation and ecological concern. Glen Albrecht’s concept of solastalgia (2003) — “the homesickness you have at home” — might be the most apt description of their emotional state. Concurrently, peoples’ narratives demonstrate a deep trans-corporeal embeddedness and place-attachment, which has not served as an important enough argument for local activists and NGOs in the debate on the rights of Riga port to expand and profoundly transform the terrain. The defence of natural habitats of particular plant and animal species has turned out to be far weightier and more efficient. Reverberating the idea that the long-lasting divide between culture and nature has resulted in the exemption of humans from basic laws of physical existence, the paper problematises urban environment as a habitat for contemporary city inhabitants.