G4 Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
Etnografian reittejä kylien ajallisuuteen ja aineellisuuteen (2020)

Uusitalo, E. (2020). Etnografian reittejä kylien ajallisuuteen ja aineellisuuteen [Doctoral dissertation]. Helsingin yliopisto. Ruralia-instituutti julkaisuja, 37. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-3789-0

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Uusitalo, Eeva

ISBN: 978-951-51-3788-3

eISBN: 978-951-51-3789-0

Journal or series: Ruralia-instituutti julkaisuja

ISSN: 1796-0649

eISSN: 1796-0622

Publication year: 2020

Number in series: 37

Number of pages in the book: 181

Publisher: Helsingin yliopisto

Place of Publication: Helsinki

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: Finnish

Persistent website address: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-3789-0

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Abstract

In my dissertation I have traced novel routes to village research by examining the transformation of the villages through the concepts of temporality and materiality. My research questions are: What kind of temporal trajectories have formed the villages? What kind of things, events, processes or connections have in the course of time been part of the village? I examine the transformations having taken place along various trajectories and focus on how the past and the future are related in the present in certain moments. With material culture I refer especially to the built environment, including the element of landscape. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Ahvenselkä village in the municipality of Salla and the Koli village in the town of Lieksa. In both villages I have interviewed and discussed with people, walked on the roads and paths of the villages making observations, and sensing the environment. My research setting is about wayfaring, finding and following paths and traces wherever they take me. It is based on events, experiences and encounters, which I describe in order to make the holistic presence of the researcher visible in the field, and her contribution to the formation of the villages. In the assemblages of the villages there is an element of planning, but their trajectories are also arbitrary. In an arbitrary village residents, visitors and other actors attach their experiences, expectations, interpretations and practices, which for their part form and transform the village. I have laid out the uniqueness and the cultural diversity of the villages. However, they are connected by the awareness that any turn of events can make way for an unpredictable future. The temporal trajectories and materiality reveal that the villages have not turned inwards, but are open to whatever the future may bring.

Keywords: villages; change; village research; countryside; communities (organisations); village activity; local history (fields of study); assemblages; ethnography

Free keywords: temporality; wayfaring; village research; villages; material culture; assemblages; ethnography

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020