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
VIRTA submission year: 2020