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 editorsUusitalo, Eeva

ISBN978-951-51-3788-3

eISBN978-951-51-3789-0

Journal or seriesRuralia-instituutti julkaisuja

ISSN1796-0649

eISSN1796-0622

Publication year2020

Number in series37

Number of pages in the book181

PublisherHelsingin yliopisto

Place of PublicationHelsinki

Publication countryFinland

Publication languageFinnish

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

Publication open accessOpenly available

Publication channel open accessOpen 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.


Keywordsvillageschangevillage researchcountrysidecommunities (organisations)village activitylocal history (fields of study)assemblagesethnography

Free keywordstemporality; wayfaring; village research; villages; material culture; assemblages; ethnography


Contributing organizations


Ministry reportingYes

VIRTA submission year2020


Last updated on 2024-12-10 at 07:45