Being and making home in the world : A glimpse into the complexity of ordinary life in the Swedish northern village Vittangi

Abstract: Having the Swedish northern village Vittangi as its field, this thesis asks what it is that makes Vittangi feel like home to its inhabitants and, further, how the sense of home motivate its inhabitants to participate in its place-making, i.e., in making it their home. Home is, in the thesis, understood as a subjective experience of rootedness. The ethnographic chapters therefore investigate, by focusing on the experience of everyday life in the village, how the sense of home is expressed through the inhabitants’ activities and movements in, to and through the village. Considering that the thesis’ focus is both on the sense of home and the making of home, its over-all aim is to examine the relationship between being and making home. Moreover, great attention is given to the values existing in the village, referring both to values created by global processes of economics, politics, and social activity, as well as values that are based in the experience of everyday life. In the end, the thesis argues that it is the experience-based values of Vittangi which makes it home to its inhabitants, and that it is these values which motivates inhabitants to partake in its place-making. Further, it is argued that the experience-based values cannot be separated from global processes of economics and politics, but that it is through the form they take in the locality which makes them valuable.