"They call us corona boys". A qualitative study of multilocal lifeworlds and social implications of multilocality during the Covid-19-pandemic in the area of Åre, Sweden

Abstract: In accordance with contemporary scholars, the identified increase of urban-rural mobility during the pandemic testifies that multilocality, in terms of living an everyday life in more than one place, is gaining momentum (Di Marino, 2022; Willberg, 2021). In a Swedish context, however, the qualitative research on this emerging housing phenomena is sparse, despite the rich tradition of examining nonresidential housing in terms of second homes. Thus, by applying an explorative approach, this thesis aims to capture the phenomena of multilocality in the second home and tourism intensive recreational environment of Åre, Jämtland, in the light of the pandemic. The thesis focuses on the manifestations of multilocal lifeworlds and highlights potential social implications of having an everyday life in more than one place. Through ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with 18 multilocal respondents, it emerges how the multilocal lifeworlds in Åre constitute a multifunctional, golden edged everyday life, providing a welcomed contrast to the urban work-oriented everyday, not least in the pandemic era. Moreover, the findings suggest that the pandemic and its effects, due to a shift of norms regarding remote working, acts as both an enabler and accelerator in order to establish and maintain the multilocal lifeworlds. Also, the thesis illustrates how the multilocal practitioners, by being both present and absent, faces social dilemmas which further reveals their position in between dichotomies of being resident and visitor, of being rooted and nomadic.