Working across the East-North divide: experiences from a research project on European fringe areas
Abstract
The paper presents a study (2007‒2010) on transformation processes of peripheral rural communities in four countries in the northern and eastern Europe. The comparative study was based on the participating researchers’ long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Finland, Estonia, Russia and Ukraine. The research group approached rural transformation from the perspectives of gender and age, perspectives which have been less used in studies dealing with the so-called transition countries than in western Europe and elsewhere. The researchers also questioned the validity of a rigid division between “countries-in-transition” and “Western countries” by comparing cases and localities across this divide, on thematic grounds such as the rural dwellers’ relationship to the European Union, sustainable livelihoods, and relationship between the state and its peripheries. All rural locations studied share a peripheral position, geographically and/or economically, in relation to their national centre, but the national and international contexts of which they are part are very different. However, the European Union is a key factor that affects rural people’s lives and life prospects in all the research areas.
The general research question was: how do people who live in peripheral rural areas react and respond to recent changes in their lives brought about by post-socialism and/or European Union membership? In accordance with the decline of agriculture and its possibilities to offer a livelihood in rural areas, people are faced with serious questions concerning their future in their home area. The reverse of the downsizing of the welfare or socialist state is the activity of people themselves, and the initiative they take. What is the role of culture and local traditions in this? What kinds of guidelines does the local way of life offer for living in the periphery? What are the dimensions of well-being in the peripheral rural localities studied?
