Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 98

Village-dwelling
Understanding young people ’s reasons for settling in
Faroese villages.
Bygdadvøl - hví ungfólk búsetast í føroyskum bygdum
Scimal Matras Kristiansen
Akranesgøta 9, FO 100 Tórshavn. Email: samalmatras@gmail.com
Úrtak
Leikluturin hjá bygdunum í føroyska samfelagnum
broytist alsamt. Fyrr vóru bygdirnar rættiliga fjarskotn-
ar, men nú eru tær mobilt samantvinnaðar við hvørja
aðra. Hetta merkir í fyrstu syftu, at bústaðarsiðvenjan,
ið er knýtt at tí at búgva á bygd, broytist. Men hamæst
er tað eisini við til at máa støði undan vanligu fatanini
av tí at búgva á bygd. Sum ung fólk gerast sera mobil
- og noyðast at gerast sera mobil fyri ikki at verða
afturúrsigld - verða partar av siðbundnu bygdafatanini
varðveittir í ímyndunum hjá unga fólkinum. Sæð úr
hesum sjónarhorni verður bygdin eitt sera tvigilt og
enntá tvørsagt fyribrigdi, ið javnvigarmillum siðbundni
og modernitet; millum staðbundinskap og flytføri. í
greinini vísi eg eisini á at tað er høpisleyst at skilja
millum býar- og bygdalívsformar í eini mobilari øld.
Abstract
The role of the villages in the Faroes society is rapidly
changing. Whcras thc villages used to bc quite isolated
they are now mobilely integrated with each others. This
means firstly that the dwelling-practices connccted to
living in a village are changing, but secondly it also
undermines the common perception of the village-
dwelling. As young pcople become - and have to
become so in order to not being left bchind - very
mobile, parts of the traditional village-perception still
remain in the imaginations of the young people. Seen
from this point of view the village becomcs a very
ambivalent and even paradoxical phenomenon that
balances betwcen tradition and modcrnity; between
place-tiedness and mobility. In the article I also discuss
the lack of mcaning in distinguishing between urban
and rural lifc-modes in an age of mobility.
Introduction
People are imagining their settlement in tlie
villages according to the territorial qualities
of the villages, but are at the same lime de-
termined by the phenomena of modernity
and mobility.
This can be stated as the essence of this
article that investigates a range of aspects
of young people’s reasons for settling io
Faroese villages. The article is based on the
findings of the master thesis “The Imagina-
tion on the Dwelling” (Kristiansen, 2005,
title in Danish: “Forestillingen om Bost-
edet’’) where I investigate the subjective rea-
sons for settlement based on a case study oí
the Faroese village Gøta, which is mefl'
lioned several times in this article.
This article starts with a historical intro-
Fróðskaparrit 54. bók 2006: 96-113