Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 109

BYGDADVØL - HVÍ UNGFÓLK BÚSETAST í FØROYSKUM BYGDUM
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tually it is also quite practical, as the same-
ness enables people to ask eachother for
services and recognition, even if it might be
ln quite symbolic ways like lending sugar
0r egs or doing minor practical favours: all
tliings that are not existentially necessary to
life, but are nevertheless “nice” or “funny”
and therefore also increase the subjective
everydaylife-quality.
Theoretical extracf. When young peo-
P'e talk about their future dwelling they are
at the same time reflecting on their life-styles
and life-modes. But as the existential and the
aesthetic dwelling-practices are being seg-
regated spatially as an effect of the increas-
lng mobility, the rural life-modes are loos-
lng their signifícance. Instead the young
People now become a part of a globalizing
iife-mode which is segregated into several
i'fe-styles, e.g. a rural life-style. Dwelling
Practices then become an aesthetic choice
ar>d are no longer an effect of existential ne-
eessity.
Tralfíc and mobility, distancc and
Proximity
fhe safety for the children is a very com-
m°n argument for dwelling in a Faroese vil-
'age. One of the main reasons why the vil-
lage is suitable for raising children is that
there exists (or there is an imagination on
lhe existence of) a reciprocal sociality that
thereby creates a social environment that
may bc both secure and hopefully also stim-
ulating for the children. One central part of
lhis sociality is off course the “grananny-
lnstitution” (“gra-nanny” is a conpound de-
^eloped for this article by the words
granny” and “nanny”, signifying that the
granny-role often correlates with the nanny-
role) which functions as an extension of the
core family, that becomes more important
when the mother is being more and more
integrated in the employment-market. The
“grananny” is very often an older woman
that has acted as a housewife most of her life
and still does. The problem in all this is that
as time goes by the grandmothers are also
being integrated into the employment-mar-
ket, as it is the children of the women that
went working in the sixties and seventies
that now are settling and having children of
their own. The new grandmothers are there-
fore frequently employed and do not have
time for taking care of children. This means
that the gra-nanny-institution is no longer
available to all young settlers, and therefore
extemal child-care becomes more and more
a necessary institution. Most larger and
medium-sized municipalities have under-
stood tliis functional shift and have given
higher priorities to child-care (“dagrøkt’’) or
even kindergartens (“barnagarður”) on the
municipal budget; some municipalities of-
fering no less than child-care-guarantee to
all citizens. The quality of the school is also
a very important aspect when young people
choose where to settle. Andrias Petersen,
former xuember of the municipal board of
Gøta has formulated this policy-complex
like this:
It must be a guarantee that - if you live in Gøta
- you will have your children taken care of. We
have also done an incredible lot to the school.
Now there is only a one-pathed school up to 7th
grade, and there has been aimed at having a
school with a good reputation where the children
thrive and learn something and the physical