Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Side 111

BYGDADVØL - HVÍ UNGFÓLK BÚSETAST í FØROYSKUM BYGDUM
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elderly people are also cognitively used to
be able to demand services within the lo-
cality, but nowadays these services are mov-
mg away from the villages and into the
towns, or - as something new - become sit-
Uated along the main-roads in ”malls” or
service-clusters. Young people are able to
reach these places, but children and elderly
are quite dependent on either public trans-
Port or a relative that drives them from one
location to another. One could say, never-
theless, that this is in many ways just another
way of reembedding the social ties in the vil-
*ages, as the different generations may no
longer be productively dependent on each
other, but are instead mobilely dependent on
each other. It seems even to be the case that
the new major social faultline of the rural
areas in the Faroes is now drawn according
t0 the access to mobility capital and not ac-
cording to the access to production means.
T° be succesful in todays society does not
°n'y mean that you are good at your job (de-
§ree ofprofessionalization and/or skills) but
that you are mobile - both physically and
c°gnitively - and are therefore able - if nec-
essary - to pull up the stakes and search for
new hunting grounds (for using two indian-
'netaphors).
Under all circumstances young people
settle in the village because they have a “mo-
bile life-style”. lf these people did not fancy
'he automobile culture, they would not be
able to live in a village like Syðrugøta; or
rather: they would, but only if they were apt
l° adapt to this mobile culture. Living in the
V|"age and not being mobile might other-
Wlse even result in social isolation and/or
stigmatization.
Another aspect that should be mentioned
is that this mobile culture is not only a com-
muting-culture, but also a leisure-culture.
Even in the evenings the car functions as a
space of leisure amongst young people that
“cruise” (or “slice” - if it is in the Northern
Islands) towards the various meeting points
on the mainland. These meeting-points may
vary over time, but the grill-house, the kiosk,
the petrol-station or the central parking-lots
are typical spaces for automobile social ac-
tivities.
The question is whether such a mobile
culture is sustainable over time. Research
has shown that mobility surely is a central
part of today’s societies, but that mobility
also is a source of economic and social stress
(Freudendal-Pedersen, 2005; Uth Thomsen,
2005). The question is whether people will
afford to use several hours each day on com-
muting. A genri for an answer can be found
in a polemics between two interviewees that
did not agree on the centrality of Gøta in
the mainland:
It [i.e. Gøta] is well situated. You can get
anywhere. Fast to Tórshavn, fast to Fuglafjørð,
now it will soon be [fast to] Klaksvík too. It is
quite central compared to living in Fuglafjørð
or Skáli.
Now I mentioned yesterday that they build row-
houses in Hósvík, so one ought to live there.
From there it is much faster to travel to
Tórshavn, and seen from that perspective we [in
Gøta] live almost as far away from Tórshavn as
possible; you’ll just go to Fuglafjørð, then you
are as far away as you can get, or perhaps
Selatrað. So we are quite far away [from
Tórshavn]. It takes twenty minutes longer to
drive from Gøta [than from Hósvik, smk]. One
will always want to avoid driving as far as