Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 112

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VILLAGE-DWELLING
possible; when you say that Gøta is well
positioned; I don’t think it is well positioned, it
isn’t.”
This ambivalency shows that the distance
can become a problem over time, at least if
you work in Tórshavn each and every day,
as the latter interviewee does. At least it
leads one to consider the altemative settling-
possibilities in areas that are better posi-
tioned. On the other hand, if one’s locale is
within the region, this is not articulated as a
problem, and there is surely a cognitive dif-
ference between fifteen minutes commuting
within the region and fifty minutes com-
muting between or across regions. This leads
directly to a hypothesis that will not be in-
vestigated in this article, but will be com-
mented on in the conclusion, namely that
an increasing centralization of service and
business will - over time - mean that also
the settlement-structures will centralize.
There will surely be an adjustment period,
but the question is for how long people in
the rural areas will manage to cope with the
mobility-stress.
Theoretical extract: Quite a lot ofthe fea-
tures of “the village” have totally changed
their functional relevance. It is no longer
necessary to live in the proximity of every-
day functions as the increasing mobility has
made it possible to extend the everyday-lo-
cale. But this also means that less-mobile
people living in a village become depend-
ent on their mobile relatives or friends. Fur-
thermore mobility causes a functional seg-
regation of the different villages, some vil-
lages hereby becoming “sleeping-villages”.
Perspectives on village-dwelling in the
future
In this article I have presented some of the
main imaginations on the dwelling amongst
young people settling in the Faroese rural-
ity. I have summed the discussions up in four
theoretical extracts:
Traditionally “home” was a very located
place, but in an age of mobility “home” is
extending its locale, as dwelling-relevant el-
ements of the everyday have become reach-
able especially through automobility. This
also means that one is not tied to the
dwelling-place but connected to the dwel-
ling-place or rather: connected to a whole
range of everyday-places, the dwelling-
place being only one of several.
The discoursive production of dwelling-
myths is an important part of the (re)pro-
duction of the dwelling-place. Not only is it
a way to rationalize one’s own settlement;
it is also an important identity-strategy. As
mentioned in an earlier section settlement
is an important part of the identity-forma-
tion. This is not necessarily something neW,
but in a mobile age it becomes an increas-
ingly aesthetic and reflexive practice that is
not only mediated through corporeal rela-
tions but also through myths and images that
are reflected in e.g. the media.
When young people talk about their fu-
ture dwelling they are at the same time re-
flecting on their life-styles and life-modes.
But as the existential and the aesthetic
dwelling-practices are being segregated spa-
tially as an effect of the increasing mobil'
ity, the rural life-modes are loosing their sig'
nifícance. Instead the young people now be-
come a part of a globalizing life-mode which