| Summary: | The decline and shrinkage of rural areas due to urbanisation and migration flows has been identified by the European Commission as one of the major megatrends that affect the future development of Europe. Shrinking cities have had a growing attention in the academia since the 1990’s, yet the research on small rural towns or villages has been minor. This master’s thesis aims at providing more research content through a case study on a shrinking municipality of Puolanka located in northern Finland in the Kainuu region – a town that has created a unique place brand out of pessimism by displaying how little opportunities there are. The main research question of this thesis asks what are the factors that enable co-creation initiatives to contribute to local liveability in the context of the case Puolanka. The following sub-questions then ask how development funds, such as the LEADER fund of EU, contribute to local liveability as well as how place attachment and placemaking influence the well-being and local liveability of Puolanka. Moreover, how does Puolanka’s place brand of pessimism influence the local liveability and the co-creation initiatives that attempt at developing their hometown? The conclusions are based on an analysis of business initiatives and community-led development initiatives from Puolanka as well as field trip interviews and expert interviews. The main conclusions of this thesis are that Puolanka’s ‘pessimism brand’ has created visibility for the area and has encouraged initiatives in their development projects yet does not always coincide with the local place identity. Place attachment has a significant role for local liveability, and initiatives that use place-making methods for creating quality places seem to have the most positive effect on local liveability. Furthermore, low-threshold activation funds, such as the LEADER fund, have a significant encouraging effect for small entrepreneurs and community actors. Therefore, this thesis hopes to share positive examples of co-creation initiatives ...
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