Peripheral communities

• Other Authors: Emanuelsson, Marie, Johansson, Ella, Ekman, Ann-Kristin
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Human Geography; Economic Geography; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/9427/; https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/9427/11/emanuelsson_et_al_130208.pdf

In this book, life in peripheral communities is examined from a wide range of research perspectives. Scholars studying social, ecological, cultural and economic aspects, from prehistoric to modern times, contribute to create a comparative perspective on life in peripheries. Some of the articles focus on forest communities in northern Sweden, but studies from other parts of the world form a substantial part of this volume. The publication is the outcome of the multidisciplinary conference Peripheral Communities: Crisis, Continuity and Long-Term Survival, which took place in the small Swedish village Ängersjö in August 14–17, 2003. Central themes of the conference were: •• Resource management in peripheries •• Ecology – technology – local knowledge •• Social organisation – property relations, inheritance patterns and gender •• Socio-economic strategies in internal and external relations •• Motives to live/stay in peripheral communities •• History and culture – an asset and/or a drawback •• Local political culture and the public sphere •• Conflict resolution – the use of legal and local systems •• Value systems and traditions •• Relations to state and market •• Diaspora, collaborative communities and networks Host of the conference was the interdisciplinary research project Flexibility as Tradition: Culture and Subsistence in the Boreal Forests of Northern Sweden, funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. The project has studied the flexible, composite, and changeable character of economic activities and resource utilization in the forest districts over a long temporal perspective.