| Summary: | In the present study, I examine countryside shopkeepers’ everyday life in the Kainuu province based on their perception of their work. I examine the shopkeepers’ work and work strategies under social crisis in the Kainuu countryside from the 1940s to the end of the 1970s with a special focus on small entrepreneurs. At the same time, the study sheds light on the social reality and way of life in the Kainuu village communities during the period. Biographical interviews that were collected in 1996 form my primary study material. They give voice to the generation of shopkeepers’, who struggled through the greatest changes in retail trade in recent history. The key experience of the interviewees is the rapid crisis that the Finnish countryside experienced after World War II. Structural change in the countryside, and its economical and social crisis, which took place in Eastern and Northern Finland in particular, become emphasized in the work-focused biographical narratives analysed in the present study. By examining community members’ experiences, cultural habits and their capacity to influence their own conditions, one may see the impact of structural change on individuals and communities – how an individual is formed and reformed in active interaction with the social structure. This approach aids in understanding the kind of resources and strategies that individuals had at their disposal when trying to cope with the changes in their social environment. Countryside shops were symbols of the flourishing post-war countryside. Shopkeepers naturally played a vital role in delivering goods within village communities. In addition, they served important social, psychological and economic roles within the communities – the shops were simultaneously centres of social life in the villages. The decision to become a shopkeeper was often influenced by many factors. According to the narratives, women had difficulties – especially in the beginning of their careers – in working on equal terms with men in an occupation perceived as ...
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