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Abstract

The imprint on rural areas from social change since the 1950s is a decline in population, farming and other local working places, services, political platforms and meeting places. The aim of the thesis is to understand how these changes have affected the interrelations between people, place and history. The fieldwork was conducted in Locknevi, a parish in Småland. Interviews and participant observation were undertaken for four months, during a span of five years. In spite of the impoverishment of rural areas inhabitants seek to maintain social and time-space relations through new practises, mostly in local associations. These associations were once an important arena for modernising both agriculture and rural life. Now they are divided into agricultural and community based associations. People moving into the community often engage in community based associations. Hence local communities are now upheld by activities within associations and among friends instead of by work within agriculture. Three cases from Locknevi are the basis for discussions of the effect of social change over the last decades. For example the school is an important institution and meeting place. Here the struggle to retain the village school shows that when meeting places are in danger of disappearing people tend to mobilize against deterioration in living conditions. Furthermore the church is an important local political arena, institution and meeting place. The conflict within church leadership represents divergent views in the community, namely the old independent view and the new view incorporated in a global world. Moreover the moose hunt as an institution serves to maintain the sense of community. In this regard the effects of change are manifested in the way the local hunting teams respond to the activities of hunting tourism. Here tensions often emerge between cultural/social and economic stakes within the community. The empirical findings shows no conflict between seeking to maintain a strong place identity and embracing an openness towards society. On the contrary, this combination could well be the fundamental driving force for building society. However it is hard to create a viable community in the absence of local subsistence, meeting places, institutions and a concrete use of place.