Everyday materialities, territorial bordering, and place-identity defined by recent administrative reform: reactions from Estonian dispersed ruralities

IF 1.3 Q2 GEOGRAPHY
Kadri Kasemets, Raili Nugin
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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Population decline in rural areas has been a concern for many European countries for decades. To deal with shrinking, several measures have been taken in different countries. The study focuses on one of such measures – the administrative reform passed in Estonia in 2017, which merged smaller municipalities into regional municipality centres. This article examines the impact of this reform on rural transformation, concentrating on shifts in everyday mobilities, governance, and territorial identity at the village level. The research data is contextualised with the new mobilities paradigm, examining the relational everyday materialities that include interviews reflecting on changes at the regional, structural, and ideological levels. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews (N=60) with local activists and inhabitants in three study areas in sparsely populated parts of Estonia. The creation of municipality districts with representative bodies within larger municipalities have influenced these rural villages in various ways. In some cases, it has caused shifts in the mechanisms of civil governance that shape community activism. In others, strengthened awareness of representations of the rural appeared, offering a meaningful territorial identity and self-realisation to local people. However, the study also indicates that the distribution of rural municipalities into municipality districts can jeopardise local coherence and socio-cultural sustainability.
日常物质、领土边界和最近行政改革定义的地方身份:来自爱沙尼亚分散农村的反应
几十年来,农村人口减少一直是许多欧洲国家关注的问题。为了应对萎缩,不同国家采取了一些措施。这项研究的重点是其中一项措施——爱沙尼亚2017年通过的行政改革,该改革将较小的城市合并为区域市政中心。本文考察了这一改革对农村转型的影响,重点关注日常流动、治理和村庄层面的领土认同的变化。研究数据与新的流动性范式相结合,研究了包括反映区域、结构和意识形态层面变化的访谈在内的关系日常材料。分析基于对爱沙尼亚人口稀少地区的三个研究区域的当地活动家和居民的深度访谈(N=60)。在较大的城市内设立有代表机构的市辖区,以各种方式影响了这些农村。在某些情况下,它导致了塑造社区行动主义的公民治理机制的转变。在其他方面,加强了对农村的表现意识,为当地人提供了有意义的领土认同和自我实现。然而,该研究还表明,将农村城市分配到直辖市可能会危及地方的一致性和社会文化的可持续性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
2.70
自引率
0.00%
发文量
15
审稿时长
16 weeks
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