Case Study of Vormsi Island
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NordPlus Course Effects of the presence of the temporary residents on permanent residents lives – case study of Vormsi island Carina Ausdal Barun Khanal Janika Raun Grete Ruberg Pärnu 2014 Table of contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Towards a theory of grounding ......................................................................................................... 4 2.1 A place as a meaningful area ........................................................................................... 4 2.2 Sense of place ................................................................................................................ 5 2.3 "Us" and "Them" ............................................................................................................ 5 2.4 Visual method ................................................................................................................ 6 3. Case study area ................................................................................................................................... 8 4. Methodology ...................................................................................................................................... 11 4.1 Counting village population .................................................................................................11 4.2 Interviews ..........................................................................................................................12 4.3 Visual analysis ...................................................................................................................12 5. Analysis and interpretation .............................................................................................................. 14 5.1 Population counting ............................................................................................................14 5.2 Local land use and landscape ...............................................................................................17 5.3 "Us" and "Them" ................................................................................................................19 5.4 Meaning of place and belonging ...........................................................................................20 5.5 Visual analyse – „spirit“ of the place .....................................................................................21 6. Discussion about methods used ........................................................................................................ 31 7. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 33 8. References .......................................................................................................................................... 35 Appendix .................................................................................................................................................... 37 Appendix 1. ............................................................................................................................38 Appendix 2 .............................................................................................................................39 2 1. Introduction Second home phenomenon has gained more importance during the last decades due to the increasing mobility and lifestyle changes. According to Sheller and Urry (2006) there has been formulated a concept of “new mobilities paradigm” due to the rapid developments in technology. Besides physical movements the virtual movements and opportunities have gained more importance. Hence we do not need to physically switch places and we can work from longer distances. This also increases the wish to have a second home in some peaceful and beautiful areas e.g along coastline. In this report, we begin our work by presenting research that has examined location, locale and sense of place, and its relationship related to second home population and locals discourse. We describe the history and the population of case study area and the methodologies we used. Then we analyse these concepts with the material from the second home phenomena in three villages Kersleti, Rälby and Borrby located in Vormsi island in Western Estonia. Under discussion we argue the methodological issues we had and the last chapter concludes the result and work we have done. The main aim of this research is to find out how does the presence of summer residents affects the lives of the permanent residents in Vormsi? To reach the goal three research sub-questions were formulated: 1. In what ways do the physical location matter for the situation of second home presence in Vormsi? 2. How do the permanent residents feel about the potential material effects due to the presence of summer residents? 3. Has and if then how is the feeling of belonging and identity of permanent residents affected by any of the aspects due to the presence of summer residents? 3 2. Towards a theory of grounding In a larger process in which the rural is changing through the continuing globalization and modernization, the focus on second housing may be a way for rural areas to adapt to this change. Woods (2005) points out that because of major changes in the rural economy, there have also been changes in areas that previously was used for agriculture, in that way that they are now for example being used within the tourism sector. In a larger sense this means that rural societies have shifted “from landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption” (Cloke, 2006, p. 19). The literature describes this as a way to adapt to a restructuring process, and also as a way of commodifying rural places in the post-modern era (Woods, 2005). Tourism in general may represent many important values in a community, and especially second housing have the potential to bring both physical and more material contributions to some places. This can generate both opportunities and challenges for the local communities, and potentially affect the permanent citizens in different ways. The second home phenomenon bears a rural character with the majority of the owners from the cities, creating movement between the urban and the rural. Second home mobility represents a large part of leisure behaviour in many developed countries, and “with second-home mobility, we refer to the use of a second home, which requires a journey between the primary home and the second home” (Ellingsen & Hidle, 2013, p. 4/251). This also creates a contributory effect of interactions between places, and especially the rural tends to be affected by the urban, and the importance of place may be questioned. In our case, however, the island of Vormsi seems rather untouched by the continuing movement and modernization that is going on, but is it really? We wish to investigate how the presence of temporary citizens affects the lives of the permanent citizens, both through the feeling of identity and belonging and through potential effects from material changes due to the presence of second home owners. In addition to this we will stress the relevance that physical location may have for the situation, and how it might help us to understand why the situation occurred in the first place. In this chapter we will introduce theory that stresses the importance of place, and in order to emphasize rural space as a socially produced set of manifolds “it seems fruitful to bring together material and imaginative conceptions of rural space through their intersections in particular practices” (Cloke, 2006, p. 24). A place can be seen is a meaningful area that combines the three aspects of “location”, “locale” and “sense of place”, and this is our main theoretical perspective for the research. 2.1 A place as a meaningful area How places affect us and how people relate to these places is something that concerns us as geographers. The place is more than just a physically defined area, it is also a place with meaning and relationships (Holt-Jensen, 2007), and the place consists of and links together three realms: “location”, “locale” and “sense of place”. "Location" refers to the physical location, an 4 absolute point with a specific set of coordinates and measurable distances from other places, and refers to where the particular place is (Woods, 2005). Vormsi, which is our study area, is an island located in the Baltic Sea. Because of this location most of the tourists come here during the summer season for leisure activities. The second homes are also of great importance to the local community. What you associate with a place is often what stands out, what makes this place special (Holloway and Hubbard, 2001). It may include physical characteristics such as its landscape, architecture, buildings or infrastructure, or cultural characteristics associated with tradition, national pride or cultural norms. The meaning marks the most obvious difference between 59°00'N 23°13'E, which represents the location only, and "Vormsi", which gives more information and associations, is the place that occupies that position. The idea of the meaning has long been central to notions of place in human geography, and you can say that the location became the place when it became meaningful. The term "locale" refers to the meaning and the material settings of social relations, such as buildings, streets,