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Case-study report Estonian-Swedish second home owners in Noarootsi, three villages; Spithamn, Dirhamn and Rooslep
Eivor Bø
Grete Kindel
Lina Orre
Timo Rohula
2014, Pærnu
Table of contents
1. Introduction ...... 3
2. Theory ...... 4
2.1 Sense of place ...... 4
2.2 Regional identity ...... 5
2.3 Second home phenomenon and choices of second home locations ...... 5
2.4 Positive and negative impacts which is caused by second home phenomena ...... 7
3. Methodology ...... 8
3.1 Data and method ...... 9
3.1.1 Semi-structured interviews ...... 9
3.1.2 Interview guide ...... 9
3.1.3 Unit of analysis ...... 10
3.1.4 Snowballing ...... 10
3.2 Analysis and interpretation ...... 10
3.2.1 Categorization ...... 11
3.3 Generalizability ...... 11
4. Results and analysis ...... 12
4.1 Changes in the foreign real estate sales and purchases ...... 12
4.1 Local attachment and attractiveness ...... 14
4.2 Local involvement ...... 17
4.2.1 Estonian-Swedish impacts on the local community ...... 18
5. Conclusion ...... 19
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1. Introduction During the Second World War there were a lot of people/nations mobilized and its influence can be recognized even today. One good example are the Estonian-Swedish communities in Estonia. Before II World War Estonian-Swedish were Swedish-speaking linguistic minority who were residing in the coastal areas and islands of what now is western and northern Estonia. Almost all of the Estonian´s Swedish-speaking minority (about 5000 inhabitants) fled to Sweden during World War II and only the descendants of a few individuals who opted to stay are permanently resident in Estonia today.
After Estonian-Swedes left the area Russian-Estonians and Ingrians moved into Estonian- Swedes houses. After World War II Estonian coastal areas were closed and guarded by border guards for example Noarootsi. In the 1970´s first second home owners came to these areas. Mostly they were elite and moved in or renovated Estonian-Swedish houses.
In 1991 Estonia regained its independence and municipalities started with land reform. It mean, that Estonian-Swedish got back their parents land. Middle of the 90´s Estonians started establish their second homes and mostly on coastal areas.
Due to fact that Noarootsi is situated on the coast and there is very beautiful nature makes this area very popular among second home owners. One big part of second home owners are Estonian-Swedish who built their second homes on the inherited land what they reimbursed during the land reform in 90´s. These Estonian-Swedish who didn´t want to get back their land sold it to Estonians living in the city. At the moment Noarootsi is unique because some of the villages have the highest population of Estonian-Swedish second home owners. In some villages Estonian-Swedish, Estonian second home owners and permanent people are living together in the summer. Usually during the summer does village´s population will grow three times. One important fact is also that Noarootsi municipality would like to have their own specific identity which should be connected with Estonian-Swedish and their culture to be different from other Estonian municipalities.
Due to this, our research questions are:
1) How has the Estonian-Swedish population changed in the last ten years? 2) How does the “sense of place” affect the Estonian-Swedish attachment to Noarootsi? 3) What impacts do Estonian-Swedish second home-owners have on the local community?
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In this research we will use the theory of sense of place and theory of second home owners location choice. Research methods used in this paper are semi structured interviews and quantitative data from Estonian Real Estate Registry.
2. Theory
2.1 Sense of place Kevin Lynch (1960) is defining place identity as something, which is creating individuality or apathy of the other places and it can be recognized by special identity that belongs to this place. It means that place identity determines its uniqueness and it means cognitive connection with the place (Jorgensen & Steadman, 2001). Dixon and Durrheim (2009) stated that, who you are is connected with where you are and where belong. It is the sum of beliefs, feelings and ways of behaving, which come forward in this environment of being connected physically and spiritually (Winterton & Warburton, 2012). Similarly to the other authors, Relph (1976) is thinking identity will show that a person belongs in the community and this person is part of the community’s identity.
Winterton and Warburton (2012) are saying that identity of place is influenced by three main factors: feeling of the community, dependence of place and attachment with place. They argue that the feeling of community is a common sense of place, a wish to decide, to take part of the community resources and to be involved with the community. Strong attachment with place is subjective to each person. Attachment with place is emotional connection, and it is caused by context and the uniqueness of place.
Relph (1976) questions in his book „Place and placelessness“ whether identity of place can be lost in time. At the same time he also finds the answer for that question that every place has its own unique inside power, which won’t let the identity disappear. Winterton and Warburton (2012) assume that as age grows, the sense of place grows with it. Place creates wellbeing, holds memories fresh and offers stability, meaning, control and safety during the time, and this predisposes changes and positive images and identity. Relph (1976) think´s that place is creating a frame where identity is created and changed. Through that the sense of place will grow with the identity which links with physical environment.
Second term, what Relph (1976) is using, is spirit of place. He is thinking that the spirit of place embraces topography, images, economic functions and social relationships with the specific place. Due to „genius loci“ people are distinguishing regions physically and visually 4
and it is something indescribable, it can be like emotions or feelings (Crang, 1998). Space in „genius loci“ starts in the human consciousness, which affect human feeling and behaviour related to place. She/he cannot really control it, like for example the feeling of love. Spirit of place helps us to recognize the past. Due to the fact that elements of spirit and of place are changing in time means that changes of identity are possible (Relph, 1976).
Raagmaa (2000) similarly to Tuan (1996) associates „genius loci“ with the place of love, such as topophilia, which is linked with identity of place. People often say, that „I love my home“, „I love this city“ or „I don´t tolerate people in this village“. These phrases are reflecting quite big amount of emotions and are irrational. If people have been living in one place for a long time, then their pragmatic side should be: it would be harder to live somewhere else, adopt new values there, create new networks and achieve same position (Raagmaa, 2000).
2.2 Regional identity Regional identity (RI) is a phenomenon where people identify themselves by a specific social system (Raagmaa, 2000) – for example people, culture, traditions, landscape etc. in relation to a place or a region. Druckers (1993) opinion is that people can’t be citizens of one big world village. Irrespectively they are grouped together according to differences in identity, social relations or territoriality. Regional identity can be expressed in many ways. Paasi (2011) is thinking that identity helps us to define regions in relation to other regions, and express their essence by its nature, culture and citizens.
Regional identity can emphasize local culture or peculiarity of a region, or it can even expresse political and cultural activities (Raagmaa, 2000). Raagmaa (2002) says that, elements of identity of a place should help create positive images.
Similarly Relph (1976), Raagmaa (2000) have a dilemma if identity is disappearing or changing in time. Raagmaa (2000) found that regional identity can fall back occasionally along with national identity or group identity but it can never disappear completely. Actually there are more territorial identities like belonging.
2.3 Second home phenomenon and choices of second home locations In this research similarly to Müller (2002) he describes the term second houses as private living quarter what will be used for vacation. These are furnished homes, which are not meant
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for permanent living. Several researches have been studying second homes during centuries all over the world.
Perlik (2010) is defining second home migration as satisfaction migration and the core of this definition is beautiful landscape, views and cultural diversity. Second homes are mainly located on landscapes that have a social and cultural meaning and this transform these places to a very valuable environment for living (Pitkänen, 2008). Different second home researches have been stated that most second homes are located on the coast, islands or mountains (Gallent et al. 2003; Dijst et al. 2004; Pitkänen, 2008; Norris & Winston, 2010).
Beautiful nature environment are not always the critical factor. Sometimes attachment or the sense of place is more important for people when getting a second home. Decisive factors can also be emotional connection, affinity and roots (Müller, 2002; Paris, 2009; Pitkänen, 2008), which tempts people to spend their time in these areas. Often properties are inherited and due to this some people do have very strong emotional connection with his/her second home (Müller, 2002). Paris (2009) found during his research that if person have been spending his/her childhood in some permanent place then in future it can be likely that this person will build his/her future second home in this area. In this case decisive factor will be emotional attached to this place. If some research results say that mostly people would like to have second homes near to their permanent homes then Pitkänen (2008) states that social contacts, roots and childhood landscapes will adulate people to keep their second homes far away from their permanent homes, because emotional attachment is stronger than distance. Gallent (2007) says that second homes, which are inherited or kept long time by one family are actually more home then other latest permanent homes.
One very important factor is nostalgia. Müller (2002) studied German second home owners in Sweden and recognized that one very important factor for choosing second home area is nostalgia, which is not linked experiencing the place before. Implicit place experience can come up also through literature, movies, media etc. Presenting traditional and nostalgic rural area in movies and literature can create ideal images for this place. Conception about rural areas is a mix of personal experience and imagination. In Müller´s (2002) research, Germans estimated the area’s quality, nature and symbolism that are connected with Astrid Lindgren´s books.
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2.4 Positive and negative impacts which is caused by second home phenomena In different countries second home phenomena has been causing a lot of hot debates among environment activists and politics (Paris, 2009). Different authors (Paris, 2009; Gallent, 2007) have mentioned negative impacts like increasing taxes, property prices which cause migration among permanent residents. Sometimes politicians can also cause permanent residents to emigrate because politicians don´t care about the problems of permanent people, they solve second home owners problems because there can be some financial profit (Gallent, 2007). In some cases these second home changes results in areas that are being “ghost areas” of the second home owners, it means that these areas stay empty until the second home owners are leaving their permanent homes.
Another big problem that Farstad (2011) has recognized between permanent residents and second home owners are the competition over local resources. Usually local people have collective interest to protect (often short coming) resources which belong to local community and its members (Farstad, 2011). Often second home owners demand privileges, rights, authority and take part of local resources, without giving anything in return. So the main problem is that second home owners emanate from their own interests and won´t consider local needs. Often they are interested about these topics, which are connected with their property or environment, directly or implicitly. Usually they protest too much of the planning, economy and agricultural developments which can damage their life-environment.
Farstad (2011) study proved that the main cause of these problems is that second home owners who are wealthy and rainmakers demand resources for themselves often for financial gain without giving anything back to the community. Even, if wealthy people are beneficial for local community there is some kind of differences between „us“ and „they“ and it is creating stereotypes. Farstad (2011) found that most of the problems which are connected with second home phenomena are not linked with the second home owners in itself, but is more about that they have a different identity to the same place. And this creates a split between the permanent citizen and the second home owners, because the second home owners don’t have a good enough connection with the community and theirs comprehensions about that the local life are lived different.
It’s not all the time that the second home phenomena causes problems, there is also a positive side (Farstad, 2011; Müller, 2002). Mainly the positive effect is regarded the economy
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because the second home owners are improving employments and that they consume different local products and services, which encourage local economy. I addition to this there are some taxes that second home owners ought to pay to the local municipality. The local people can offer their agriculture products to second home owners, and in addition to that some locals can offer some types of services like: pushing snow, selling firewood or vegetables, doing repair works, etc. (Rye & Berg, 2011). If the second home owners manage to satisfy local economy or social needs they are also more tolerated in the community. Some would say that the local community could be united and become a sustainable system if the different parts hold synergism. Gallent (2007) is using the term „dwelling hierarchy“, which is connected with community definition. „Dwelling hierarchy“ means that different parts are communicating with each other and that’s the fundament for a strong and uniform community. Time and common experiences can create fundamentals for social communion and it will cause positive development (Gallent, 2007 cit Falk & Kilpatrick, 2000). Creating social capital can expand with building the community, where common sense is evoked by trust and a growing well-being (Gallant, 2006). Farstad´s (2011) results proved that local peoples attitude towards second home owners depends on how much they are interested about the local life and how much they are ready to contribute to the local life. Rye and Berg (2011) are saying that the second home phenomena is influencing the horizontally social structures of the community, and that it expand the social and cultural heterogeneity through it, because second home phenomena embrace new peoples and traditions in this area.
3. Methodology In methodology you often make distinction between quantitative and qualitative method, where the former shows the expansion of the phenomena and the latter refers to the phenomena’s meaning (Aase & Fossåskaret, 2010). These are two different methodological traditions that highlight different aspects of a social phenomenon. That is why the selection of method is important for how to get the desirable characteristics of a phenomenon, whether it’s a group, a relation or a place. To do a research project it is necessary to have one or more research questions. Consequently, the choice of methods is crucial for how we can answer our research question. Therefore it will be appropriate to choose the method that will help us to gather the best findings. With our research question the purpose is to gather information about the Estonian-Swedish population in Roslep, Spithamn and Dirhamn.
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3.1 Data and method We have chosen to use qualitative research method in our field work because qualitative research is concerned with elucidating human environments and human experiences within a variety of conceptual frameworks, and human experiences have been an important aspect of our research. The data that we collected from the semi-structured interviews and the observations we did in the field work, can relate to what is called primary data (sources). Primary data are defined as data that are collected to give answer on a clearly limited and current research question. To find the answers we need, we have to go physical or digital out in the field and ask the users. Primary data is therefore also named field data, and we can say that we do a field investigation when we do a primary investigation (http://ndla.no/nb/node/93370). We’ve also had significant use of secondary data in our report, that is referred to as containing information that already have been collected to another purposes, but in which are available for others to use (White, 2010 I: Clifford, French & Valentine, 2010, p.61). This type of data is needed to get a greater understanding for the history of the field area and what the history of the places has done to the development of them.
3.1.1 Semi-structured interviews Using qualitative methods and consequently semi-structured interview was a natural decision for us to be able to answer our research questions. This is a type of interview that is informal and more similar to a dialogue than the strict and structured form (Longhurst, 2010). It consists of an open and flexible interview guide with questions and themes that are formulated in a way that will give the researcher a wide understanding of the phenomenon in question. In this way the interview object and the interview situation will be less affected by constraining and steering it.
3.1.2 Interview guide In planning the research fieldwork the next step in the process was to design an interview guide. Which questions that are asked will be crucial for which answers that will be given. Therefore it is obviously important to have well formulated questions to get the best satisfying answers. Since we knew that our sample would have to be relatively random and that our interviews would be done in an informal matter, having a semi-structured interview was practical to be able to have a casual conversation with the informants but still keeping it on the right track. Our interview guide (see appendix) was structured in a way that we started to 9
ask about basic facts (questions 1, 2 and 3) and then went over to more open and meaning based questions.
3.1.3 Unit of analysis In a research work, choosing units of analysis is an important task and variables are those characteristics to the units that we want to know something about (Aase & Fossåskaret, 2010). A principal aim for most geographical research is to make useful generalizations, which mean to seek out and explain patterns, relations and fluxes that might help model, predict or otherwise understand better the human and the physical world around us (Rice, S, 2010 I: Clifford, French & Valentine, 2010). Qualitative intensive research is known for having few units with more variables unlike the quantitative orientation. In this manner we can get more details about a smaller sample of units of analysis. In qualitative research the aim is to get to know the informant and get access to their experiences concerning the theme.
3.1.4 Snowballing For this research our sample was based on qualitative sampling, which means to select informants through ‘snowballing’ (Aase, T. H. Lecture, 2014) with a number of 12 – 18 informants. Our informants was mainly Estonian-Swedish but we also talked to some Estonians. They were also both permanent and temporary residents. The variables we wanted to find out were based on e.g. their historical roots, their attachments to the place, their attraction to the place and their involvement in the local society. Snowballing was one technique we used to get in contact with other Estonian-Swedish respondents. The technique is used by researchers whereby one contact, or participant, is used to help to recruit another, who in turn puts the researcher in touch with another (Clifford, French & Valentine, 2010). We used this technique in our field work to get in touch with other Estonian-Swedish that they could tell us about or that they would recommend to us as knowing a lot about the history of the place.
3.2 Analysis and interpretation The observations that we have done had to go through a process of interpretation to transform it to useful information that will help answer the research questions. According to Aase & Fossåskaret (2010) we put observations in conceptual categories. That is how data are produced by conceptualizing observations and information, and give them meaning. Since we ourselves took part in the interviews the interpretation process and conceptualization naturally
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went on during the interview as well as after. This is one of the characteristics of qualitative research and that is why method theory often emphasizes the importance of the researchers reflectivity through the whole research process.
3.2.1 Categorization After having gathered the data it needs to be analyzed. There are no standardized techniques to be used for analyzing qualitative data (Grønmo, 2004: 245), still we have various tools that will help us contextualize the data. Categorization is an important analytical tool in qualitative research process. It is a way to understand our own data material and get a general overview.
During and after our field work we were intentional on dividing our interview questions and results in different categories so we knew we were to get answers to our research questions. We can say that we had a category about the history of the Estonian-Swedish and another on their feelings and thought about why they have their second home in this area. With doing this we organized and put together the same thoughts about the same thing that we asked our respondents about. In addition to this we analysed the interview situation and looked for any observations that could fit in to maybe describe or give meaning to some of our already findings.
3.3 Generalizability How can we know if what we present is correct and can be transferred to other cases like the one we have studied? In social scientific research generalizing our findings is difficult because it objectively is hard to verify whether the findings from our sampling actually correlates with the whole “universe” (Gobo, 2004). But that’s not the point either. On the contrary it will be more important to generalize in a way that gives a wider understanding of the subject in human geographical research (Rice, 2010). In social science generalization concerns more about general structures than units of social practises. Rather we will find aspect of a structure that can be showed in other events or cases that are similar (Gobo, 2004). Thus, we cannot promise that our findings will apply for all phenomenon of the same type, it is rather the purpose to improve the insight on this phenomenon. […] case studies should not be judged by their representativeness (or lack thereof) but by the quality of the theoretical reasoning that they generate (Richards, 1996, I: Rice, 2010. p. 232).
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4. Results and analysis After interviewing 11 Estonian-Swedish people we found out that only two person were permanently living in one of our field areas. They also shared the same house but were both registered in Sweden. That means that none of the Estonian-Swedish that we interviewed are registered in the area, and most likely there all temporary citizen that only are visiting their second homes that. So they are all summer residents and usually just visiting their summer residents between April-October.
All our Estonian-Swedish informants were exclusively descendants of ancestors that used to live in the area before the Estonian Swedes were sent to Sweden during the war. Some of them was also born in Estonia and had to flee with their family when they were young. Most of them would point out areas where some of their relatives had or have ownership of the land. It’s obvious that a lot of land was given back to the Swedes in the area but that some of it is not being used or has been bought by others. Both R1 and R3 pointed out where their mother or/and father grew up and what land themselves or one of their relatives own. Therefore the land has been handed down in the family and inherited by the people we interviewed. Most of them actually live there because of the history of their family living there before the World War 2, and both R5 and R6 pointed out quite strong that they wouldn’t have lived there if it wasn’t for that.
4.1 Changes in the foreign real estate sales and purchases To understand how Estonian-Swedish attachment with their village are changed during the time then we analysed datas from Real Estate Database. In database are datas about real estate deals in every villages, what are made by foringers. We are analysing Dirhami, Rooslepa and Spithami real estate deals in 1999-2013. Most of the real estate bought from 1999 – 2013 was in Spithami municitpality by private investors (Figure 1). Rootsiranna Real Estate Company also states that in Läänemaa municipality there was 70 residencial real estate deals in 2012 and 22 (31%) of them were done in Spithami. Rootsiranna Real Estate Company is also owned by the former mayor of Noarootsi. When it comes to foreigners in buying and selling real estate in Spithami the deals are quite equal. For example in 2004 the amount of deals done is the highest, foreigners made 14 purchases and 18 sales. One of the biggest changes comes out in 2007 when foreigners sold 18 and bought 9. Here we can assume that foreigners are Swedes and they selling their properties in the area and the community is becoming less Swedish and more mixed. 12
20 18 Buying 16 Selling 14 12
10 deals 8 6 4 2 0 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 year
Figure 1. Real estate deals in Spithami village. Source: Real Estate Database
We can assume, that Dirhami is not very popular among Estonian-Swedish (Figure 2), because there are few deals, what foreigner are made. Also during the fieldwork we recognized that in this village are not Estonian-Swedish real estates. Which could also be the reason why there is not much real estate deals done. 2008 was the year with most amount of deals also in sales and purchases. There was 3 purchases and 4 sales from foreigners. In total from 1999 – 2013 there was purchases only in 2006 and 2008. Sales were done from 2005 – 2008 and 2012.
4,5
4 Buying 3,5 Selling 3
2,5
deals 2
1,5
1
0,5
0 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 year
Figure 2. Real estate deals in Dirhami villages. Source: Real Estate Database.
Rooslepa is the second municipality out of three with the most amount of real estate deals. In Rooslepa you can notice more that foreigners have started selling more actively. In 2005 –
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2013 the selling amount is always the same as buying or particularly in 2005 – 2007 5-6 deals higher.
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Buying 14
12 Selling
10
8 deals
6
4
2
0 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 year
Figure 3. Real estate deals in Rooslepa village. Source: Real Estate Database.
4.1 Local attachment and attractiveness According to the interviews we did with the Estonian-Swedish informants we found out that there are two main factors that attract them to this area: The beautiful nature and the Swedish history of the place. In particular the beaches were important aspects of the environment that attracted them. Both R3 and R5 emphasized the importance of the beach for their children and grand children. We also observed that inside two of the informants’ (R1 and R2) house they had decorated the walls with paintings and photos of the local landscape. Several of the photos were taken by R2 himself and one of his photo of a local beach was on the cover on a book about Noarootsi. But on the other side the same couple also reported to us that the main reason for coming here and the most attractive feature of the area was based on their family history. They were, in addition to many of the other informants, attached to the areas unique nature, but this was through their historical family attachment. It is apparent from doing the interviews that these Estonian Swedes has an attachment to the place that is strong and goes beyond the attractiveness of the natural environment with the characteristic sandy beaches. Though R3, R4 and R5 mentions the importance of the beach and the surroundings they also emphasize that they would never have been here if it wasn’t for their family roots. As well as they all point out where their ancestors lived or grew up, most of them also told us unprovoked (we didn’t ask) an element of their ancestors’ history in this place. It is obvious that the areas have a strong identity that builds on their historical roots, because it has been 14
and are being mediated through images and oral and textual histories about the place. This corresponds to what Müller (2002), Paris (2009) and Pitkänen (2008) states about that sometimes the attachment or the sense of place is more important for people when getting a second home. With that meaning that other decisive factors to get a second home somewhere else than your home country also can be emotional connection, affinity and roots which tempt people to spend their time in these areas. And this was quite obviously through our field work and at the interviews we did in the area, that all of the Estonian-Swedish felt their roots to their ancestors to be the main reason to why they want to have their summer residents there.
So there is something with this place that attaches them through the Swedish history in Estonia. Most of them told us about the history from when their parents lived here and how they had to flee. It was evidently a dramatic experience related to this that has made some of them not wanting to go back to the same area as their families before the Second World War. R4 said that they were all doubtful about returning because of bad stories and memories they had from World War 2, but that some of them eventually did come back after hearing nice things about the place during the past two decades from other relatives. R6 also emphasizes the stories and the rumours she heard about Noarootsi when she grew up in Sweden. She remembers it as a strong and important thing in her family.
“And then when we were going to eat dinner in the evening…all the parents lived around here in the area (Sweden). I remember that they talked about “Tierheim”…That meant “där hemma” (English translation: the home over there)…tierheim, tierheim, tierheim. And they talked about different farms and people. And for us, me and my little brother, we didn’t know what this was, so we perceived that as a saga. We sat around the table and they didn’t care much about us, they just talked about, when they met in the evenings, “där hemma, där hemma, där hemma”…As fast as we got the possibility we both built houses here, and my sister has built and my sisters daughter has built. It becomes a “saga-place”… but they were always happy when they spoke of this “där hemma” (R6).
This illustrates how the Estonian-Swedish society has been preserved during the time the families lived in Sweden. The attachment to Noarootsi was thus strong though they didn’t have the possibility to go back then. Consequently the connection to Noarootsi was transferred to their children and their children’s children that today are the ones who own second houses there. It was based on a storytelling and Paris (2009) says that if a person has
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been spending his childhood in some permanent place then in the future it can be likely that this person will build his future second home in this area. And then this factor for having a second home will be of his emotional attachment to this place. So we can say that this storytelling on the one side are being related to something sad, from the war, but also something idyllic that is part of their family identity.
Also the fact that they could inhere or buy their property cheap was an important factor for them to come here. Although they didn’t directly answer that this was something that attracted them they all mentioned that they had inherited land or bought it cheap from other relatives. Most of them also owned big parts of land and had other relatives that also owned a lot of land.
A fourth decisive factor could have been the strong Estonian-Swedish community that now exists in the area. Like all the informants R4 (group interview) emphasized, they all came here together after being persuaded by a common relative.
“...all the swedes in the area are related somehow.” (R5). The older informants all reported that they basically knew every Estonian-Swede that was in this “Svenske Förening” (see next section), which consists of around 1000 people.
As already mentioned, only one of the informants (R6) was more or less a permanent resident and she was also the only one who had any contact with other Estonians in the area. She told us that she was wanted to learn Estonian to learn more about Noarootsi’s history. This was actually a unique finding in this context because none of the other informants seemed interested in “the Estonian” aspect of the area. They reported that they never interacted with Estonian, mainly because of the language, but also because of different identity and behaviour. They would rather contact other Estonian-Swedes in distant part of Noarootsi than their closest neighbour. This shows how their regional identity isn’t necessarily based on the territorial, but on a community that shares common culture, values and language.
An observation that intrigued us was that they also still had Swedish names for different places on the Estonian west coast. R1 and R2 listed up different places where they knew Estonian-Swedes in the area, but they couldn’t come up with the actual Estonian names. This can be interpreted as they having a strong attachment to this place, but in the sense of something Swedish, not Estonian as it actually is.
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4.2 Local involvement Referring to the research question that asked what impacts the Estonian-Swedish second home owners have on the local society we did get quite similar respondents on how they involved themselves in the Estonian-Swedish areas. As mentioned, all of the Swedes mostly spoke only to each other, and this could maybe confirm that the Swedes are more associated to each other rather than being involved with the different nationalities present in area. But we have some results that can show that those who live there permanently are more attached to the whole society, not just the Estonian-Swedes.
Something that was consistently in our result was that all of the Estonian-Swedes were members of a Swedish association. Both R1 and R2 could tell us that they were members of a Swedish association, called ‘Svenska föreninga’ with over a thousand members from all over the area of the west coast of Estonia (Noarootsi, Vormsi, Sarremaa and Hiiuma). In the association it seems, out from what R1 told us, that they write documents about what’s happening in these areas and just keep in touch with each other through this association. In addition they arrange every year, in the summer, a “getting-together-week” called the “Hemvändarveckan” in Swedish, with the other Estonian-Swedes in the same association. So actually we can say that with this association the impacts from the Estonian-Swedish society mostly are within themselves, and maybe not so much with other nationalities in the same area. But since there live a lot of Estonian-Swedes in the two locations that we chose and got our results from, we can say that they contribute in a way that mostly affects only the Estonian-Swedes. But maybe more in a social way, which can relate to their sense of place, it’s good to have a place where people feel attached to it in a sort of the same way. With that meaning that a sort of shared sense of place is making the Estonian-Swedes to feel good about the place, and in turn the place reflects that it’s a good society there. Another thing that we observed during one of the interview was when R1 was talking about the different places in West-Estonia she used the Swedish names instead of the local Estonian ones. And this could maybe confirm more that the Swedes in the area are more attached to these places as Swedish than of Estonian. So especially she, but also several others might have a stronger attachment to the Swedish history from the past, and that they still talk about them in these terms today as well.
R1 told us as well that they did not take any part in municipality work but when there had been an Estonian-Swedish mayor in Noarootsi they felt more that they could contribute or 17
take more part in the society. Maybe this could tell us that the distances between the municipality and the second home owners have increased in the last couple of years, or just that it just has been something natural because the mayor now is Estonian.
R4, R5 and R6 were all also members of the Swedish Association. And in addition to that they all could tell us that they mostly talked to other swedes in the area of Noarootsi.
None of these finding where sort of surprising, but could more or less confirm that the Estonian-Swedish society in Noarootsi is quite strong. One of the people of the group of R5 was actually the leader of the Swedish association and had been that the last ten years. The group interview (R5) were also saying something about a tradition with a big bonfire in late august, but this as like some of the other gatherings also seemed to be something that only the Swedes where doing together.
R6 then told us that she takes part in a voluntary organization with both Estonian and swedes present, where they also have an interpreter that translate the language barrier between them. In this organization they gather and talk together about what is happening in the area and shares theirs meanings and thoughts about different things. They have different errands and discuss topics or events that are relevant for the society. It’s also a social part where they have a lottery. This is the only respondent that we were interviewing that contributes more to the local society in an Estonian manner than the others we’ve talked to. And this could maybe have something to do with that she was the only one living there permanently.
4.2.1 Estonian-Swedish impacts on the local community Different second home researchers have been discussing the second home phenomenon´s positive and negative sides. Our Estonian intervieweers said that mainly Estonian-Swedish are very friendly and kind but their communication is not so deep because Estonian-Swedish don´t speak Estonian or English. Some younger Estonian-Swedish speak English but the elder Estonians don´t and so there is a lack of communication.
Mainly Estonian-Swedish have a positive influence to the local community. They have their own NGO Noarootsi-Riguldi Kodukandiühing which connects all Estonian-Swedish who are linked to Noarootsi and who own real estate there. This NGO was started at the same time when Estonia started with restitution and it was Noarootsi´s mayor´s Ülo Kalm´s idea. He suggested to create this NGO to share information between two sides, Estonian-Swedish and
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the municipality. At the moment Noarootsi-Riguldi Kodukandiühing is very active, they have their own events in Noarootsi. Also this NGO is collecting money to support local people who include for example kindergarten, students, retirees, handicapped people etc. Estonian- Swedish have been collecting money to renovete different churches which have collapsed during time(Rooslepa, Osmussaare). They also supported Noarootsi municipality when they had the idea to recreate Noarootsi Gymnasium where students will be able to learn Swedish. Today the Noarootsi-Riguldi Kodukandiühing helps to find teachers from Sweden. Every year students have the oppurtunity to go abroad for an exchange program in Sweden.
Intervieweers said during the interview that they feel communication between Estonian- Swedish and the municipality was better when Noarootsi´s mayor was Ülo Kalm. Begin of the 90´s Ülo Kalm recognized that connection with Estonian-Swedish is very important and it may have been the result of the fact that Ülo Kalm´s father was also Estonian-Swedish. Ülo Kalm said that the main aim of his work in municipality is to make the land reform as successful as possible. So he started to learn Swedish to provide better communication with Estonian-Swedish. Which later became the reason why Ülo Kalm is so respected in the Swedish-Estonian community. Ülo Kalm said that he thanks the successful restitution of lands every day because every Estonian-Swedish who renovated or rebuilt their houses brought one milion krones profit to the municipality. Restitution´s positive side is also the fact that a lot of Noarootsi houses are good-looking and land is well maintained. Due to that Ülo Kalm has arranged good communication which has led to having no conflicts in Noarootsi between the Estonian-Swedish and Estonians.
5. Conclusion Aim of this research was to study Noarootsi three village second home owners, specially Estonian-Swedish. We used mainly two theories, place of sense and second home phenomenon. Also me made 11 semi-structured interviews with Estonian-Swedes and 7 with Estonians.
In reference to the first research question we cannot say for certain how the Swedish-Estonian population has changed during the last ten years. But according to our research findings we can point out some trends that shows that more and more Swedish-Estonian have been coming back to the area after the restitution. Our informants reported that they built their second house in this area during the period from 1998 until today. Though this population
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seems to be getting older there were evidence showing that new generations of Estonian- Swedes are now building second homes here and bringing their children. Mainly middle aged Estonian-Swedes will be interested about their roots so for others it seems like Estonian- Swedes population are ageing.
Concerning the research question about the Estonian-Swedish’ sense of place and their attachment we found that they have developed a place identity to this area that is strongly linked to their family history. They all seem to have an emotional attachment to this place that makes them come here and establish second houses.
This case corresponds well with Relph’s (1976) arguments about how the identity of this place has aged with the people. Through the years the Estonian-Swedish that now live there temporarily have kept this identity through positive stories and images about the place and thus keeping its identity. This also reflect another point that Relph (1976) make about have the physical environment are linked to the sense of place through identity.
Our third research question was about Estonian-Swedes influence to local community. During the interviews people were saying that Estonian-Swedes have positive influence for local community because they are supporting different people and organisations. Estonian-Swedes community seems closed, but due to that they don´t speak Estonian and English. Mainly they are very kind and friendly with other village people. Sometimes they have common events like bonfires and sports games.
Estonian-Swedes are very grateful second homeowners because they support local community and they never protest if local community are planning something, which is helpful for local community.
References
Aase T.H. og Fossåskaret E. 2007: Skapte Virkeligheter. Om produksjon og tolkning av kvalitative data (unnateke kapittel 2 og 6). Universitetsforlaget, Oslo. Clifford N, French, S., Valentine, G. (eds 2010): Key Methods in Geography. Sage Publications, London. Crang, M. 1998: Cultural Geography. London: Routledge. Dijst, M., Lanzendorf, M., Smit, L. 2004: Second homes in Germany and the Netherlands: Ownership and travel impact explained. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 96 (2):139-152.
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Dixon, J., Durrheim, K. 2000: Displacing place-identity: a discursive approach to locating self and other. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39:27-44. Drucker, P.F. 1993: Post-capitalist Society. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Farstad, M. 2011: Rural residents´ opinions about second home owners´ pursuit of own interests in the host community, Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrit- Norwegian Journal of Geography, 65(3):165-174. Gallent, N., Mace, A., Tewdwr-Jones, M. 2003: Dispelling a myth? Second homes in rural Wales, Area, 35(3):271-284. Gobo, G. 2004: Sampling, representativeness and generalizability. In Seale, C., Gobo, G., Gubrium J.F., Silverman D. (red): Qualitative Research Practice. Sage Publications, London. Grønmo, S. 2004: Samfunnsvitenskapelige metoder, Bergen, Fagbokforlaget. Jorgensen, B., Steadman, R. 2001: Sense of place as an attitude: lakeshore owners attitudes toward their properties. Journal of Environmental Psychology 21:233-248. Järvinen, M. 2005: ”Interview i en interaktionistisk begrepsramme,” i Margaretha Longhurst, R. 2010: «Semi-structured Interviws and Focus Groups» i Clifford, N., French, S. og Valentine (red) Key Methods in Geography. Sage Publications, London. Lynch, K. 1960: The Image of the City. Cambridge:Massachussettes, MIT Press. Maa-amet, 2014: http://www.maaamet.ee/index.php?lang_id=1&page_id=1&menu_id=1&no_cache=14007963 77 Mogstad, L. M. T. og Nisted, I. M (mangler årstall)/Høines, Ø. red. Primære og sekundære datakilder [Internett], Nasjonal digital læringsarena. Tilgjengelig fra:
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Raagmaa, G. 2002: Regional identity in regional development and planning. European Planning Studies, 10(1): 55-76. Raagmaa, G. 2000: Territorial Identity and Public Leaders in Regional Economic Development. Towards the New Approach in Regional Policy: Cultural Geography Theories in Explaining Economic Growth. Dissertationes Geographicae Univestitatis Tartuensis 12 Tartu: Tartu University Press. Rice, S. 2010: “Sampling in Geography” i Clifford, N., French, S. og Valentine (red) Key Methods in Geography. Sage Publications, London. Rootsiranna, 2014: http://rootsiranna.ee/. Rye, F., Berg, G.N. 2011: The second home phenomen and Norwegian rurality, Norsk Geografisk Tiddskrift- Norwegian Journal of Geography, 65(3):126-136. Statistikaamet, 2014. www.stat.ee Tuan, Y.-F. 1996: Space and place: humanistic perspective, in J. Agnew, D.N. Livingstone and A. Rogers (Eds), Human Geography. An Essential Anthology, Oxford: Blackwell, 444- 457. White, P. 2010: «Making Use of Secondary Data» i Clifford, N., French, S. og Valentine (red) Key Methods in Geography. Sage Publications, London. Winterton, R., Warburton, J. 2012: Ageing in the bush: The role of rural places in maintaining identity for long term rural residents and retirement migrants in north-east Victoria, Australia. Jourlan of Rural Studies, 28:329-337.
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Interview guide (translated from Norwegian/Swedish)
Descriptive basic facts:
1. Where are you from? 2. How many lives in this house (or use it)? 3. How often do you come here? 4. Have long have you been living her/having a summerhouse here? a. Is it bought or inherited?
Local attachment:
5. Why is it attractive for you to live here? a. Your identity related to the place… b. What do you like about this place?
Local involvement
6. Do you have good contact with all your neighbours? 7. Is it mostly Swedish people you interact with or also with the local Estonians? 8. Do you take part in any local events? a. Are they mainly Swedish? b. Any municipal work?
General perception
9. Do you feel that the local society is nice here? 10. Do you have the perception that more swedes are coming to the area and that the future perspective is positive for the Estonian Swedish-milieu here?
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Figure 4. Estonians houses in Dirhami village. Source: Estonian Land Board
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Figure 5. Germans, Russians, Estonian-Swedish and Estonians houses in Rooslepa village. Source: Estonian Land Board
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Figure 6. Estonians, Estonian-Swedish and Germas houses in Spithami village, part I. Source: Estonian Land Board
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Figure 7. Estonian-Swedish, Estonians, Germans and Russians houses in Spithami village, part II. Source: Estonian Land Board 27
Figure 8. Estonians, Estonian-Swedish, Russians and Swiss houses in Spithami village, part III. Source: Estonian Land Board
45 Dirhami 40 Rooslepa 35 Spithami 30
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inhabitants 20
15
10
5 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 year
Figure 9. Inhabitants dynamic in Dirhami, Rooslepa and Spithami village. Source: Noarootsi Municipality
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