Browsing by Subject "dwelling"

This thesis examines the sociality between mushroom pickers and mushrooms in the Greater Helsinki region of Southern Finland. The focus of the thesis is on interspecies social relations and interaction, and there is an emphasis on the role of place in the material mediation of these relationships. Examining these relationships, a discussion then follows about whether these observations are enough to suggest a “mushroom personhood” in the cultural thought of mushroom enthusiasts. The thesis endeavors to further the understanding of the social interconnections of different lifeforms by examining how mushroomers and mushrooms engage with each other as well as their surroundings in the forest. The thesis is positioned within current debates over the possible causes and fixes for the global environmental crisis. The aim of the thesis is to shed light on the importance of context in mediating relationships between humans and other-than-humans, as well as to consider whether this interspecies sociality might have implications on understandings of personhood in the West. Fungi are a distinct kingdom of organisms, which include mushrooms. In this thesis, the term “mushroom” is used to refer to the visible fruiting bodies of a larger subterranean organism called the mycelium. Mushrooms are picked for sale, consumption, and various other purposes in many countries, and mushroom picking is a common hobby in Finland. The ethnographic data for this thesis was gathered through fieldwork among recreational mushroomers from the Greater Helsinki region over the period of two autumns in 2019 and 2020. This fieldwork comprised of participant observation with sixteen mushroom enthusiasts, supplemented by four recorded unstructured interviews. The ethnographic focus of the thesis is on how humans who engage in mushroom picking express their knowledge of the connections between different lifeforms, and how things like emotion, memory and experience inform their movement and decision-making in the forest. There is a special emphasis on how mushroomers speak about and to mushrooms, and how they describe their appearance and behavior. The primary theoretical framework for the thesis builds on Tim Ingold’s work in environmental anthropology, with a focus on the notion of dwelling. The dwelling perspective is employed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the interconnectedness of different lifeforms within their material environments. Special consideration is given to how the concept of “place” is created by—and conversely mediates—human–mushroom relationships. In this thesis, place is seen as a temporal concept fundamentally emergent in practice, created by an interplay of human and other-than-human activity in a material environment over time. The ethnographic evidence presented in this thesis points to significant sociality, respect, personification, and care between human mushroom pickers and mushrooms. Examples of such sociality range from the use of respectful and caring language in describing mushrooms, to directly speaking to the mushrooms themselves. Furthermore, the ethnographic data include examples of how mushroom pickers perceive mushroom behavior, appearance, and intentionality, and commonly use anthropomorphic language to describe them. The question of other-than-human personhood is discussed in relation to these observations, and the thesis suggests that mushrooms may indeed be considered relational persons within these highly social contexts. Sociality between humans and other species is often overlooked in research on Western societies, especially when it comes to fungi and other non-animals. The thesis presents an example of an attentive and respectful relationship between humans and other lifeforms within a contemporary Western sociocultural context and is thus positioned against the prevalent idea of a hyperseparation between nature and culture in the West.

This thesis deals with how meaningful landscapes are created through experiences in everyday life. As European governments seek to implement the European Landscape Convention into policy, landscapes and their relationships with its inhabitants must be understood on a more fundamental level. In addition to understanding how meaningful landscapes are created, this thesis also sheds light on the relationships between landscapes and social and societal change. Landscape here is then more than a simple scenery or representation; it is temporal and dynamic and the context of our dwelling. Two related but different landscapes in the Southwest Finland archipelago are studied through the application of the phenomenological approach. The first centres around the former ironworks town of Dalsbruk, including the surrounding region of Dragsfjärd. The second centres around Hitis village in the Hitis archipelago. Special attention is also given to the Purunpää nature conservation area in Dragsfjärd as it relates to changing attitudes regarding the landscape. Material collected during two months of fieldwork includes interviews with 11 people, informal discussions, first-person observations, and archival materials in the form of historical photographs and factory magazines from Dalsbruk provided by the town’s ironworks museum. By combining the dwelling perspective at the core of the phenomenological approach to landscapes with a historical, political and environmental context in the form of an environmental history of the region, the process of the landscape’s becoming is revealed and the various meanings that it holds for people are illuminated. Not only has the landscape had an enormous effect on where settlements have been founded, it has also shaped the livelihoods of its inhabitants. At the same time generation after another has left their mark on the landscape, shaping the way people today relate to it. This study covers how the physical landscape embodies the social hierarchies of previous generations as a materialisation of their dwelling. It deals with how stories and place names make landscapes and places meaningful for the local population by evoking a shared history and identity of a place. Additionally, subjective memories and experiences affect how people perceive the landscape and how different people find it to be meaningful. This has an impact on how both the past and future of a place or landscape is imagined, leading to the conclusion that they are always contested. Landscapes in the Archipelago Sea region are revealed to be filled with values and meanings far beyond the aesthetic.

Second-home tourism or leisure living is an individually and societally significant form of activity in Finland. Approximately every other Finn regularly uses leisure-oriented second homes, causing considerable mobility and temporal variation in regional populations. Combined with permanent dwelling, leisure living is a multi-local living arrangement where the forms of housing interact. While individual factors associated with housing are generally well-understood, the role of permanent residence and especially the living environment in the background of second home tourism and related individual decision-making remains a less-explored phenomenon. This thesis examines the significance of permanent residential environment in relation to leisure living in Finland. Second home tourism is approached as a form of multi-local living and factors influencing it are studied mostly from the perspective of individual decision-making. The thesis seeks to answer whether the characteristics of permanent residential environment explain the amount of leisure living in Finland. This question is addressed by statistically analyzing the connection of the living environment and other factors with the individual's time spent in leisure homes. Additionally, the thesis considers how the characteristics of residential environment can be measured and addressed in general. The thesis is a part of DeCarbon Home research project and utilizes a survey (n=1446) conducted in spring 2022 as its primary data, supplemented by geospatial data representing the residential environments. After preliminary examinations, the final multivariate model tested the statistical relationship of a total of 18 explanatory variables to the number of nights an individual spent in leisure homes. Explanatory variables included four variables describing the residential environment, ownership of leisure home, as well as a comprehensive set of factors related to housing, demographics, and socio-economic status. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression was employed as the modeling method due to the overdispersion and zero-inflation of the response variable. The results indicate that the perceived general type of the permanent residential environment and more local building density are associated with leisure living in Finland. Living in a denser and more urban environment is linked to a greater amount of time spent in leisure homes. Other significant predictors include owning a second home, higher age, and an appreciation for the tranquility of the living environment. The results support previous observations regarding the connection between urbanity and density with forms of recreation that complement or compensate for deficiencies in the permanent residential environment. However, the naturalness of the residential environment does not explain the amount of leisure living. Individual preferences and choices as well as limiting factors related to housing makes it difficult to empirically demonstrate the real impact of residential environment on individual actions. The thesis does not establish a direct causal relationship between the characteristics of a permanent residential environment and leisure living. Still, the residential environment is stated to have a prominent role in the multi-local living arrangements. Experiential knowledge regarding residential environment is found essential alongside more objective indicators. The thesis highlights the importance of viewing housing as a whole, where areas and forms of living are interconnected. Land use planning should consider the connection between permanent residential environment and leisure living and its comprehensive consequences for individual well-being and different regional structures.