Same-same but different : Gendering forest ownership in Sweden

• Globally, gender has been identified in research as a salient dimension embedded in the social relations of forests. While research related to the Global South is abundant on this topic, the scholarly output from the Global North is sparser. Based on the theoretical understanding of gendering as ongoing contested spatial and constitutive differencing practices, this study, through a qualitative approach, aims to examine and analyse the constitution of private forest ownership in the boreal and production-oriented setting of Sweden. A thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 25 female and 26 male forest owners was conducted. Many of the interviewees did not express a gendered experience of their forest ownership, and a diversity in practices of gendering was demonstrated. Also, the analysis highlighted how the gendering of activities, experiences, expectations, and forest values was constructed by emphasising differences through a complementary or dichotomy-related understanding of gender, and by associating specific bodies (women/men) with specific spaces (forest/household), tasks (manual forest labour/domestic labour), characteristics (strong/caring), and perspectives (economic/ecological). This construction contributes to a reproduction of the power of specific production-oriented masculinities and values, e.g. by marking distance or difference to femininities. In the gendering of forest ownership, doing ‘difference’ was highlighted both as a means of ‘othering’ and as a positive and innovative way of resisting and negotiating, as well as a way of reasserting and constituting the current gendered forest ownership and the production-oriented context of forestry in Sweden.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Genusstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Gender Studies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Gender

Forest owners

Forestry

Masculinity

Femininity

Space

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)