| 1. |
- Fåhraeus, Cecilia, 1981-
(författare)
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Drawing a Livelihoodscape from the Slum : Towards a spatial understanding of gendered livelihoods in Zambia
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overarching aim of the thesis was to draw a livelihoodscape from the slum. The questions guiding this endeavour were: Where do slum dwellers carry out their livelihood activities and how can these spatial livelihood patterns be understood? This involved outlining how livelihoods emerged from and interacted with the slum; following how they detached themselves and unfolded further in urban space; and finally, how they transcended the urban territory and migrated onwards to translocal destinations. Material was collected through surveys, semi-structured interviews and observations in three slum settlements in Lusaka, encompassing 459 research participants.Mapping slum dwellers’ livelihood spatialities generated insights with implications for livelihood theory, but also for Southern/subaltern urban theory and in particular the workings of African cities. First, it revealed that the residential settlement played a critical role in the execution of people’s livelihoods. Mobility constraints attributed to affordability and time poverty contributed to this outcome, but equally important were localised processes of information sharing, matching and learning. At the same time, livelihood activities connected the residential settlement to other key locations in the city, creating a complex system of flows and interactions. The importance of particular sites in the city for slum dwellers’ economic activities could be connected to colonial and post-colonial planning regimes, intermingling with global economic shifts and development policies. But to a limited degree, slum dwellers also carried out livelihood activities beyond the urban scope; such as engaging in agriculture on rural farmland and conducting interurban and cross-border trade. These translocal livelihoods were to a significant extent enabled by social capital. Gender constituted an evident axis of differentiation, with women’s economic activities being more spatially constrained than men’s. This was associated with patriarchal control, disproportional involvement in reproductive chores, limited access to assets, but also a colonial history of spatial marginalisation.By drawing on diverse sets of scholarship, this thesis was able to problematise notions of the African city as a site of contingency and crisis, and demonstrate how it can be characterised by flux as well as permanence; marginalisation as well as integration; alienation and fellowship, all at the same time.
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| 2. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Attitudes towards landed property among local and absentee landowners in North West Estonia
- 2009
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The coastal region of North-West Estonia has a great potential for summer tourism and second homes. During the Soviet period it was a military zone as well as national property and in consequence not exploited for other purposes than strategically. The restitution process of the 1990´s has returned some of the land to former owners and their heirs, while other parts have been sold through public auctions. The descendants of the pre-Soviet landowners, who have had their land restituted, to a large extent live abroad or in remote towns. An intensive land market has developed and exploitation has taken place, at the same time as there is competition between those who want to build summer cottages, those who want to build wind power plants and those who want to restrict use in order to preserve the valuable landscapes and the habitat. Three main types of private landowners can be identified: First, those with restituted land and have strong emotional bonds to the property of their ancestors and are often unwilling to sell, even though many, at least of those absentees living far away, hardly utilise their domains for anything but a small summer cottage. Secondly, those who prefer the rural calm and forests and build their houses as remotely as possible. Finally, there are urban dwellers for whom rural traditions of behaviour mean little and who have bought an attractive plot for a considerable sum of money, on the other hand, have rapidly built a house, not infrequently within the prohibited 100 m coastal zone, and love to fence off hikers, campers and tourists with fences and signs indicating that this is private land. The private landowner study is based on a postal survey and interviews. In the paper, we discuss the conflicting interests between the private landowners and the public interests, and how they might affect present and future land use and landscape development.
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| 3. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Balancing family traditions and business : Gendered strategies for achieving future resilience among agricultural students
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Rural Studies. - : Elsevier. - 0743-0167 .- 1873-1392. ; :35, s. 152-161
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper emphasises the future generation of farmers, a group that has been relatively neglected in previous research. Based on focus group interviews, it highlights Swedish agricultural students’ gendered strategies to create a successful farm business in the future, along with the opportunities and obstacles they foresee in generational succession and their future farming activities. The interviews are analysed within the framework of resilience theory, focusing on adaption and renewal. Students highlight the importance of balancing emotional bonds to family and traditions with business goals. It is shown that strategies of renewal are guided by social values. The solitary farmer is replaced by a networking farmer that gathers knowledge in local and international settings. The view of how a partner contributes is, on the one hand, traditional while also showing signs of gender role transformation. We argue that a functioning ‘work-love balance’ reinforces resilience processes in farming.
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| 4. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-
(författare)
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Emotional bonds as obstacles to land sale : attitudes to land among local and absentee landowners in Northwest Estonia
- 2011
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Ingår i: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 99:1, s. 31-39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the importance of the emotional attachment to land among landowners affected by Soviet collectivisation, relatively few studies have focused on this question. In Estonia, the land restitution process in the 1990s made it possible to return nationalised property to its former owners or their heirs. Many of these now live abroad or in other parts of the country. This paper shows that the opportunity to own restituted property may create strong emotional bonds to land. This study also attempts to discuss what these bonds mean to different categories of landowners and how this can affect attitudes to land and plans for the future. The study is based on a postal survey and interviews. One implication of a strong attachment to land can be reluctance to sell the land. A group of absentee owners wants to keep the land as preventive owners without using it. This non-active land ownership has implications for the area, with its potential for tourism and second homes. A historically rooted emotional attachment to land among owners of restituted property is most common among the locals and the Swedish owners. Memories associated with the land in question are identified as one important aspect of the evolvement of such emotional bonds. On the basis of the results I argue that those among the next generation of absentee owners who lack these kinds of memories could be more inclined to sell family land in the future.
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| 5. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Estonian family farms in transition : a study of intangible assets and gender issues in generational succession
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 38:3, s. 329-339
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper, based on interviews, highlights intangible assets in the intergenerational transfer of farms in two Estonian municipalities from a long-term and gender perspective. The study stretches from the interwar period in the twentieth century up to the present. It has been shown that emotional bonds to the land are generally strong in Estonia. This paper aims to highlight how such bonds and feelings may influence decisions on generational succession.The results of the study indicate that family farming and land transfer have had a significant and persistent role in Estonian society, even during the Soviet period under its collectivised system of agriculture. Transfers of intangible assets were important during Soviet rule, for example, the transfer of knowledge about the pre-Soviet property and the value and importance of the farmhouse. Today, family farming is gradually declining in importance, but older traditions of farm and farmhouse transfer can still be found, such as early decisions on who is to be the successor. This is evident among active farmers but also among former farmers with strong emotional bonds to the land. Traditional gender roles tend towards men’s knowledge still generally being more highly valued in the decision about who is to be the successor to the family land.
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| 6. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-
(författare)
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From Farms to Second Homes : Gendered Strategies for Generational Change in Noarootsi, Estonia 1880-2006
- 2009
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Ingår i: Trends in Land Succession. - Cluj Napoca : Cluj University Press. - 9789736108525 ; , s. 135-153
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper addresses the question of how the transferral of farms within the family line took place in Noarootsi, Estonia, in the period 1880-2006. The main objective is to analyse how transfer strategies have changed through the investigated period. An important question here is how traditional views of a successor’s abilities based on his/her gender have affected a parent’s choice of heir or heiress. It is argued that those abilities have been assessed quite differently over the studied period. Many potential successors and parents emphasizing farm specific capital favoured the eldest son as heir, in the period 1880-1944. During the era of collectivisation, parents still wanted a family heir to take over the farmhouse and this frequently became a younger child, since the older children had often already settled elsewhere. The preference for a male heir is less evident compared to the earlier period. One explanation could be that the need for adequate farming skills had diminished. Parents were equally content for a daughter to take over the farm, a possible reason being that a daughter would ensure care for the elderly parents. The main aim of the Estonian land restitution process was to restore land to its former owners prior to the Soviet occupation. It again became possible to run a private farm, but most of the farms in Noarootsi have already been liquidated. The only agriculture that remains is a few large farms and some smallholders with plots used to supplement incomes such as pensions. Today it is still considered important that the farm stays within the family, even if the house is perhaps only used as a summer cottage. The most valued quality of a possible heir/heiress is a genuine interest in the farmhouse. The results presented in this study are based on both documentary sources and interviews.
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| 7. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-
(författare)
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Gender contracts in Estonian coastal farming families, 1870-1939
- 2012
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Ingår i: The History of the Family. - : Routledge. - 1081-602X .- 1873-5398. ; 17:4, s. 434-451
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper deals with families that lived on the North West coast of Estonia from 1870 to 1939. This period involved a successive transition to a monetary economy for the family farmer and an increasing need for cash to be able to pay rents and debts arising from land purchases. A farm perspective is used to show the complexity of effects of societal changes on the gender division of labour. The study highlights how practices evolve within a specific spatial context in terms of adjustment of gender contracts. It is demonstrated that husbands and wives on farms involved in fishing and seafaring negotiated flexible gender contracts, in which women were flexible and took over men’s work. Such contracts evolved when the men were absent from the farm due to fishing and seafaring duties. Flexible gender contracts developed if other solutions, such as hiring farmhands, were impossible to arrange. Small farms could develop a gender contract for collaboration at sea in which women accompanied their husbands on fishing trips. The results, which are based on interviews and archive sources, indicate that the smaller the family farm, the more inclined women were to take over traditional men’s work. It is argued that different gender contracts are parallel phenomena and that they often seem to be temporary, since they are evaluated in relation to the standard gender contract that acts as a norm in society.
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| 8. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Landowners’ relation to Land and Forest : Land use among Private Owners in Two Estonian Counties
- 2010
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Ingår i: Recasting the peacful revolution of ´89. Roots and Legacies, Södertörn University college 22-24 October.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper presents the major findings from two large surveys among private land and forest owners in two Estonian Counties: Põlvamaa and Läänemaa. Põlva County in south-east Estonia is the most forest dominated region, with more than half of its area covered with forests. Läänemaa, a coastal county in the north-west has a potential for summer tourism and second homes. Our departure for this comparative study is to be found in the two interlinked processes of restitution and privatisation after 1991. On the one hand, we will explore the different rationales for obtaining land and forest property, and on the other hand we will analyse the individual property holders’ relations to - and use of – land and forests. The two main rationales appearing from the survey: emotional or economic, can be explained and related to legacies from different property structures, i.e. the interwar independence and the Soviet years, which seems to have affected the owners’ relation to property. Thus, we can see that the respondent’s express different rationalities, ambitions and attitudes to the actual property depending on if the property was obtained through restitution or through privatisation. It is shown that despite the demand for land in the coastal region many landowners choose to maintain or recreate family property, even if the land or forest is not actively used. As in the case of Põlva County this is explained by the emotional bonds to land that exists among owners to restituted property.
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| 9. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Retired Farmers and New Land Users: How Relations to Land and People Influence Farmers' Land Transfer Decisions
- 2018
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 58, s. 707-725
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Access to land is a key challenge for prospective farmers in Europe. Retiring family farmers who lack a successor resort to leasing or selling their land, but the decision has implications for the community and the rural landscape for generations to come. It is thus crucial to know more about values and decisions linked to keeping, leasing or selling land, and the opportunities these provide for young farmers seeking to establish a business. It is also important to consider the choice of lessee/buyer and the relationship between the former farmer and lessee/buyer. This study is based on interviews with retired farmers, young farmers and farm advisors in Sweden. The results revealed that the lessee/buyer tends to be carefully chosen by the outgoing farmer and that non-monetary values and motivations, such as social interaction and concern for the environment, the rural community and the agricultural landscape are important. In some cases, the relationship between landowner/former farmer and lessee/buyer resembled family ties. The decision to lease/sell sometimes appeared to be a relief for the retiring farmer. For some lessees/buyers a close relationship with the former farmer provided valuable mentorship, while others valued the greater degree of freedom in leasing/buying compared with inheritance.
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| 10. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-
(författare)
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Sillar och mullvadar : Jordägande och etnicitet i Estlands svenskbygder 1816-1939
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation focuses on the Swedish minority that settled in Estonia in early medieval times. It illustrates the importance of linking the survival of an ethnic group with the issue of land ownership. The ethnic composition and settlement patterns of Swedes and Estonians are analysed from a long-term perspective. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the process of land purchase, which took place primarily at the end of the 19th century, and the land reform of 1919. The study is based on both archival sources and interview material. This has allowed for ethnic status, as recorded in various written documents, to be related to the population’s own views on ethnic identity.Research shows that the major in-migration of Estonians to the previously Swedish areas took place in connection with the transition from corvée duties to wage labour during the second half of the 19th century. Estonians generally lived close to the estates or as cottagers in the villages whereas the majority of the Swedish inhabitants were tenants. Land purchases led to an increase in the number of Estonian farm heads in a majority of the villages. Some of the Estonian families that bought farms were newcomers. Landless Estonian estate workers and cottagers were also given the opportunity to buy farms on the estates where they lived. Another factor that serves to explain the numerous Estonian land purchases is that a number of Swedes switched ethnic status, especially in connection with marriage. The land reform of 1919 did not generally lead to any more substantial in-migration of Estonians into the Swedish villages. It appears that the best opportunities for the retention of Swedish ethnicity were found in villages where few Estonians had purchased farms and where there was thus a high degree of continuity within the Swedish population. This study discusses the relations between Swedes and Estonians, or “herrings” and “moles” as they called each other in school. It analyses the ways in which the Swedish population group was influenced by the increasing size of the Estonian population and argues that Swedes who switched ethnic status and language could nonetheless retain a strong sense of their Swedish identity.
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