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Placemaking in Swedish rural areas : : The role of permaculture farmers in the rural dynamism.

Recent event drew the attention of many on the food security and resilience issues. Climate change also questions our capacity to produce food and minimize our impact on soil, water, and biodiversity. The lack of dynamism of the rural areas and the crisis the conventional farmers are going through, forces us to look at other horizons. Permaculture farming, a concept created in the 70’s during the oil crisis, already questioned the conventional farming model and its long-term sustainability, almost ten years before the Brundtland report. Now the permaculture principles have spread in various parts of the world, permaculture farms can be found in many countries, with different climates and different practices. But what about Sweden? In this study we looked at the permaculture farming in the Swedish context. We will try to uncover the processes and realities behind it, we tried to look at the establishment process in the first time, then we focus on the personal motives behind this establishment. In a third question we questioned how they create local or global interactions through their farm and finally we interrogated how this contribute to the placemaking of the communities they are implanted in. To answers those questions, we used the theories of placemaking, neo-endogenous rural development and sustainable livelihoods. We proceeded to four interviews with permaculture practitioners, all located in Sweden. The data we gathered and analyzed through a thematic analysis showed that the farmers engaged in a variety of interactions with their community and even beyond. The results underline the significant role of these farmers in creating dynamism in their rural community and being active actors of the placemaking of their communities. Moreover, the study depicts the potential and the current limitations that farmers are facing. The study shows that permaculture farmers can be important actors of local dynamism if they are supported by their community and institutional structures. In other word they can create the rural development everybody is looking for.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-225749
Date January 2024
CreatorsSeveon, Axel
PublisherUmeå universitet, Institutionen för geografi, N/A
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationGenusvetenskapliga publikationer - Dialoger, 1653-2023

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