What Can an Understanding of the Changing Small-Scale Forest Owner Contribute to Rural Studies? The Swedish Case

Abstract

Over the centuries, Swedish rural areas have been formed in close interaction with their inhabitants and different and various uses. Based on studies, particularly of “new forest owners” in Sweden, this article illustrates how an understanding of forest and forest ownership can highlight the dynamic and shifting role of rural areas: as both rural and urban, based on both forest property and second-home ownership. It also illustrates that rural areas are not only post-productive but also continuously over time production areas, in addition to many other use patterns, and that rural areas can be areas of forest-related industrial and services growth, and thus rural growth. The article also illustrates that forest areas in Sweden, but also more broadly Fennoscandia, can be seen as areas with different habitation patterns and linkages between nature and population than what has often been described in broader rural literature.