Life in place or place in life? The importance of daily activities and social networks for the emotional affective meaning of the village

Abstract

Individualisation as a general trend in society is related to increased personal mobility, and delocalisations of social networks, which appears to have major influences on the meaning a village acquires in the life of its inhabitants. Earlier research conceptualized a rather narrow and disembodied notion of place meaning in a rural context. Therefore this study aims to present the emotional driving forces for the constitution of place meaning by investigating the role of the locations of daily performances and social networks, following a postphenomenological approach which allows for incorporating entities that are both materially and relationally present in the village, mapping spatial negotiations of extending the self and erecting emotional boundaries, initiated by emotional associations and affective atmospheres. From semistructured interviews with villagers from a merely individualised and a merely collectivist village it appears that meanings of villages are shaped through and within affective atmospheres are conceived and the way emotional associations are made with the entities of spaces of the everyday, including the home, urban places, natural areas surrounding the village and public places in the village itself. On the one hand, more individualist, spatially and socially not confined villagers tend to base their meaning on the extent to village can provide in absence of strongly defined atmospheres and associations with collectivist lifestyles. On the other hand, more collectivist, spatially and socially relatively confined to the village tend to base their meaning on the extent to village can provide in absence of undefined atmospheres and associations with unfamiliar lifestyles.