Search results for "village action"
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The discursive construction of an active rural community
2016
In this article, I will study active rural communities, how they are constructed in the speech of local people involved in community development practices. Over the past twenty years, community-led development practices have been a new paradigm for the rural development in Finland, which has been reflected as increasing number of village associations. I will analyse the discursive construction of the active community by interviewing all the present and previous leaders of three active village associations in the province of Central Finland. Active rural communities are constructed through village associations, by their local activities and self-consciousness as active communities. In the lo…
The Village of the Year Competition Constructing an Ideal Model of a Rural Community in Finland
2016
The Village Action Association of Finland (SYTY) organizes the Village of the Year competition annually to award active rural communities. The competition has taken place since 1985, but after the village action movement was integrated into Finnish rural policy networks in the 1990s, it also became a part of rural policy instruments. The competition can be considered a governing technique that constructs norms and an ideal model for rural communities to pursue. In this article, I study the representation of an ideal rural community by analysing the criteria of the competition. I also look for changes to see whether the integration of the village action movement into rural policy is reflecte…