Hästen i det peri-urbana landskapet - vems tolkningsföreträde råder?

Abstract

As horses take up an increasing amount of space in the peri-urban landscape, both the social and physical landscape undergo restructuration. This “horseification” often involves a kind of lifestyle migration, whereby new inhabitants and commuters (horse owners) of the peri-urban countryside transform the environment. Based on more than 30 interviews, this study confirms that such a restructuring of the peri-urban landscape creates conflicts between its “new” inhabitants (lifestyle migrants, horse owners) and its long standing residents (farmers and land owners). This can be understood as a collision between groups with different ideologies and values, whereby rural practices are challenged by an urban norm. A central aspect of these kinds of “culture clashes” is that an urban norm about the landscape as an area for consumption and recreation tends to stand in direct opposition to rural values and practices where the landscape is, to a greater extent, a source of livelihood.