Njutbart förfall - om urban exploring i svenska ödehus

Abstract

During the 2010s and 2020s, interest in visiting, photographing and sharing images of abandoned houses in the Swedish countryside has become visible under hashtags such as #ödehus. The practice—called urbex—has its subcultural roots in an international context, where visits to the abandoned and decayed are particularly about witnessing the last traces of industrialization. But when it comes to visits to houses that were once homes, the meaning becomes different. Based on the digital posts of urbexers, the comments of followers on these and interviews with urbexers, the purpose of the article is to answer how abandoned houses are made into something gripping and desirable—into something sublime.