Between Mobility and Belonging: Out-migrated Young Students’ Perspectives on Rural Areas in North Norway1

Abstract

The relationship between people and places, and the meaning of place are changing in the context of modern society. Modernist theories emphasize the free choice of individuals, their construction of individual identities and the diminishing meaning of place. The latter is related to mobility, both as practice and ideal. Discussions about modernity are generally related to urban areas, while rural areas and local communities are associated with the past and tradition. The aim here is to nuance the image of the modern, free, detached individual primarily associated with urban areas. By taking interviews with students from rural areas in Norway studying at a regional university in a small town in northern Norway as the empirical point of departure, how the students describe their relationship to their home place will be discussed. These descriptions will in different ways portray the kind of life they want to live, what possibilities and limitations they associate with rural areas, and how their home place is incorporated into their lives and their construction of identity. Instead of focusing on the detached individual, it is more rewarding to examine how individuals handle attachment and the changing meaning of place. Both mobility and individual freedom are central values in modern society. These values are, however, not absolute, but conditioned and must be contextualized.