Youth negotiation and performance of masculine identities in rural Estonia

Abstract

This paper explores key shared places and practices through which young men in rural Estonia perform and construct masculine identities. Whereas powerful images of rural places and rural masculinity exist and are reproduced in public discourse in Estonia, not much is known about how masculinities are constructed by the ‘real’ rural men living in the countryside. In this paper, we draw on a participatory research project and focus on the everyday lives and places of young rural men in order to illustrate how masculine identity emerges in situated practice and interaction. Our findings show that rural gender identities are relational, dynamic and multi-faceted. The young rural men in our study actively performed different aspects of masculinities in relation to available physical resources and social groups. Our findings suggest that the young men are in the process of exploring a multiplicity of different ways of how to be a rural man while actively negotiating the rural context.