2012, No. 1 (2), Anthropology / history of the Contemporary World

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Leena Rossi
Ordinary Man’s Everyday Places

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Keywords: 20th century Finnish history, human-places relations, life stages, oral history

Abstract:
In this essay I study an ordinary individual’s everyday places and their changes during his life span. So far the individual perspective and time dimension. My case is a Finnish male worker from the 20th century and I ask: What were a common man’s everyday places and what kind of meanings did the places have? How and with whom did he create his places? How did his place relationships change during his life? I answer the questions relying on my long-time observations and twenty interviews conducted in 1985–1987 as well as a few environmental paintings he had made over the years. My point of departure is that my subject made his places in various activities with different people at different stages of life. The physical places were first experienced and later recalled and narrated, in some cases even depicted. They were also contemporary or past; obligatory or voluntary; lifelong or temporary or once-in-a-lifetime places. In general, these place categories provide a basis for developing a deeper and more versatile analysis of the human-place relationships and this tentative classification of everyday places constructed on the basis of my research material can be applied to anybody’s life with possible personal supplements.

About Author:
LEENA ROSSI - lecturer in cultural history at the University of Turku.