Who's there? – Inclusive growth, ‘white rurality’ and reconstructing rural labour markets
Section snippets
People and place in the rural Swedish north
Regional policy in Sweden has since the 1960s focused on industrial production and infrastructure, areas commonly associated with male-dominated labour markets. In the late 1980s this male centred discourse in regional policy was challenged, but the measurements and projects on “women's issues” were mostly added on to the ‘ordinary regional politics’ (Hudson and Rönnblom, 2007). Hudson and Rönnblom describe women's subject position in regional policy during this time as twofold, it was an
Labour markets and gender in the rural Swedish north
Understandings of rural areas such as the Swedish north are often partial and contradictory (Little and Austin, 1996). Rural societies are often imagined as having more traditional gender relations and identities; women are expected to be the ‘backbone of the village community’, engaging in unpaid labour, family and community care, whereas men act as breadwinners and political leaders (Bock, 2015; Little, 2002; Little and Panelli, 2003). However, research on women's involvement in rural labour
Sustainable regional growth
In a report from The European Commission (EC) the regional circumstances of the Upper Norrland programme area are described as part of Europe's Northern Sparsely Populated Areas, accounting for 10 per cent of the EU's total land area, but with less than 0,5 percent of the EU's total population (EC, 2014). The area includes parts of the Sàpmi, settlement area of the Sami people. The Bothnia Corridor stretches along the coast, from north to south and is one of EU's priority transport routes. The
Methodological framework
In this article, the empirical material consists of all 50 applications that were approved by SAERG in the regional programme directed towards the north of Sweden (Upper Norrland), in 2015. The applicants vary; private companies, municipalities, counties, business incubators, universities and others. As texts, the project applications are interesting. They are in some senses quite similar, formulated in a strict format, with specific and mandatory information requested. All applications should
Inclusive growth, “white rurality” and reconstructing rural labour markets
The rural Swedish north is under transformation. The population structure is heterogeneous and ethnically divided, and the rural labour market is going through significant restructuring (Hedberg and Haandrikman, 2014; Hedlund and Lundholm, 2015). In the current regional policy, the aim is to promote everyone's opportunity to live, work and develop and run businesses throughout the entire country (Government Offices of Sweden, 2016). Through the priority of inclusive growth, it could have been
Author note
This work was supported by Riksbankens jubileumsfond under Grant SGO14-1180:1.
Acknowledgment
The research presented in this article was supported by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Science, reference number SGO14-1180:1. Thanks to Johanna Overud, Erika Sörenssen, Simon Lindgren and the anonymous reviewers and the editorial team who have all significantly contributed to improving the text.
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