Understanding the multiple dynamics of the countryside – Examples from forest cases in northern Europe

Rural literature has often been seen as expressing specific perceptions of the rural, largely based in an Anglo-Saxon conception of agricultural rural idyllic landscapes. Based on studies of forest ownership (in Sweden, but also comparatively), we suggest that an understanding of forest and forest ownership can illustrate the dynamic and shifting role of rural areas: as both rural and urban, based on both forest property and second-home ownership; that forest areas are not only post-production landscapes but continuously also production areas, in addition to many other use patterns; as areas of buzz and forest-related industrial and services growth, and thus rural growth; and that Sweden and more broadly Fennoscandia are areas with different habitation patterns and linkages between nature and population than what has often been described in the broader rural literature.