Living with Change Among a Transient Population : Narratives and Practices of Collective Belonging among Swedish Migrants on the Costa del Sol in Spain

The article explores how the Swedish migrants narrate and practice collective belonging as strategies to handle life in a region characterised by a transient and circulating population on the Costa del Sol, Spain. It is based on an ethnographic research within the Swedish infrastructure of organizations, institutions, and private enterprises, in addition to interviews with Swedish migrants who are registered residents and live on a permanent basis along the Spanish southern coast. The wider analytical framework consists of theories of diaspora, transnationality and identification. The article shows how the Swedish migrants are engaged in diasporic and transnational practices, and highlights how they value and attribute meanings to such practices. It also illuminates how internal divisions within the Swedish population are shaped through identification in narrations

Transnational Volunarism among Senior Swedish Migrants on Costa del Sol in Spain

"I believe that all people need to move about. Actually, some have difficulties in doing so. They stay in their home neighbourhoods, where they’ve grown up and feel safe. I can understand that, but my wife and I, we didn’t want that. We are more open to new ideas". This anthology is about seniors on the move. In seven chapters, Nordic researchers from various disciplines, by means of ethnographic methods, attempt to comprehend the phenomenon of Nordic seniors who move to leisure areas in their own or in other countries. The number of seniors involved in this kind of migratory movement has grown considerably within the last 20 years. An increase in mass tourism is one explanation, but this may also be the result of generally stronger finances among the age group. Costa del Sol, along the Mediterranean coastline and Österlen in Southern Sweden are two examples of locations that have become attractive to lifestyle migrants. The warmer climate and the expectations of a certain quality of life are recurrent pull factors. The quote above gives voice to one of these seniors, stressing the necessity of moving. In his view, this signifies an open attitude to new ideas – contrary to conventional images of old people as sedentary and disinclined to changes. It is argued in this book that the fact that more people live longer, with better health, leads to a multiplicity of ways of growing old. As a result of this, paradoxes and polarities might arise; seniors cope with their lives all along the scale between fit and frail, weak and wealthy, poor and powerful, conservative, dynamic and unpredictable. This is valid for the Nordic seniors on the move as well. Moving may entail great economic dilemmas and challenges for individuals, social networks, and nation states. As shown here, mobility and migration have implications for identities, traditions, feelings of belonging, family relationships and friendships, health, images of old age, societal planning and policies, and even for religious attachment. The phenomenon of seniors on the move is accompanied by a growing academic interest and incorporates a variety of different perspectives and concepts, such as international retirement migration, rural retirement migration and health migration. This book contributes to the international body of literature about later life migration, specifically representing experiences made by Nordic seniors on the move. The incentive to place the Nordic countries in the limelight derives from the significant point that these countries largely share cultural and societal structures and - not least, the weather. The seven chapters representing experiences from a Nordic perspective are finalised by a chapter including an international perspective of retirement migration by the architect Deane Simpson who has studied and worked with gerotopias around the world. This anthology presents a joint statement, intended for international scholars in the field, but also for Nordic policymakers and practitioners involved in the daily life and needs of the many people who move in later life. If movers and migrants in later life wish for a good read – you are most welcome. The editors Anne Leonora Blaakilde and Gabriella Nilsson are both ethnologists affiliated with the Center for Healthy Ageing, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Sweden, respectively

Finding One’s Place : An Ethnological Study of Belonging among Swedish Migrants on the Costa del Sol in Spain

This study explores how Swedish migrants on the Costa del Sol in Spain create belonging and how this is expressed in migration stories and practiced in the daily life. The migrants are part of a migration phenomenon that is conceptualized as lifestyle migration, often to destinations in association with tourism and leisure. Based on ethnographical fieldwork carried out among Swedish migrants within the Swedish infrastructure of institutions, organizations and private enterprises on the Costa del Sol, the thesis examines how belonging is created adopting a phenomenological and constructivist perspective on transnational and diasporic practices. This is accomplished through studying migration stories, where the migration experience is being told, structured and made meaningful for the migrants. In addition, it focuses on internal and external identification and positioning on location on the Costa del Sol. Another concern is the study of how the migrants relate to notions and practices of new home, and old home. The thesis presents how belonging is shaped on a collective basis within the Swedish infrastructure, despite the fact that the interviewees make up a diverse group in different ages, with different reasons for dwelling along the coast, with different migrant experiences, with different approaches to living a transnational migrant life in-between the old and the new country, and with different degrees and range of incorporation to the local society. The study shows how a transnational position is created with a plurilocal frame of reference. It is marked by simultaneously expressing attachments and affiliations to several localities and contexts across territorial borders, shaped by past and recurrent travels and communication, and connected to the Swedish diasporic collective that can function as a compensatory source of national affiliation for the Swedish migrants on the Costa del Sol

'I Decided to See Myself as Another Sort of Athlete' : Femininities and Athleticism in Autobiographies of Female Extreme Recreational Sports Race Participants

Drawing on an analysis of autobiographical books written by female participants in extreme recreational sports races, this article offers an examination of self-presentations of athlete writers in relation to their serious leisure engagement in this type of sporting events that are often connoted with masculinity. The analysis centres on the authors’ constructions of various types of femininities, and how they challenge the subject/object dichotomy of the physical self in their narrations. A result of the examination is that the self-presentations enable negotiations of a position of being marginalized as average and ordinary women, who do extreme recreational sports and deviate from the male sports norm, but also enable experiences of empowerment through the physical activity and racing in the particular settings of extreme sports. This tension in the female racers’ self-presentations is analysed in reference to different social conditions that surround womens’ participation in extreme sports races

Transnational Volunarism among Senior Swedish Migrants on Costa del Sol in Spain

"I believe that all people need to move about. Actually, some have difficulties in doing so. They stay in their home neighbourhoods, where they’ve grown up and feel safe. I can understand that, but my wife and I, we didn’t want that. We are more open to new ideas". This anthology is about seniors on the move. In seven chapters, Nordic researchers from various disciplines, by means of ethnographic methods, attempt to comprehend the phenomenon of Nordic seniors who move to leisure areas in their own or in other countries. The number of seniors involved in this kind of migratory movement has grown considerably within the last 20 years. An increase in mass tourism is one explanation, but this may also be the result of generally stronger finances among the age group. Costa del Sol, along the Mediterranean coastline and Österlen in Southern Sweden are two examples of locations that have become attractive to lifestyle migrants. The warmer climate and the expectations of a certain quality of life are recurrent pull factors. The quote above gives voice to one of these seniors, stressing the necessity of moving. In his view, this signifies an open attitude to new ideas – contrary to conventional images of old people as sedentary and disinclined to changes. It is argued in this book that the fact that more people live longer, with better health, leads to a multiplicity of ways of growing old. As a result of this, paradoxes and polarities might arise; seniors cope with their lives all along the scale between fit and frail, weak and wealthy, poor and powerful, conservative, dynamic and unpredictable. This is valid for the Nordic seniors on the move as well. Moving may entail great economic dilemmas and challenges for individuals, social networks, and nation states. As shown here, mobility and migration have implications for identities, traditions, feelings of belonging, family relationships and friendships, health, images of old age, societal planning and policies, and even for religious attachment. The phenomenon of seniors on the move is accompanied by a growing academic interest and incorporates a variety of different perspectives and concepts, such as international retirement migration, rural retirement migration and health migration. This book contributes to the international body of literature about later life migration, specifically representing experiences made by Nordic seniors on the move. The incentive to place the Nordic countries in the limelight derives from the significant point that these countries largely share cultural and societal structures and - not least, the weather. The seven chapters representing experiences from a Nordic perspective are finalised by a chapter including an international perspective of retirement migration by the architect Deane Simpson who has studied and worked with gerotopias around the world. This anthology presents a joint statement, intended for international scholars in the field, but also for Nordic policymakers and practitioners involved in the daily life and needs of the many people who move in later life. If movers and migrants in later life wish for a good read – you are most welcome. The editors Anne Leonora Blaakilde and Gabriella Nilsson are both ethnologists affiliated with the Center for Healthy Ageing, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Sweden, respectively

Dressed for success or undermining the achievement? : Material culture of recreational sporting events for women in Sweden

This article explores meaning-making and performances of femininity through material culture among ordinary women who engage in recreational sports races for women in Sweden, and the discursive effects for individual participants, and society at large. Positioned within a framework of discourse theory and poststructuralism, the study is based on a multi-method approach in data collection of written and oral accounts of race participants, auto-ethnographical notes, and material objects. The exploration shows that the female participants’ usage of sportswear and gear points to stereotypical gender identities that are tied to women’s shopping practices, which discursively undermine the physical achievement, while creating a female sports community. Linked to social class and resources, women can learn how to enhance their athletic practices and become proper athletes with the help of sporting clothes and gear – even when their bodies are weak, aged or malfunctioning

Finding One’s Place : An Ethnological Study of Belonging among Swedish Migrants on the Costa del Sol in Spain

This study explores how Swedish migrants on the Costa del Sol in Spain create belonging and how this is expressed in migration stories and practiced in the daily life. The migrants are part of a migration phenomenon that is conceptualized as lifestyle migration, often to destinations in association with tourism and leisure. Based on ethnographical fieldwork carried out among Swedish migrants within the Swedish infrastructure of institutions, organizations and private enterprises on the Costa del Sol, the thesis examines how belonging is created adopting a phenomenological and constructivist perspective on transnational and diasporic practices. This is accomplished through studying migration stories, where the migration experience is being told, structured and made meaningful for the migrants. In addition, it focuses on internal and external identification and positioning on location on the Costa del Sol. Another concern is the study of how the migrants relate to notions and practices of new home, and old home. The thesis presents how belonging is shaped on a collective basis within the Swedish infrastructure, despite the fact that the interviewees make up a diverse group in different ages, with different reasons for dwelling along the coast, with different migrant experiences, with different approaches to living a transnational migrant life in-between the old and the new country, and with different degrees and range of incorporation to the local society. The study shows how a transnational position is created with a plurilocal frame of reference. It is marked by simultaneously expressing attachments and affiliations to several localities and contexts across territorial borders, shaped by past and recurrent travels and communication, and connected to the Swedish diasporic collective that can function as a compensatory source of national affiliation for the Swedish migrants on the Costa del Sol

Finding One’s Place : An Ethnological Study of Belonging among Swedish Migrants on the Costa del Sol in Spain

This study explores how Swedish migrants on the Costa del Sol in Spain create belonging and how this is expressed in migration stories and practiced in the daily life. The migrants are part of a migration phenomenon that is conceptualized as lifestyle migration, often to destinations in association with tourism and leisure. Based on ethnographical fieldwork carried out among Swedish migrants within the Swedish infrastructure of institutions, organizations and private enterprises on the Costa del Sol, the thesis examines how belonging is created adopting a phenomenological and constructivist perspective on transnational and diasporic practices. This is accomplished through studying migration stories, where the migration experience is being told, structured and made meaningful for the migrants. In addition, it focuses on internal and external identification and positioning on location on the Costa del Sol. Another concern is the study of how the migrants relate to notions and practices of new home, and old home. The thesis presents how belonging is shaped on a collective basis within the Swedish infrastructure, despite the fact that the interviewees make up a diverse group in different ages, with different reasons for dwelling along the coast, with different migrant experiences, with different approaches to living a transnational migrant life in-between the old and the new country, and with different degrees and range of incorporation to the local society. The study shows how a transnational position is created with a plurilocal frame of reference. It is marked by simultaneously expressing attachments and affiliations to several localities and contexts across territorial borders, shaped by past and recurrent travels and communication, and connected to the Swedish diasporic collective that can function as a compensatory source of national affiliation for the Swedish migrants on the Costa del Sol

Sida vid sida i Tjejmilen : Analytisk autoetnografi av motionslopp för kvinnor

In this article, we use autoethnographical material alongside written and oral narratives of other race participantsin women only sports races. We analyse embodied and mental aspects of the participation of a specificrace, Tjejmilen, from start to finish, in relation to discursive conditions of women’s exercising. The title of the article,’side by side’ implies two things: on the one hand, that we empirically explore what happens when women dosports side by side in a race like this. On the other hand, and in line with analytical autoethnography (Anderson2006), we use our own experiences of the race participation side by side with the experiences of other participants,and analyse the entire empirical material with the same methods, theories, and concepts. We conclude thatthe autoethnography enables us to discover the embodied experiences of strength and empowerment incontrast to diminishing discourses of women’s activities and assumed capabilities