Research project Wanting to be here - family life and belonging in rural northern Sweden

The project examines how families in sparsely populated rural areas perceive socio-spatial conditions in their everyday lives and the notions of rural everyday life that surround their narratives and activities. The project focuses particularly on childhood, adolescence, and parenthood. It explores how hope and visions for the future are negotiated between generations through a sense of belonging to places. Furthermore, the project addresses how belonging, temporal practices, and mobility strategies in rural family life interact, as well as the tensions that arise between individuals' and families' adaptability and the need for structural changes to ensure long-term sustainability in rural areas. The study contributes to the fields of childhood geography, rural studies, and research on children's and young people's everyday lives and living conditions.