The role of nature in the place meanings and practices of cottage owners in northern environments

Abstract

The concept of place attachment has been found to be useful in exploring cottagers’ evaluations and management preferences of cottage areas. The point of departure for the article is the conclusion of many previous studies that the natural environment is important to cottagers’ place attachment. To understand this attachment and the role of nature in more detail, the article explores the meanings given to nature as well as the ways nature is used and encountered in the context of cottages. Based on interviews conducted in three parks in Finland and Canada, the results show that nature is important as both an abstraction and a concrete platform for different activities. The meanings given to nature affect the ways it is perceived and used and vice versa, but at times what people say does not align with their actions. The results suggest that cottagers’ management preferences cannot be fully understood merely by studying their environmental preferences and attitudes or the strength of their place attachment.

Keywords:

• cottage
• management of nature preferences
• place attachment
• second home

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Greg Halseth, Ari Lehtinen, Mia Vepsäläinen, and Mervi Hiltunen. Two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript. Mike Hayward and Conservation Manitoba are thanked for the map of Manitoba (Fig. 2). Also, many thanks are due to the interviewed cottage owners in Finland and Canada. The article was made possible by funding from the Academy of Finland (Projects 123440, 114490, and 114532).

Notes

1. In this article cottage is used synonymously with the more widely applied concept of second home. Cottage is used in the study area in Canada as an official term in planning and other governmental documents. It is also the closest translation to the Finnish word mökki, which is widely applied in colloquial and official contexts. In both countries, the term cottage refers to non-mobile properties owned or leased as the occasional leisure-oriented residence of a household that normally lives elsewhere (e.g. Vuori 1966; Coppock 1977).

2. Planner, Metsähallitus, 23 September 2009.

3. Senior Park Interpreter, Manitoba Conservation, 16 January 2008.