Muutu ihmiseksi, joka olet

Maalla-lehti jälkimodernin työntekijän ja paikan kuvaajana

Abstract

In this article, the connection between (post)modern people and the postproductivist countryside is analyzed through a close reading of the Finnish lifestyle magazine Maalla (Country Living). It is argued that many well-off Western people are not happy in their hectic and full urban working lives but rather strive to find their more “authentic” selves. For certain affluent, middle-class and hardworking people, the Northern version of rural idyll provides temporary escape from their present working lives or even a total life change. In the analyzed magazine, the countryside is represented as a place of increased subjective well-being and alternative hedonism that is consumed selectively and from individualistic perspectives. This is understandable since the countryside has an ambivalent role among current Western lifestyles: rural places are different and distant from the everyday experiences in urban environments. At the same time, rurality has become nostalgized and idyllized and, therefore, appealing to many urban dwellers.