Turvallisuuden muotoutuminen ja murtumat kehkeytyvällä maaseudulla

This article examines how experiences of safety are shaped in the Finnish countryside. The study adopts a new materialist approach to the geography of fear and draws on free-form writings by rural residents. Rural space is conceptualized as a relational setting that actively influences perceptions of safety, emerging through the interplay of human and non-human factors. The formation of safety is explored in two lived spaces of everyday life: the home and the home village. The findings indicate that domestic safety is constructed through family and affective relations, as well as through material aspects of self-sufficiency and resilience. In the home village, key elements of safety include social networks, sense of community, trust, the presence of public institutions, and nature. However, experiences of safety are neither permanent nor immutable; changes in constituent elements can disrupt them. In rural areas, safety is undermined by the retreat of the welfare state, global threats mediated through the media, cultural divides, deficiencies in the built environment, declining physical capacity, and internal distrust within local communities. The study demonstrates that rural safety challenges differ from those in urban settings and that the themes of rural geography of fear diverge from the urban-centered geography of fear, which is primarily focused on fear of crime.