DET LIGGER EN DÖD HAND ÖVER BYGDEN. En antropologisk studie om upplevelser av osäkerhet och plats i väntan av en potentiell gruva

Abstract

This study aims to explore how residents in a rural district in Jämtland, Sweden, experience and navigate the long-term uncertainty of a potential mining project that has been under discussion for over 20 years. While previous research often focuses on the consequences of established mines, this study shifts the lens toward the social processes that occur before a decision is made. The study is based on six weeks of ethnographic fieldwork, including semi- structured interviews, participant observation and walking interviews. Drawing on theoretical concepts of temporality, risk and everyday heritage, the study examines how uncertainty shapes residents' relationships to place, future imaginaries and sense of agency. The findings show that the potential mine is already present in residents' daily lives long before any physical changes occur. Waiting emerges as an active condition that disrupts everyday decisions, delays investments and weakens generational transfers of land and property. The study concludes that extractivism must be understood as a slow and ongoing social process, with consequences that begin long before the ground is broken. This thesis is written in Swedish.