What the hell, now they've taken the benches! From resident to a suburban activist

In this presentation we reflect on our path on becoming suburban activists. The headline of the presentation illuminates the feelings of disbelief and despair that acted as a driving force for the action. All of us authors live in Korkalovaara suburb in the city of Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland. Korkalovaara as is a copy of a typical Finnish suburb, in a miniature size: it’s an after WW II built, blockhouse intensive area separated from the city centre (e.g. Roivainen, 1999) where there are around 6 000 residents. The few remaining services in the area are to be found from the shopping centre.

Following the national development currents of the suburbs, Korkalovaara has been on the path of decline during the recent decade(s). One of the biggest influences affecting this development has been the closing of the school because of the indoor air problems in 2016. This has resulted to lessening of other public services, e.g. sports grounds, in the area. Also, many private services have been shut down because of general societal developments. These developments have at least partly resulted to people (who can) moving away from the neighborhood and lowering the prices of apartments.

According to the headline, the demolishing of the school yard facilities was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and made us begin to engage in suburban activism. This activism has resulted in for example media engagement, event organizing, participating in different city organized hearings and working groups and finally re-establishing the residents’ association of the area. This action has resulted us to personally reflect on what are our premises and motives to act as suburban activists? What is the community we act for? How can activism influence the city decision making, and does it create hope and for whom?