Ängersjö Village, Sweden

Rich in forest resources, Angersjö village in Sweden has a long history of fishing, farming, and animal husbandry. Since 300 A.D., the villagers of Ängersjö have lived on productive commons such as communal farms and pastures. There were also communal facilities to provide supplies for the farmers. In recent decades, conflicts over land ownership and the involvement of a forest company impacted the farmers’ livelihoods, so most villagers moved out.

Establishing Village Association as Commoning Structure

As early as the mid-20th century, villagers established various community organisations to deal with different village matters and to modernise rural life; these included the Laundry Association to construct a combined laundry and sauna house to improve hygiene, folkets hus (People’s House) for communal gathering, and the Sports Association to organise sport events and competitions. The formation of these organisations has strengthened social cohesion among the community.

Transforming Old Commons to New

There are plenty of new commoning initiatives to help recommonise the village, for example, transforming assets into new cultural and economic capital, developing community facilities like the Skogsmuseum Kojbyn (Forest Museum) and Skolmuseet (School Museum) that showcase village history, preserving village heritage assets by restoring archaeological sites, assembling old records, and interviewing elderly members of the community about the past. These assets act as linkages to the village’s past and present and are major sources for villagers to strengthen their understanding of their own heritage and sense of ownership to the village.

References

• Ängersjö. (n.d.). https://angersjo.info/
• Eriksson-Trenter, A. & Persson, B. (2002). Landskap och juridik: Avvittringenoch äganderätten under 1800-talet. In Johansson, E. (Ed.), Periferins landskap; historiska spår och nutida blickfält i svensk glesbygd , pp 205–234. Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
• Sandström, E., Ekman, A.-K., & Lindholm, K.-J. (2017). Commoning in the periphery – The role of the commons for understanding rural continuities and change. International Journal of the Commons, 11(1), pp 508–531. http://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.729