Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will discuss neoliberal discourses involvement in shaping local places and lives in a globalized world. These discourses are materialized by Swedish businessmen and industrialists setting up a sawmill industry in the forests of Latvia. This is analyzed as a sort of neocolonial venture.

Paper long abstract:

In 2002, under the heading "Out there is now here at home", the Swedish Trade Council described on their website the new global economic scene for Swedish entrepreneurs with ambitions to expand. As a result of globalization the possibilities of setting up "homes" outside the national borders have increased. In this paper I will discuss the impact of neoliberal discourses, materialized by businessmen and entrepreneurs, as forces of the kind of "home creating" arising out of transnational cross border capital flows. In the concrete example I will refer to - a sawmill in Latvia owned by a Swedish company - neo-colonial tendencies can be traced. A major transformation of the social and material reality was organized in accordance with the colonists' ambition to make profits through an installation of Swedishness. A national symbolic transfer and reorientation was taking place involving language, naming, social organization, ethics and morality, etc. The Latvian native ground was captured by the purchase of forest land to secure resources, while the prospective Latvian workforce was sent to Sweden to learn craftsmanship and the Swedish culture. At the same time local communities in Sweden were losing parts of the native home when sawmills were dismantled and machines were removed to be put up abroad. What influence had this annexation respectively loss for the involved peoples understanding of what is home and away? What significance has the native ground in relation to the physical objects? Is out there now here at home, and if so is the case for whom and in what respects?