‘A solid partner in a fluid world’ and/or ‘line of flight’? Interpreting second homes in the era of mobilities

The article is the product of the author's recent engagements in rural second home research in Norway. Sensing that the predominant everyday ‘meaning’ of second homes within Nordic countries generally is markedly different from the UK, the article draws attention to how they are contextually interpreted. From a focus on everyday life and post-capitalist critique, attention is given to the diversity of interpretations applicable to second homes consumption. Whilst ‘mainstream’ interpretations or readings tend to stress either the ‘elite’ character of second homes consumption or rootedness within more democratic ‘tradition’, foregrounding the context of the ‘era of mobilities’ presents two different readings. First, second home consumption appears congruent with a ‘dynamic heterolocalist’ existence, whereby ‘home’ is distributed across places of differing experiential qualities for the consumer. Second, and more radically, the latter reading can be challenged. It is suggested that instead of being functional for achieving home within the era of mobilities, second home consumption, not least through association with both representational and more-than-representational aspects of rurality, traces an attempted ‘line of flight’ to a heterotopic place and to potentially post-capitalist existential priorities. The conclusion calls for more in-depth research on second home consumption, whilst noting that despite any earlier radical message second homes remain elite forms of consumption.