Between traditional lifestyle and late modern leisure: young second-home dwellers’ perspectives on Finnish cottage culture

ABSTRACT Young people have rarely been studied in the field of second-home research as active subjects, although they play an influential part in contemporary second-home tourism. Based on semi-structured interviews, this study seeks to address the scholarly gap in the existing literature by analysing the experiences of, and attitudes towards, second-home living among 12- to 17-year-old second-home dwellers vacationing in Mäntyharju, Finland. The study focuses on the second-home environment as a hybrid space enabling young cottagers to combine elements of a traditionalist lifestyle, outdoor recreation, and late modern technoscape in pursuit of pleasurable and restorative leisure. The findings suggest that young second-home dwellers see outdoor activities and rich natural surroundings, as well as intense familial communality and selected aspects of simple living, as the basis of an enjoyable second-home experience. At the same time, they complement these elements with the active use of mobile and entertainment technology, seeking a satisfying balance between the exotic and the ordinary. The results show that studying young second-home dwellers offers fresh new perspectives not only on second-home tourism and its ongoing changes but also on the leisure preferences of late modern youth in general.