Dominant discourses on ageing often emphasise the significance of social networks and the risks of social isolation, reinforcing an anthropocentric view that prioritises human relationships. While social relations are undoubtedly important, this article argues that the ecological dimensions of ageing deserve greater attention. Existing literature on ageing, largely frames more-than-human beings in therapeutic or assistive roles, inadvertently reinforcing narratives of older adults as dependent and vulnerable. Introducing the concepts of ecological connectedness and disconnectedness, this article broadens the understanding of how identity, autonomy and wellbeing are shaped in later life. Drawing on ethnographic research with older adults in rural Sweden, the study examines how interactions with forests, gardens and animals, influence experiences and the process of ageing. It highlights how ecological relationships, disruptions and adaptations can be as significant – if not more so – than merely human ones. Through the lived experiences of older adults in rural Sweden, whose deep connections with the more-than-human world both sustain and challenge their sense of self, this article foregrounds the often-overlooked role of the ecological environment in shaping later life. Ultimately, it calls for a shift in how we conceptualise ageing – moving beyond human-centered frameworks to acknowledge the dynamic and evolving relationships between humans and the more-than-human world across the life course.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among the Lulesámi, a subgroup of the indigenous Sámi of northern Fennoscandia, this article explores the relationship between indigenous identity and dress. The gáppte, traditional dress, is a central visual marker of the Sámi, yet on a personal and everyday basis this symbolism enters into dialogue, and sometimes conflict, with people’s life experiences, emotions, interests and expectations. Understandings and experiences of the gáppte are placed within a context in which the Sámi community at times is experienced as fragmented and where a history of colonialism and discrimination has left lasting imprints. As shown in the article, narrations of dress unfold how relationships that for long have been marked by oppression and discrimination raise specific forms of awareness as well as questions around what constitutes the self, and how such self can or should be expressed. Through ten different perspectives of the gáppte, the article reveals how different ways of being Sámi become negotiated and materialized through dress. 

In 2014, the Swedish government declared itself the first feminist government in the world. Indeed, the country has been successful in promoting gender equality, yet many retired women, particularly in rural areas, live on an income below the EU poverty line. Based on analysis of Sweden’s pension system, the country’s commitment to gender equality, and interviews with low-income women pensioners in rural Sweden, this article explores why some women end up living in poverty in later life. The article demonstrates how the Swedish pension reform of the 1990s has generated a structural lag; today’s older women have lived during times that were radically different from the world nowadays, yet their pensions are based on forward-looking ideals. Consequently, today’s older women have become “collateral damage” (Bauman 2011) of securing a new form of pension system, and seemingly also neglected in the state’s promise of ensuring gender equality. 

While it is acknowledged that craftwork has the potential to generate well-being, relatively few empirical studies explore how this happens in practice. Some scholars have used the theoretical concept and phenomenological experience of ‘flow’ to analyse why craft-makers find their work satisfying and engaging. This article builds on such scholarship by empirically demonstrating how ‘flow experiences’ emerge. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork among Lulesámi craft-makers in Northern Norway, the article argues that ‘flow’ should not be taken for granted or seen as a straightforward and easily achieved benefit of craft. Instead, it is a skilful practice that requires learning, collaboration, time and repeated, embodied effort. It involves the transformation of the body through collaborative learning; something that makes ‘flow experiences’ not only learnt but deeply personal and communal at the same time. Through a detailed ethnographic account of how ‘flow’ emerges through the making of the gáppte (characteristic dress), the article provides important insights into contemporary Lulesámi craftsmanship at the same time as it speaks to the wider literature on craft, well-being and learning.

This paper looks at the contemporary role of handicraft among Lulesami people, a subgroup of the indigenous Sami, in Northern Norway. Many studies have addressed the changes in Sami craftsmanship over time, its symbolic significance for Sami culture and its recent commodification. By contrast, unpaid craft production at home has gained less attention. My ethnography addresses this gap and considers the significance of women's domestic craft production. While women's domestic work cannot easily be measured, this analysis shows that their craftsmanship plays an important part in creating personal and social well-being in everyday life. Paying attention to the demands of domestic handicraft made for non-commercial purposes provides novel insights into Sami handicraft and the significance of women's domestic work in contemporary society.

One way to think and speak of beauty in relation to handicraft practices is to assign it to the objects, the things that craft-makers produce. This approach to beauty is seen widely in analytical models of aesthetics that have tended to focus on sensory perceptions and judgments of the material world and the art object. This chapter suggests that beauty, from a Lulesami perspective, can be best understood in terms of three interrelated capacities. These are firstly the skills of transforming materials into handicraft; secondly, the craft-maker's ability to develop her hands and to grow accustomed to the work; and thirdly the fostering of specific social skills and personal virtues that are necessary for the making of handicraft, and which have important implications for Lulesami everyday existence. The beauty of handicraft is also a beauty of the hands, despite their twisted appearance, and of the productive skills of the craft-maker.