New rural pluriactivity? Household strategies and rural renewal in Norway

It is a common assumption that pluriactive Nordic smallholders would prefer an income from ordinary paid work to the daily search for income. However, this article shows that a large proportion of pluriactive people live in r egions with considerable access to paid work. The question therefore become s why they choose traditional rural adaptations when there is ample opportu nity to obtain ordinary full-time paid work. The analysis is based on data collected in ten Norwegian rural municipalities, and interviews with pluria ctive households living in four communities close to Norwegian cities. The article confirms that the income of a majority of entrepreneurs is obtained by running more than one small-scale industrial enterprise, or by mixing o perating enterprises with ordinary paid work These kinds of strategies are based on exploiting new niches in the rural economy, which are shaped by mo dern gender relations in rural households.