Too packed for existence? More-than-subjective land-use issues in pockets of local order: the case of land-use conflict in Swedish Lapland

Time geography has been applied to study geographical situations characterised by intertwining temporal and spatial aspects. The availability of space for the conduct of land-use activities as temporal-action sequences can be investigated using time geography. The present study utilises time geography to examine how geography matters in the context of a contested mining proposal in Swedish Lapland, namely the case of reindeer herding in Gallok. The time-geographic notion of "packing" that denotes time-space compactness is utilised to investigate the room to manoeuvre available for reindeer herding. The theoretical entry lies in the idea that maximum nearness in human society has to do with the manner in which activities are organised in space and time. This is embraced by the time-geographic concept of the pocket of local order. The article reviews discussion in the literature of the notion of packing and discusses the organisation of reindeer herding as land use in the case studied. The study examines how space and time may matter in detail, as well as how the concept of the pocket of local order can be utilised to assess this and to detect the prevailing degree of packing. It suggests that such dependences represent more-than-subjective preconditions of operational character in land use. The study contributes to understanding of how the successful conduct of the business of land use may depend on the ability to maintain organisational coherence in a temporal-spatial sense.