Repeasantization through migration. Meanings attributed to “life in the countryside” on the Facebook group “Moved to the countryside – life without a clock”

Over the last century, the Romanian peasantry has faced a series of challenges. Today, the nature of peasant life is as follows: many of the cultural “ties” to peasant life have been “weakened” or have “disappeared”. In this context, the phenomenon of “re-peasantisation through migration” is emerging people who have spent enough time in urban areas to accumulate the resources necessary for migration are ‘moving to the countryside’ because the “countryside” lifestyle is perceived as being “better” than “city life”. Some of them even return to a “peasant” way of life: they work the land and rear animals on their own smallholdings to provide for their families’ needs and to live in harmony with God. Re-peasantisation through migration is a social action, that is to say, it depends on the meanings attributed to it by the individuals concerned. To understand the phenomenon, we therefore analysed the meanings attributed to the “countryside life” by people who posted on a social media group dedicated to “moving to the countryside”. The “countryside life” is associated with a certain sense of well-being. A positive one, in contrast to that specific to urban life. This “sense of well-being” is rooted in the place where they live (direct contact with nature), in human connections, in childhood (whether they are reliving memories of their own childhood or ensuring their children have the kind of childhood they consider appropriate), in freedom (of movement or the fact that one is in the position of ‘master’) and in beauty (“a corner of heaven”).