摘要：In this article, the connection between (post)modern people and the postproductivist countryside is analyzed through a close reading of the Finnish lifestyle magazine Maalla (Country Living). It is argued that many well-off Western people are not happy in their hectic and full urban working lives but rather strive to find their more “authentic” selves. For certain affluent, middle-class and hardworking people, the Northern version of rural idyll provides temporary escape from their present working lives or even a total life change. In the analyzed magazine, the countryside is represented as a place of increased subjective well-being and alternative hedonism that is consumed selectively and from individualistic perspectives. This is understandable since the countryside has an ambivalent role among current Western lifestyles: rural places are different and distant from the everyday experiences in urban environments. At the same time, rurality has become nostalgized and idyllized and, therefore, appealing to many urban dwellers.
关键词：working life; alternative hedonism; countryside; lifestyle magazine
