A-5/15 Worthy of recognition? How second home owners understand their own group’s moral worth in rural host communities

Second home owners are conspicuous stakeholders in many rural areas, and their understanding of what would be the morally right position for them to occupy in the host community matters not only to themselves but also to the local authorities and potentially affected residents. Based on interviews with 23 owners of second homes in rural municipalities in Norway, this article examines second home owners' understanding of their own group's moral worth in their rural host communities and their expectations of receiving – or not receiving – distributional goods and other forms of recognition. Both the humble and the reward-collecting perspective on second home owners' position are based on the perception of the rural community as weak and dependent upon second home owners' presence. Second home owners with a humble perspective think this unbalanced relationship is unpleasant, which weighs against the suggestion that second home owners be granted greater political power. Sociologia Ruralis. doi: 10.1111/soru.12083