The Morality of Villagership: Second Homes, (Part‐Time) Residents and Politics of Belonging in Norway

ABSTRACT This article examines how boundaries of belonging are constructed in a Norwegian mountain valley where second homes increasingly outnumber permanent residents. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in between 2020 and 2025, I illustrate how second‐home owners have increasingly sought political influence in the valley by invoking their financial contributions and numerical presence. Permanent residents, however, typically resist the idea that people who purchase property and consume the place for leisure should have influence in local affairs. In response to experiences of displacement, villagers advocate for more stringent criteria for inclusion in the valley's political community. By analysing the dynamics between hosts and migrants in this context, the article contributes to a broader understanding of how boundaries of inclusion and exclusion are constructed in rural communities undergoing amenity‐driven social change. Such dynamics have rarely been examined in the Nordic countries where egalitarian values and social welfare programmes are often assumed to mitigate social differentiation.