- Department of Human geography
Uppsala University
Maja Lagerqvist
Uppsala University, Department of Human Geography, Faculty Member
- Material Culture Studies, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Cultural Landscapes, Historical Geography, Tourism Geography, and 42 moreNational Identity, Rural Geography, Cultural Historical Geography, Tourism Studies, Cultural Heritage, Urban Geography, Tourism, Space and Place, Public Space, Cultural Heritage Management, Heritage Studies, Cultural Policy, Mobility/Mobilities, Anthropology of Tourism, Sense of Place, Recreation & Leisure Studies, Rural History, Heritage Management, Memory and materiality, Henri Lefebvre, Tourism and Media, Dwelling Practices and Built Environments, Street Music, Sonic Landscapes, Sonic Mapping (Architecture), Geography of food, Cultural Memory, Ghosts, Global Financial Crisis, Everyday Aesthetics, Emotion, Academic Writing, Geography, Social Representations, Sweden, Time Travel, Music and Geography, Policy Analysis/Policy Studies, Politics of Cultural Heritage, Eurozone crisis, Heritage Value, and Crisis Managementedit
- I am a cultural and (modern-)historical geographer working at the Department of Human Geography at Uppsala university... moreI am a cultural and (modern-)historical geographer working at the Department of Human Geography at Uppsala university.
I am interested in issues of heritage, the "alien invasive species"-complex (how society deals with flora and fauna deemed alien and invasive), place construction and transformation, public spaces, trail running, matters of homes (first and second), crises, modern historical landscapes, landscape transformation, national identity, representation, music/sonic place construction and the relationships, embeddedness and interactions of materiality and immateriality, mobility and fixity, change and continuity, the past and the present.
At present I am working on several research projects:
- "The politics of invasive alien species in Sweden: Affective alliances and heritage work", with Mattias Frihammar and Lars Kaijser, Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender studies at Stockholm University
- "Skolvägens historiska geografi - barnens intåg i väglandskapet efter allmänna folkskolans införande år 1840–1930". with PhD Annika Pers Strandin Department of Human geography, Stockholm University.
-"Långsamhetens skog. Konflikter, normer och tempo på skogens stigar." with PhD Annika Pers Strandin Department of Human geography, Stockholm University.
My doctoral research elaborated on the integration of material and immaterial dimensions in processes of place construction through a study of the transformations of Swedish rural small holdings into second homes during the 20th century. To download my thesis, Torpets transformationer: Materialitet, representation och praktik från år 1850 till 2010, see http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A438591&dswid=-5220
Academic Degrees
2011: PhD in Human Geography, Department of Human Geography. Stockholm University, Sweden. Supervisors Mats Widgren and Ulf Jansson.
2005: Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning with a major in Human Geography (focus: Landscape studies and Cultural Heritage and Management). Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Sweden.
2003: Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning with a major in Human Geography (focus: Landscape studies and Cultural Heritage and Management). Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Positions and periods of appointment
2006-2011: PhD-student, Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University
2011: Lecturer and appointed to investigate and develop the research profiles at the Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University
2012-2013: Part time Lecturer, Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University
2013-2014: Part time Lecturer, Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University
2013-2015: Post-doc scholarship (Heritage in times of crisis: cut-backs, prioritization and local consequences. A study of the status, values, uses and management of heritage on the basis of the global economic crisis on Ireland)
2015- Researcher and lecturer at the Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University.
2018- Senior lecturer and Docent (2022-) at the Department of Human Geography at Uppsala university
International research visits
2013: Visiting scholar at National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA), National University of Ireland, Ireland. January-May.
2014: Visiting scholar at Amherst Umass Center for Heritage and Society, University of Massachusetts, US. March-May.
2014: Visiting scholar at Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University, US. May-June.
Award
The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities (Kungliga Vitterhetsakademien) award for worthy scientific work in 2011 for the dissertation Torpets transformationer. Materialitet, representation och praktik från 1850 till 2010. Stockholm 2012.edit
Along with urbanisation and modernisation, the use of second homes has increased in the Western world. This can be seen as part of the increasing mobility of people in society, but also as part of a search for stillness and escape from... more
Along with urbanisation and modernisation, the use of second homes has increased in the Western world. This can be seen as part of the increasing mobility of people in society, but also as part of a search for stillness and escape from modern urban society. Recently, scholars in geography and other disciplines have argued that mobility and fixity are two sides of the same coin. This paper aims to explore the complex, manifold and often paradoxical relationship between mobility and immobility in practices of dwelling and seeking stillness in a highly mobile society. It elaborates on how mobility and stillness, in both space and time, are intertwined and mutually influence each other by analysing second home usage of old cottages that formally were dwelling houses of poor tenant smallholdings in Sweden. How do mobility and stillness exist and interact at these cottages and what parts do the cottages themselves have in this? This is studied through interviews with cottage users regardi...
Research Interests:
When young people travel, they are often very dependent on public transport or parents. This study uses interviews with 16-19 years old teenagers in Stockholm to investigate their everyday experiences of public transit. The paper explores... more
When young people travel, they are often very dependent on public transport or parents. This study uses interviews with 16-19 years old teenagers in Stockholm to investigate their everyday experiences of public transit. The paper explores the experiences of buses and subways, here conceptualized as mobile places, to understand how they shape teenagers' daily life. Understanding teenagers' experiences of public transportation is part of understanding their everyday life, struggles, and possibilities to be mobile and participate in society. It is also a step towards ensuring that they find public transportation inclusive, safe, and worth traveling with today and in the future. Conceptually, the analysis focuses on how these mobile places are experienced as providing weights or reliefs to the everyday and if, how and when they may be places of interaction or retreat, addressing two needs in teenagers' personal being and development. The study shows how various experiences of traveling with buses and subways shape how the teenagers feel, and how they make strategic choices in relation to this. A quite manifold, varying, and complex picture of public transportation arises, with stories of wellbeing, comfort, discomfort, and exclusion, and with sharp differences between girls and boys, and between buses and subways. These nuances are essential in planning and evaluation of transport systems in regard to how, when, where, or for whom public transport can be a part of social sustainability, as public policies often assume.
Research Interests:
The Threat in the Roadside: The Lupine in a Swedish Cultural Landscape (Sw. Hotet i vägrenen: Blomsterlupinens plats i ett svenskt kulturarvslandskap) Invasive species are flowers or animals that have moved from one "origin" area to a new... more
The Threat in the Roadside: The Lupine in a Swedish Cultural Landscape (Sw. Hotet i vägrenen: Blomsterlupinens plats i ett svenskt kulturarvslandskap)
Invasive species are flowers or animals that have
moved from one "origin" area to a new region, often
with the help of humans. This article focuses on
the work of reducing lupines in the county of Dalarna.
The example is used as a test case to explore
what a cultural analytical interpretation can provide
to the discussion of invasive species: How did
the lupine come to be considered a strange element
in the regional and national flora? What are the
social, cultural and biological contexts that make
the flower threatening? We identify the work of
reducing invasive species to be part of an ecological
memory complex. To this, we argue for a critical
heritage perspective as a rewarding way of understanding
such questions, practices and discourses.
Keywords: invasive species, heritage, memory complex,
threat, lupine.
Invasive species are flowers or animals that have
moved from one "origin" area to a new region, often
with the help of humans. This article focuses on
the work of reducing lupines in the county of Dalarna.
The example is used as a test case to explore
what a cultural analytical interpretation can provide
to the discussion of invasive species: How did
the lupine come to be considered a strange element
in the regional and national flora? What are the
social, cultural and biological contexts that make
the flower threatening? We identify the work of
reducing invasive species to be part of an ecological
memory complex. To this, we argue for a critical
heritage perspective as a rewarding way of understanding
such questions, practices and discourses.
Keywords: invasive species, heritage, memory complex,
threat, lupine.
Research Interests:
Ofta beskrivs torpens historia utifrån berättelser om 1800-talets torparfamiljer som slet på sina små jordbruk och att många av dessa torp sedan blivit idylliska sommarstugor. Vi vill stanna upp lite i perioden som var mellan tiden då... more
Ofta beskrivs torpens historia utifrån berättelser om 1800-talets torparfamiljer som slet på sina små jordbruk och att många av dessa torp sedan blivit idylliska sommarstugor. Vi vill stanna upp lite i perioden som var mellan tiden då torpen beboddes av jordbrukande torpare som gjorde dagsverken åt markägaren och tiden då sommartorparna vilar ut med en kaffe på trappen. För de två faserna är inte hela historien om dessa platser. Denna mellanfas har dock sällan studerats eller ens dokumenterats. Här gräver vi därför djupare kring torpen under 1900-talet för att visa vilka som faktiskt använt torpen under den här mellanfasen under efterkrigstiden och framåt och för att förstå mer om den här dolda delen av torpens historia. I tidigare studier, litteratur och media har det ibland skymtat fram att torpen, förutom att vara torparnas eller sommartorparnas, också kan ha varit platser för de gamla, "tokiga" och skygga. Att de har varit, och fortfarande kan vara platser i marginalen där lite andra livsformer funnits eller finns. I förhållande till den huvudgård dit torpet hörde, låg torpen oftast på marginella platser i gårdens utkanter, längs med vägar eller i skogen på utmarken. Den här artikelns studieobjekt ligger således i marginalen såväl tidsmässigt och rumsligt som socialt.
Research Interests:
Utifrån tvärvetenskapliga perspektiv och metoder, hämtade från etnologin och kulturgeografin, och med en empirisk utgångspunkt i tre kulturmiljöer som förvaltas av Statens fastighetsverk (SFV) i Sverige, analyserar artikeln historiebruk i... more
Utifrån tvärvetenskapliga perspektiv och metoder, hämtade från etnologin och kulturgeografin, och med en empirisk utgångspunkt i tre kulturmiljöer som förvaltas av Statens fastighetsverk (SFV) i Sverige, analyserar artikeln historiebruk i form av kulturarvsproduktion och föreslår ett applicerbart normkritiskt samt i förlängningen normkreativt angreppssätt för att möjliggöra alternativa, varierade och mer inkluderande historieskildringar kring kulturmiljöer. Genom att utveckla och integrera dessa synsätt och verktyg vill artikeln argumentera för att man får tillgång till nya berättelser om platsen; berättelser som går utöver den traditionella, „normala“ historien om staten, enskilda byggnaders materiella utformning och den sociokulturella och ekonomiska eliten. En långsiktig effekt blir att det möjliggör ökad mångfald och inkludering både i fråga om förmedling och representation av platser som komplexa rumsliga och sociokulturella helheter.
Research Interests:
In 2008, the Republic of Ireland entered a severe financial crisis partly as a part of the global economic crisis. Since then, it has seen large raises in income taxes and cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and on... more
In 2008, the Republic of Ireland entered a severe financial crisis partly as a part of the global economic crisis. Since then, it has seen large raises in income taxes and cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and on heritage, which has suffered relatively large cuts. This implies a need for rethinking choices and prioritisations to cope with the changing circumstances. Across Europe, the effects of the crisis on heritage, or the whole cultural sector, have yet mostly been highlighted in general or supposed terms rather than empirically analysed. But what actually happens to how heritage is conceptualised in times of crisis? Inspired by Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper explores representation of and argumentation for heritage in Irish state heritage policies pre and post the recession 2008. Much concerns regarding heritage management are discursively shaped. Policies, stating the authorised viewpoint, are thus key in the construction of heritage and its values in society. Recently, research has highlighted a shift towards more instrumentality in cultural policy due to wider societal changes. A crisis could influence such development. The analysis departs from an often-stated notion of heritage as a part of the Irish national recovery, but what does that imply? Focus is therefore put on how different representations of heritage and its values are present, argued for and compete in a situation with increasing competition regarding relevance and support. The paper shows how heritage matters are refocused, streamlined and packaged as productive, good-for-all, unproblematic and decomplexified in order to be perceived and valued as part of the national recovery. This includes privileging certain instrumental values, foremost economic, by means of specificity, space and quantification, while heritage’s contribution to social life, education or health, although often mentioned, are downplayed by being expressed in much more vague terms.
Research Interests:
In 2008 the Republic of Ireland entered an economic crisis as part of the global economic crisis. It was met with austerity measures, and Ireland has since experienced large cuts in state spending on health, education, and heritage.... more
In 2008 the Republic of Ireland entered an economic crisis as part of the global economic crisis. It was met with austerity measures, and Ireland has since experienced large cuts in state spending on health, education, and heritage. Across Europe, the effects of the crisis on heritage have mostly been high- lighted in general or supposed terms rather than empirically analyzed. Based on interviews with state and non-state actors in the heritage sector, this paper investigates the effects of the economic crisis and austerity within Irish official heritage management. The crisis has brought changes to the ways heritage is conceptualised and dealt with from a state perspective. These changes are important to track because one key part of the continuous process of production of heritage and its values in society is the ways state heritage management frames and works with heritage. The analysis focuses on four implications: budget cuts; how the crisis creates uncertainty, pauses, and short-termism; an increasing instrumentalization of heritage; and an increasing involvement and dependency on non-state actors. Economi- cal logics, expertise, legal liabilities, short-term emergency responses, and skills in making persuasive arguments grow in importance, while long-term strategies and projects that may not lead to measurable revenues in terms of tourism or employment get put aside. The study opens up critical questions of (in)equality and changing influences within heritage management, of what and who is, should, and can be included in and supported by state heritage management, and by which logic.
keywords: official heritage management, instrumentalization, uncertainty, Authorized Heritage Discourse, global economic crisis, Republic of Ireland, interviews
keywords: official heritage management, instrumentalization, uncertainty, Authorized Heritage Discourse, global economic crisis, Republic of Ireland, interviews
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Today, about 50 % of the population in Sweden has access to a second home through their family. We are now, and in the coming years, entering a time of changes in usage and ownership for many second homes. This could result in outcomes... more
Today, about 50 % of the population in Sweden has access to a second home through their family. We are now, and in the coming years, entering a time of changes in usage and ownership for many second homes. This could result in outcomes like fragmented ownership, conflicts between legal and perceived rights of use and issues around management, succession or sale that affect maintenance and usage of the second home. The reason for this is an assumed increase of generational changes and shared usage and ownership of second homes following the boom of second homes in the 1960s and 70s and the increased average age of the owners. The aim of this paper is to start to analyse second home users’ enactment, which includes their thinking, feeling and acting, of their second home in relation to existing or future shared usage/ownership and generational changes at the second home. In order to discuss this we ask: How is the situation with shared usage of second homes and the intersection of generations at second homes experienced and described in society and among second home users? Three different materials are used: a questionnaire survey of second home users, interviews with second home users and media texts. The motive for the research is the idea that the second home is a place for the family that provides a sense of place, home, identity and continuity. The emotional, social, functional and economic meanings given to these places make them potentially problematic to manage and share within a family and through generations. In order to develop our analytical framework for understanding this, we will build on geographical works on farm property, enactment, emotional relations, transgenerational family practices and a life course perspective. The three analysed materials show that second home usage within families and over generations is common and wanted but also filled with wishes and difficulties. This paper only scratches the surface of these issues and we see a need for further exploration and analysis of the emotional, social and material values and relations to second homes, and the users’ approaches regarding this. Our long-term approach in coming studies will provide insights into the complex situations where decisions are made regarding the future of second homes as well as increase our understanding of settlement and living patterns in Sweden in the coming years.
Research Interests:
Second-homes are vital parts of the encountering of the rural in the Western World. The way they are perceived in society is important to explore as it can influence how and by whom this part of the rural is used. This paper explores the... more
Second-homes are vital parts of the encountering of the rural in the Western World. The way they are perceived in society is important to explore as it can influence how and by whom this part of the rural is used. This paper explores the media construction of a specific type of second-homes in Sweden; cottages that since the 1950s have transformed from poor smallholdings to beloved second-homes. Besides being lived spaces, these cottages have become well known features of rural Sweden, symbols of national identity and described by media as rural idylls. They can be seen as having a cultural centrality in the revaluation of rurality and the shift towards post-productivist countryside in Sweden. But how could this type of humble cottage become so significant and what does the image of it really imply? This is studied through a discourse analysis of the representation of these cottages in a monthly home magazine from 1956 to 2008 with a particular interest in the production and naturalisation of them as important rural artefacts and national symbols. The paper discusses how material and immaterial dimensions have interacted in this construction process as well as possible social implications of the representations. Conclusively, the representations construct a restricted image of cottages and their users and of why cottages are important and should be taken care of. These representations are building on values, ideas and norms embedded in a highlighted and particular materiality which makes these seem innocent, natural and common sense. By exploring this the paper contributes to the wider inquiry into the discursive construction of the rural where seemingly innocent and natural ways of representing places, people and artefacts can produce strong and excluding norms and values regarding the rural and its users and uses.
Research Interests:
Along with urbanisation and modernisation, the use of second homes has increased in the Western world. This can be seen as part of the increasing mobility of people in society, but also as part of a search for stillness and escape from... more
Along with urbanisation and modernisation, the use of second homes has increased in the Western world. This can be seen as part of the increasing mobility of people in society, but also as part of a search for stillness and escape from modern urban society. Recently, scholars in geography and other disciplines have argued that mobility and fixity are two sides of the same coin. This paper aims to explore the complex, manifold and often paradoxical relationship between mobility and immobility in practices of dwelling and seeking stillness in a highly mobile society. It elaborates on how mobility and stillness, in both space and time, are intertwined and mutually influence each other by analysing second home usage of old cottages that formally were dwelling houses of poor tenant smallholdings in Sweden. How do mobility and stillness exist and interact at these cottages and what parts do the cottages themselves have in this? This is studied through interviews with cottage users regarding their daily life practices and encounters with history and materiality at the cottages. These cottages are easily thought of as places of immobility where time has stood still. However, the paper shows that these cottages are places that continuously emerge through entanglements of mobility and stillness and of present and past times. The practices and experiences of mobility and stillness at the cottage are much integrated in and directed by the cottages’ specific geography, history and materiality, and the activities and thinking of their users because of these characteristics. The users go to the cottage to be at a place where they, with the help of the preserved materiality and history of the cottages, can feel rooted and still. At the same time the cottages offer imaginary time travels and experiences of other times and lifestyles.
Research Interests:
Summary: The crofts are dead. Long live the crofts! The local heritage movement’s commitment to crofts in post-war Sweden During the post-war area, Sweden’s crofts, which, ever since the second half of the 19th century, had been... more
Summary: The crofts are dead. Long live the crofts! The local heritage movement’s commitment to crofts in post-war Sweden
During the post-war area, Sweden’s crofts,
which, ever since the second half of the 19th
century, had been increasingly regarded as an
outmoded form of small farming and had been
vacated by their tenants in favour of jobs in the
expanding towns and cities and industries, began
to attract interest outside the agricultural
sector, e.g. within the local heritage movement.
This article sets out to investigate the great interest
shown in crofts by the local heritage movement
since the 1960s and to place that interest
in a societal context, with a view to understanding
what made it possible for crofts to become
one of the movement’s flagships. Special attention
is paid to the significance of the material
qualities of crofts in this connection. Through
a study, influenced by discourse analysis, of
both croft inventories by local heritage societies
and of documents from the movement’s central
agencies, the article discusses the manifestations
assumed by involvement with crofts, what that
involvement is based on and what consequences
it may have had.
One conclusion drawn is that the croft-related
activity of the local heritage movement has
been informed by a notion of good crofters and
bad crofts. Crofts were the homes of industrious
people who, in the sweat of their brows and
by dint of deprivation, built up the Swedish welfare
state, and this inspired the movement with
feelings of respect and pride. For this reason
crofts became important to observe and preserve, both cognitively and materially speaking,
Involvement with crofts, as manifested by all the
hundreds of inventory texts which have been
produced, has resulted in certain values and
properties becoming embedded or accentuated
in the crofts. With the passing of time, interest
in crofts has become naturalised: one must take
an interest in them, and they must be preserved.
The fact of many crofts having vanished made
them all the more important to highlight. The
movement’s commitment has focused on documenting
and making visible the physical aspect
of the existence of crofts, and the lessons to be
learned from personal experiences of croft environments
are frequently highlighted. Through
the inventories and visits to croft sites, a journey
through time could begin, offering chances of
experiencing other periods of history and bearing
those experiences with one back to presentday
society.
The analysis points the importance of the
link between the spirit of the post-war age, with
the labour movement’s harvest time and material
prosperity and welfare in Sweden on the
one hand, and dedication to the crofts, these
dwelling places closely bound up with material
poverty, plain living and decay, on the other.
Interest in crofts can be seen as part of an increased
popular interest in the cultural heritage.
If, though, we take as our starting point which
people initiated, controlled and carried out the
croft inventories, this worm’s eye perspective
becomes a retrospect which above all emanated
from a top-down, externalising perspective on
crofters’ lives.
Key words: Crofts, local heritage associations, materiality, time travelling, representations, historic documentation, post-war Sweden
During the post-war area, Sweden’s crofts,
which, ever since the second half of the 19th
century, had been increasingly regarded as an
outmoded form of small farming and had been
vacated by their tenants in favour of jobs in the
expanding towns and cities and industries, began
to attract interest outside the agricultural
sector, e.g. within the local heritage movement.
This article sets out to investigate the great interest
shown in crofts by the local heritage movement
since the 1960s and to place that interest
in a societal context, with a view to understanding
what made it possible for crofts to become
one of the movement’s flagships. Special attention
is paid to the significance of the material
qualities of crofts in this connection. Through
a study, influenced by discourse analysis, of
both croft inventories by local heritage societies
and of documents from the movement’s central
agencies, the article discusses the manifestations
assumed by involvement with crofts, what that
involvement is based on and what consequences
it may have had.
One conclusion drawn is that the croft-related
activity of the local heritage movement has
been informed by a notion of good crofters and
bad crofts. Crofts were the homes of industrious
people who, in the sweat of their brows and
by dint of deprivation, built up the Swedish welfare
state, and this inspired the movement with
feelings of respect and pride. For this reason
crofts became important to observe and preserve, both cognitively and materially speaking,
Involvement with crofts, as manifested by all the
hundreds of inventory texts which have been
produced, has resulted in certain values and
properties becoming embedded or accentuated
in the crofts. With the passing of time, interest
in crofts has become naturalised: one must take
an interest in them, and they must be preserved.
The fact of many crofts having vanished made
them all the more important to highlight. The
movement’s commitment has focused on documenting
and making visible the physical aspect
of the existence of crofts, and the lessons to be
learned from personal experiences of croft environments
are frequently highlighted. Through
the inventories and visits to croft sites, a journey
through time could begin, offering chances of
experiencing other periods of history and bearing
those experiences with one back to presentday
society.
The analysis points the importance of the
link between the spirit of the post-war age, with
the labour movement’s harvest time and material
prosperity and welfare in Sweden on the
one hand, and dedication to the crofts, these
dwelling places closely bound up with material
poverty, plain living and decay, on the other.
Interest in crofts can be seen as part of an increased
popular interest in the cultural heritage.
If, though, we take as our starting point which
people initiated, controlled and carried out the
croft inventories, this worm’s eye perspective
becomes a retrospect which above all emanated
from a top-down, externalising perspective on
crofters’ lives.
Key words: Crofts, local heritage associations, materiality, time travelling, representations, historic documentation, post-war Sweden
Research Interests:
Torsten Hägerstrand har påpekat att människan lever i två olika men sammanhängande verkligheter. Den ena består av mönster av mening, den andra av den materiella verkligheten (Hägerstrand 1991: 197). Trots att många troligtvis kan hålla... more
Torsten Hägerstrand har påpekat att människan lever i två olika men sammanhängande verkligheter. Den ena består av mönster av mening, den andra av den materiella verkligheten (Hägerstrand 1991: 197). Trots att många troligtvis kan hålla med om det brukar antingen det ena eller det andra ges företräde vid val av forskningsobjekt och förklaringar.
Idag är företeelsen torp främst kopplad till röda trähus med vita knutar och en lantlig sommaridyll för den stressade stadsbefolkningen. Men går man tillbaka i historien har torp haft en annan betydelse och dess transformation under... more
Idag är företeelsen torp främst kopplad till röda trähus med vita knutar och en lantlig sommaridyll för den stressade stadsbefolkningen. Men går man tillbaka i historien har torp haft en annan betydelse och dess transformation under 1900-talet är på många sätt radikal. Innan de blev förknippade med sommar och fritid var de små ofria jordbruk som var hem och försörjning för landsbygdens jordlösa och en källa till arbetskraft för jordägare. Torpet är en plats som existerar i både den fysiska verkligheten och den mentala, starkt knutet till materiella former men också till föreställningar och symbolik. Idag har exempelvis många i Sverige en känsla av hur det ska se ut och lukta inne i en torpstuga redan innan de stiger in i den och det finns starka idéer om hur torp ska se ut och behandlas. Att studera torpet är följaktligen att dissekera något som ofta anses ligga djupt inne i den svenska folksjälen, men hur har det blivit denna starkt laddade plats? Föreläsningen kommer handla om det och behandlar hur torp, trots deras fattiga förflutna, ursprungliga funktion som försörjning som spelat ut sin och roll och med livsmiljöer som ofta saknar den komfort som vi nu är vana vid, ändå har överlevt in i nutiden. Föreläsningen baseras på avhandlingen Torpets transformationer. Materialitet, representationer och praktik från år 1850 till 2010, som utkom 2011.
Research Interests:
n Sweden the term croft (Sw. torp) has a dual meaning. Today it is often seen as a rural Swedish summer idyll used for second home usage. However, from the 17th century and onwards into the 20th crofts were livelihoods and homes for the... more
n Sweden the term croft (Sw. torp) has a dual meaning. Today it is often seen as a rural Swedish summer idyll used for second home usage. However, from the 17th century and onwards into the 20th crofts were livelihoods and homes for the rural landless. Crofts were then small, poor tenant holdings (like small farms) on someone else’s land. This presentation will revolve around the present day use of these places. The croft, as a place of history and heritage as well as of present day use, is today to a great extent dependent on their users’ ideas of how crofts should be and on their practices in connection to this. Thus, it is essential to investigate how the users make use of, understand and value crofts, with all their history, today. Interviews with present day users have been conducted and they indicate that the interest and thoughts of the croft and its history, and of those who lived there, often has been trigged and developed by being on a croft and practicing life and work th...
It has been stated that heritage practices are part of the design of the future. Today’s decisions and conceptualisations regarding heritage matter, they shape the world we live in today and onwards. In 2008, Ireland entered a severe... more
It has been stated that heritage practices are part of the design of the future. Today’s decisions and conceptualisations regarding heritage matter, they shape the world we live in today and onwards. In 2008, Ireland entered a severe financial crisis as part of the global economic crisis. Since then, it has seen large raises in income taxes and cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and also heritage, an area which has suffered relatively large cuts. This implies needs for rethinking choices and prioritisations to cope with changing circumstances. New ways of dealing with heritage may arise. Ideas regarding heritage in society are materialised in space through heritage practices like utilisation, conservation and state support. As such the ways society deal with what is recognised as heritage and questions of what/whose pasts are worth saving, how this should be used and valued and why, influence present and future beings of heritage places. This presentation addresses how the economic crisis in Ireland has affected the ways heritage has been dealt with, conceptually and practically, in state heritage work but also in the voluntary sector, which has expanded during the crisis. Through analysis of documents and interviews with state employees and volunteers, local and national responses to the crisis are explored. It shows how the crisis, with increasing uncertainty and competition within the state regarding relevance and support, creates a situation where certain sites, ways of conceptualising heritage and its values and ways of working become accentuated while others loose ground.
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Landscape approaches have gained importance in heritage management in recent years. Likewise, in the Republic of Ireland, the geographical focus of this presentation, landscapes are often referred to as cornerstones of the national... more
Landscape approaches have gained importance in heritage management in recent years. Likewise, in the Republic of Ireland, the geographical focus of this presentation, landscapes are often referred to as cornerstones of the national heritage. However, heritage management isn’t what it used to be in Ireland. In 2008, Ireland entered a severe economical crisis as part of the global financial crisis. Since then, there have been heavy cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and also heritage, an area that has suffered relatively large cuts. These changing circumstances have meant shifts in focus, valuing and ways of working within state heritage management. There is less funding for national and local heritage projects, in particular of they don’t provide employment, tourism or concern emergency works on individual structures at risk. What does this mean for a landscape perspective on heritage? This presentation explores how management and valuing of heritage has been affected by the economic crisis in Ireland since 2008. In particular, the emphasis is to sketch and discuss the influence of the crisis and its aftermath on the management of heritage landscapes versus objects and to highlight the effects of the crisis on different landscapes and part of landscapes.
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Presentation at the Department of Anthropology’s Colloquium series in collaboration with the Brown Bag series for the CHESS program (Cultural Heritage of European Society and Spaces). University of Massachusetts, Amherst (USA)
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Along with urbanization and modernization the usage of second homes has increased in Sweden and elsewhere. This presentation deals with a specific kind of second home i.e. cottages that until early 20th century were small tenant holdings... more
Along with urbanization and modernization the usage of second homes has increased in Sweden and elsewhere. This presentation deals with a specific kind of second home i.e. cottages that until early 20th century were small tenant holdings on large estates and inhabited by the Swedish rural poor. Based on interviews of cottage users, the presentation revolves around the use of these dwellings and how they influence their users. For example, they provide continuity. These cottages are often kept within the family for longer times than ordinary residences. They also contain continuity because of their history as homes in the past. The cottages may be immobile places, but they offer their users a place with time depth and thus chances to travel in history while being in the present. Further, the harsh past of earlier users seems to add meaning to the present day lives there and the typical material structures of the cottages influence practices there. Much effort is put into decorating the cottages correct and preserving old characteristics. The materiality of the cottage has also made users adapt to a more simple and un-modern way of living. So, at the same time as society is becoming more high-tech, mobile and modern, these dwellings are kept very simple and seemingly unchanged. They are valued for being the opposite of the fast changing urban and modern society, a process that however is the very basis for the possibility of spending all that time and money that people do at the cottage.
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A second home is often, for the owner and his/her family, an important place. It is a place for meeting family and friends, relaxation and creativity. However, it can also be a place for conflicts, agonizing meetings and diverse, and... more
A second home is often, for the owner and his/her family, an important place. It is a place for meeting family and friends, relaxation and creativity. However, it can also be a place for conflicts, agonizing meetings and diverse, and conflicting, desires, needs and values. The sense of place, identity and continuity, and the economic and functional values that second homes might carry makes them potentially problematic when users change or increase and when they are used and managed in common. In the Nordic countries, second homes are often kept within the family. This can make the amount of users, and thus the pressure of time, space and resources, per second home increase as generations change and expand. The second home owners have, in average, been older the last 20 years. Problematic issues connected to generational changes and shared usage and ownership is a phenomenon that today seems therefore to be growing. Many people experience these conflicts as full of guilt and created by difficult relatives. However, this is a question of larger societal significance. These conflicts are very spatial, rooted in issues of shared usage/ownership of space in combination with the powerful meanings linked to second homes as places. This presentation deals with second homes and the problems that can be triggered by generational changes and shared usage/ownership of them. Furthermore, it explores consequences if this, such as various strategies of municipality planning authorities and families as ways of dealing with possibly increased pressure and conflicts on second homes.
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During the last 150 years the countryside has transformed due to urbanisation, industrialisation, changes in agriculture, an increase in welfare and more. Once common homes for the poor rural small-scale farmers and workers, rural... more
During the last 150 years the countryside has transformed due to urbanisation, industrialisation, changes in agriculture, an increase in welfare and more. Once common homes for the poor rural small-scale farmers and workers, rural cottages and smallholdings plotted over the countryside has also undergone large changes. They are today often seen and used as places of rural idyll, certainly a quite radical transformation considering their previous character and usage. By discussing past and contemporary situations of old rural cottages, as well as the representations of them, in foremost Ireland and Sweden this presentation deals with these altered places and asks how the transformations and idealizations has occurred and touches upon possible consequences of those changes. A conclusion that can be made is that these small cottages, once simple and sometimes even abandoned homes of the rural poor, have been undergoing both material and symbolical changes. One part of this is that they during the last century and up till today often have been portrayed and seen as idyllic decent homes connected to an idealized and selective past and countryside but also as a part of an national identity. As for similarities and differences between Ireland and Sweden there are quite different political and economical contexts and processes that have affected the material and symbolical practices and changes connected to these small cottages, but similarities can also be distinguished and will be discussed.
In Sweden the term croft (Sw. torp) has a dual meaning. Today it is often seen as a rural Swedish summer idyll used for second home usage. However, from the 17th century and onwards into the 20th crofts were livelihoods and homes for the... more
In Sweden the term croft (Sw. torp) has a dual meaning. Today it is often seen as a rural Swedish summer idyll used for second home usage. However, from the 17th century and onwards into the 20th crofts were livelihoods and homes for the rural landless. Crofts were then small, poor tenant holdings (like small farms) on someone else’s land. This presentation will revolve around the present day use of these places. The croft, as a place of history and heritage as well as of present day use, is today to a great extent dependent on their users’ ideas of how crofts should be and on their practices in connection to this. Thus, it is essential to investigate how the users make use of, understand and value crofts, with all their history, today. Interviews with present day users have been conducted and they indicate that the interest and thoughts of the croft and its history, and of those who lived there, often has been trigged and developed by being on a croft and practicing life and work there and seeing all the marks in the landscape. It is clear that most of the users weren’t really interested in crofts and their history before using the site, before being in place. Something that seems to fascinate the users a lot was the contrasts between the modern life on the croft and life there in the past. Also the users seemed to highlight a more realistic, historical and practice-based understanding of crofts than what can be seen in media where crofts often are represented as prefect, and typically Swedish, second homes. The users were often stating that representations of crofts in media are idealised and even incorrect and thus that their own understandings of them were more true.
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The transformations of the croft: Materiality, representation and practice from 1850 to 2010 The concept of the croft (Sw. torp) is complex. From the 17th century crofts were small tenant holdings on a farm or estate. Along with changes... more
The transformations of the croft: Materiality, representation and practice from 1850 to 2010
The concept of the croft (Sw. torp) is complex. From the 17th century crofts were small tenant holdings on a farm or estate. Along with changes in society since c. 1850, they were converted into freehold farms, second homes or left to ruins. They acquired new functional, social and symbolic values and today the croft is mostly associated with a rural idyll. The aim of the thesis is to study the transformations of the croft since1850 in order to understand how and why it has survived as a place and acquired the meanings it has. Thus the construction of place is in centre of attention. This process is approached from three angles: the materiality of the croft, ideas and representations of it and various practices relating to it. This is studied through historical documents and maps, text analysis and interviews, in part through three case studies in Uppland, Småland and Värmland. The main conclusions are that great changes notwithstanding, there are continuities in all three dimensions of the croft. This combination of inertia and change is central to how and why the croft has survived. The study also shows the importance of timing between available rural dwellings and a demand for such dwellings. Another conclusion is that the idealisation of the croft is old and not only a present day phenomena. Further, the different dimensions of the croft and the relations which can be found between them have been important for the transformation and survival of the croft. The materiality, immateriality and practices of the croft in the past remain parts of what constitutes it today, together with those dimensions in the present. The study shows the possibilities inherent in focusing on the intertwining of various dimensions and periods of time for the understanding of the processes of place construction.
keywords: Crofts, place construction, materiality, representation, practices, historical geography, Sweden, second homes, idealisation, timing
The concept of the croft (Sw. torp) is complex. From the 17th century crofts were small tenant holdings on a farm or estate. Along with changes in society since c. 1850, they were converted into freehold farms, second homes or left to ruins. They acquired new functional, social and symbolic values and today the croft is mostly associated with a rural idyll. The aim of the thesis is to study the transformations of the croft since1850 in order to understand how and why it has survived as a place and acquired the meanings it has. Thus the construction of place is in centre of attention. This process is approached from three angles: the materiality of the croft, ideas and representations of it and various practices relating to it. This is studied through historical documents and maps, text analysis and interviews, in part through three case studies in Uppland, Småland and Värmland. The main conclusions are that great changes notwithstanding, there are continuities in all three dimensions of the croft. This combination of inertia and change is central to how and why the croft has survived. The study also shows the importance of timing between available rural dwellings and a demand for such dwellings. Another conclusion is that the idealisation of the croft is old and not only a present day phenomena. Further, the different dimensions of the croft and the relations which can be found between them have been important for the transformation and survival of the croft. The materiality, immateriality and practices of the croft in the past remain parts of what constitutes it today, together with those dimensions in the present. The study shows the possibilities inherent in focusing on the intertwining of various dimensions and periods of time for the understanding of the processes of place construction.
keywords: Crofts, place construction, materiality, representation, practices, historical geography, Sweden, second homes, idealisation, timing
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Research on the relationship between music and place has highlighted the importance of music for how people perceive, feel and act in particular places. This chapter explores the performative power of representations of a group of South... more
Research on the relationship between music and place has highlighted the importance of music for how people perceive, feel and act in particular places. This chapter explores the performative power of representations of a group of South American indigenous pan flute musicians busking on the streets of Stockholm, Sweden, taking inspiration from a more-than-representational approach. It is a qualitative exploration of how music can both be representative of mobilities at different scales, and affect experiences of mobility in particular places through the emotions, thoughts and memories it generates. We explore the pan flute music itself as a highly mobile phenomenon and an example of the globalisation of ‘world music’, but it also emerges that the music is posited as representative of particular local place-making efforts.
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I samhället idag finns generellt sett en positiv värdering av landsbygdens äldre miljö. Landsbygdsområden har inte varit lika hårt utsatt för de senaste decenniernas exploaterings- och moderniseringstryck som urbana områden, även om detta... more
I samhället idag finns generellt sett en positiv värdering av landsbygdens äldre miljö. Landsbygdsområden har inte varit lika hårt utsatt för de senaste decenniernas exploaterings- och moderniseringstryck som urbana områden, även om detta kan skilja sig åt mellan olika landsbygder. Landsbygden har även till stor del stått utanför planer för både skydd och utveckling. Det har gjort att äldre miljöer finns kvar i mer eller mindre oförändrat skick. Men landsbygdens kulturmiljöer möter andra utmaningar. Avfolkning, övergivning, återanvändning, rekreation och förändringar av markanvändning är förhållanden som påverkar landskapet. Många beståndsdelar av de äldre kulturmiljöerna har förlorat sin tidigare funktion och ekonomiska värden när jordbrukssamhället övergått i ett industri- och tjänstesamhälle och antingen övergivits eller återanvänts i andra syften. Det här kapitlet diskuterar några av de utmaningar som finns i hantering och planering av kulturmiljöer på landsbygden. Kapitlet lyfter även olikheter i förutsättningar och hantering mellan urbant och ruralt kulturarv utifrån betydande skillnader i såväl lagstiftning och samhällsutveckling som idéer mellan landsbygd och stad.
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In Sweden, common elementary schools (folkskolan) were introduced in the 1840s. As aconsequence, children started walking to and from school several days per week. The schoolroute, as both place and practice, impacted society and... more
In Sweden, common elementary schools (folkskolan) were introduced in the 1840s. As aconsequence, children started walking to and from school several days per week. The schoolroute, as both place and practice, impacted society and families; it created new ways and needsin everyday life. From a time-geographic perspective, the article investigates children’s mobilityin everyday life in order to understand what walking to school encompassed. Moreover,whereas the common narrative of school routes in the past emphasizes distances andchallenges of the journeys it often omits the adult world’s comprehension and involvement.The aim of the article is to increase understandings of the school route as a phenomenon andits meanings in everyday life from a historical perspective. Through qualitative analysis ofmemoirs and societal discussions, the authors focus on the difficulties (conceptualized as“weights”) that the school routes could entail and how the adult world tried to manage them(conceptualized as“reliefs”). One conclusion is that society and families were aware of, and triedto deal with, those hardships, and a second is that the school route was more than a distance.In this regard, variations in families’geographical and socioeconomic positions and the physicallandscape played crucial roles.
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Ofta beskrivs torpens historia utifrån berättelser om 1800-talets torparfamiljer som slet på sina små jordbruk och att många av dessa torp sedan blivit idylliska sommarstugor. Vi vill stanna upp lite i perioden som var mellan tiden då... more
Ofta beskrivs torpens historia utifrån berättelser om 1800-talets torparfamiljer som slet på sina små jordbruk och att många av dessa torp sedan blivit idylliska sommarstugor. Vi vill stanna upp lite i perioden som var mellan tiden då torpen beboddes av jordbrukande torpare som gjorde dagsverken åt markägaren och tiden då sommartorparna vilar ut med en kaffe på trappen. För de två faserna är inte hela historien om dessa platser. Denna mellanfas har dock sällan studerats eller ens dokumenterats. Här gräver vi därför djupare kring torpen under 1900-talet för att visa vilka som faktiskt använt torpen under den här mellanfasen under efterkrigstiden och framåt och för att förstå mer om den här dolda delen av torpens historia. I tidigare studier, litteratur och media har det ibland skymtat fram att torpen, förutom att vara torparnas eller sommartorparnas, också kan ha varit platser för de gamla, "tokiga" och skygga. Att de har varit, och fortfarande kan vara platser i marginalen där lite andra livsformer funnits eller finns. I förhållande till den huvudgård dit torpet hörde, låg torpen oftast på marginella platser i gårdens utkanter, längs med vägar eller i skogen på utmarken. Den här artikelns studieobjekt ligger således i marginalen såväl tidsmässigt och rumsligt som socialt.
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Book-review of : Peter Aronsson & Lizette Graden (eds.), Performing Nordic Heritage: Everyday Practices and Institutional culture (Farnham: Ashgate 2013).
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Unga ar en grupp som till stora delar ar beroende av en val fungerande kollektivtrafik for sitt vardagliga resande och for sin mojlighet att delta i samhallets olika sfarer. I detta kapitel underso ...
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I samhället idag finns generellt sett en positiv värdering av landsbygdens äldre miljö. Landsbygdsområden har inte varit lika hårt utsatt för de senaste decenniernas exploaterings- och moderniseringstryck som urbana områden, även om detta... more
I samhället idag finns generellt sett en positiv värdering av landsbygdens äldre miljö. Landsbygdsområden har inte varit lika hårt utsatt för de senaste decenniernas exploaterings- och moderniseringstryck som urbana områden, även om detta kan skilja sig åt mellan olika landsbygder. Landsbygden har även till stor del stått utanför planer för både skydd och utveckling. Det har gjort att äldre miljöer finns kvar i mer eller mindre oförändrat skick. Men landsbygdens kulturmiljöer möter andra utmaningar. Avfolkning, övergivning, återanvändning, rekreation och förändringar av markanvändning är förhållanden som påverkar landskapet. Många beståndsdelar av de äldre kulturmiljöerna har förlorat sin tidigare funktion och ekonomiska värden när jordbrukssamhället övergått i ett industri- och tjänstesamhälle och antingen övergivits eller återanvänts i andra syften. Det här kapitlet diskuterar några av de utmaningar som finns i hantering och planering av kulturmiljöer på landsbygden. Kapitlet lyfter även olikheter i förutsättningar och hantering mellan urbant och ruralt kulturarv utifrån betydande skillnader i såväl lagstiftning och samhällsutveckling som idéer mellan landsbygd och stad.
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When young people travel, they are often very dependent on public transport or parents. This study uses interviews with 16–19 years old teenagers in Stockholm to investigate their everyday experiences of public transit. The paper explores... more
When young people travel, they are often very dependent on public transport or parents. This study uses interviews with 16–19 years old teenagers in Stockholm to investigate their everyday experiences of public transit. The paper explores the experiences of buses and subways, here conceptualized as mobile places, to understand how they shape teenagers’ daily life. Understanding teenagers’ experiences of public transportation is part of understanding their everyday life, struggles, and possibilities to be mobile and participate in society. It is also a step towards ensuring that they find public transportation inclusive, safe, and worth traveling with today and in the future. Conceptually, the analysis focuses on how these mobile places are experienced as providing weights or reliefs to the everyday and if, how and when they may be places of interaction or retreat, addressing two needs in teenagers’ personal being and development. The study shows how various experiences of traveling ...
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In 2008 the Republic of Ireland entered an economic crisis as part of the global economic crisis. It was met with austerity measures, and Ireland has since experienced large cuts in state spending on health, education, and heritage.... more
In 2008 the Republic of Ireland entered an economic crisis as part of the global economic crisis. It was met with austerity measures, and Ireland has since experienced large cuts in state spending on health, education, and heritage. Across Europe, the effects of the crisis on heritage have mostly been highlighted in general or supposed terms rather than empirically analyzed. Based on interviews with state and non-state actors in the heritage sector, this paper investigates the effects of the economic crisis and austerity within Irish official heritage management. The crisis has brought changes to the ways heritage is conceptualised and dealt with from a state perspective. These changes are important to track because one key part of the continuous process of production of heritage and its values in society is the ways state heritage management frames and works with heritage. The analysis focuses on four implications: budget cuts; how the crisis creates uncertainty, pauses, and short-termism; an increasing instrumentalization of heritage; and an increasing involvement and dependency on non-state actors. Economical logics, expertise, legal liabilities, short-term emergency responses, and skills in making persuasive arguments grow in importance, while long-term strategies and projects that may not lead to measurable revenues in terms of tourism or employment get put aside. The study opens up critical questions of (in)equality and changing influences within heritage management, of what and who is, should, and can be included in and supported by state heritage management, and by which logic.
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In this paper we examine the notion that music in public space could be understood in terms of ethical potential, where new sensibilities for thinking, feeling, seeing and being with others might be imagined and practiced. We do this by... more
In this paper we examine the notion that music in public space could be understood in terms of ethical potential, where new sensibilities for thinking, feeling, seeing and being with others might be imagined and practiced. We do this by considering how musical performances by migrants impact on inclusive forms of place (re-)making, affective enactments of public space and emotional accounts of belonging and ‘the other’. The paper draws on an ethnographic exploration of South American pan flute musicians, performing music at Sergels torg, a central square in Stockholm, Sweden. Through fieldwork with a combination of qualitative techniques, including observation, interviews and sensory methods such as photography, video and recorded ‘sound walks’ we trace the affective aspects of encounters with busking and the impact of music on place. We highlight the ethical potential of music in the experience of urban moments and its capacity to reconfigure space. We find that encounters with sound can produce new spaces of conviviality and inclusion; it can soothe, animate and soften urban spaces. However, a positive encounter with difference through sound depends on a favourable social, physical and temporal context, and because busking serves to make marginalised voices heard (both literally and metaphorically), it can be experienced as troubling for precisely this reason. Thus, we need to take into account the full complexity of the dynamics between sound and place, in considering this relationship as a novel window to the ethical potential of the urban encounter.
Research Interests: Sociology, Cultural Studies, Cultural Geography, Music, Space and Place, and 14 moreSoundscape Studies, Sound studies, Urban Studies, Migration Studies, Street Music, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Public Space, Diversity and Inclusion, Emotional Geographies, Atmosphere, Place Making, Busking, and Sound Studies
ABSTRACT Research on the relationship between music and place has highlighted the importance of music for how people perceive, feel and act in particular places. This chapter explores the performative power of representations of a group... more
ABSTRACT Research on the relationship between music and place has highlighted the importance of music for how people perceive, feel and act in particular places. This chapter explores the performative power of representations of a group of South American indigenous pan flute musicians busking on the streets of Stockholm, Sweden, taking inspiration from a more-than-representational approach. It is a qualitative exploration of how music can both be representative of mobilities at different scales, and affect experiences of mobility in particular places through the emotions, thoughts and memories it generates. We explore the pan flute music itself as a highly mobile phenomenon and an example of the globalisation of ‘world music’, but it also emerges that the music is posited as representative of particular local place-making efforts.
Research Interests:
t has been stated that heritage practices are part of the design of the future. Today’s decisions and conceptualisations regarding heritage matter, they shape the world we live in today and onwards. In 2008, Ireland entered a severe... more
t has been stated that heritage practices are part of the design of the future. Today’s decisions and conceptualisations regarding heritage matter, they shape the world we live in today and onwards. In 2008, Ireland entered a severe financial crisis as part of the global economic crisis. Since then, it has seen large raises in income taxes and cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and also heritage, an area which has suffered relatively large cuts. This implies needs for rethinking choices and prioritisations to cope with changing circumstances. New ways of dealing with heritage may arise. Ideas regarding heritage in society are materialised in space through heritage practices like utilisation, conservation and state support. As such the ways society deal with what is recognised as heritage and questions of what/whose pasts are worth saving, how this should be used and valued and why, influence present and future beings of heritage places. This presentation addresses ...
Research Interests:
Along with urbanization and modernization the usage of second homes has increased in Sweden and elsewhere. This presentation deals with a specific kind of second home i.e. cottages that until early 20th century were small tenant holdings... more
Along with urbanization and modernization the usage of second homes has increased in Sweden and elsewhere. This presentation deals with a specific kind of second home i.e. cottages that until early 20th century were small tenant holdings on large estates and inhabited by the Swedish rural poor. Based on interviews of cottage users, the presentation revolves around the use of these dwellings and how they influence their users. For example, they provide continuity. These cottages are often kept within the family for longer times than ordinary residences. They also contain continuity because of their history as homes in the past. The cottages may be immobile places, but they offer their users a place with time depth and thus chances to travel in history while being in the present. Further, the harsh past of earlier users seems to add meaning to the present day lives there and the typical material structures of the cottages influence practices there. Much effort is put into decorating the cottages correct and preserving old characteristics. The materiality of the cottage has also made users adapt to a more simple and un-modern way of living. So, at the same time as society is becoming more high-tech, mobile and modern, these dwellings are kept very simple and seemingly unchanged. They are valued for being the opposite of the fast changing urban and modern society, a process that however is the very basis for the possibility of spending all that time and money that people do at the cottage.
Research Interests:
Landscape approaches have gained importance in heritage management in recent years. Likewise, in the Republic of Ireland, the geographical focus of this presentation, landscapes are often referred to as cornerstones of the national... more
Landscape approaches have gained importance in heritage management in recent years. Likewise, in the Republic of Ireland, the geographical focus of this presentation, landscapes are often referred to as cornerstones of the national heritage. However, heritage management isn’t what it used to be in Ireland. In 2008, Ireland entered a severe economical crisis as part of the global financial crisis. Since then, there have been heavy cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and also heritage, an area that has suffered relatively large cuts. These changing circumstances have meant shifts in focus, valuing and ways of working within state heritage management. There is less funding for national and local heritage projects, in particular of they don’t provide employment, tourism or concern emergency works on individual structures at risk. What does this mean for a landscape perspective on heritage? This presentation explores how management and valuing of heritage has been affect...
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ABSTRACT Second-homes are vital parts of the encountering of the rural in the Western World. The way they are perceived in society is important to explore as it can influence how and by whom this part of the rural is used. This paper... more
ABSTRACT Second-homes are vital parts of the encountering of the rural in the Western World. The way they are perceived in society is important to explore as it can influence how and by whom this part of the rural is used. This paper explores the media construction of a specific type of second-homes in Sweden; cottages that since the 1950s have transformed from poor smallholdings to beloved second-homes. Besides being lived spaces, these cottages have become well known features of rural Sweden, symbols of national identity and described by media as rural idylls. They can be seen as having a cultural centrality in the revaluation of rurality and the shift towards post-productivist countryside in Sweden. But how could this type of humble cottage become so significant and what does the image of it really imply? This is studied through a discourse analysis of the representation of these cottages in a monthly home magazine from 1956 to 2008 with a particular interest in the production and naturalisation of them as important rural artefacts and national symbols. The paper discusses how material and immaterial dimensions have interacted in this construction process as well as possible social implications of the representations. Conclusively, the representations construct a restricted image of cottages and their users and of why cottages are important and should be taken care of. These representations are building on values, ideas and norms embedded in a highlighted and particular materiality which makes these seem innocent, natural and common sense. By exploring this the paper contributes to the wider inquiry into the discursive construction of the rural where seemingly innocent and natural ways of representing places, people and artefacts can produce strong and excluding norms and values regarding the rural and its users and uses.
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In 2008, the Republic of Ireland entered a severe financial crisis partly as a part of the global economic crisis. Since then, it has seen large raises in income taxes and cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and on... more
In 2008, the Republic of Ireland entered a severe financial crisis partly as a part of the global economic crisis. Since then, it has seen large raises in income taxes and cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and on heritage, which has suffered relatively large cuts. This implies a need for rethinking choices and prioritisations to cope with the changing circumstances. Across Europe, the effects of the crisis on heritage, or the whole cultural sector, have yet mostly been highlighted in general or supposed terms rather than empirically analysed. But what actually happens to how heritage is conceptualised in times of crisis? Inspired by Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper explores representation of and argumentation for heritage in Irish state heritage policies pre and post the recession 2008. Much concerns regarding heritage management are discursively shaped. Policies, stating the authorised viewpoint, are thus key in the construction of heritage and its values ...
Research Interests:
In Sweden, common elementary schools (folkskolan) were introduced in the 1840s. As a consequence, children started walking to and from school several days per week. The school route, as both place and practice, impacted society and... more
In Sweden, common elementary schools (folkskolan) were introduced in the 1840s. As a consequence, children started walking to and from school several days per week. The school route, as both place and practice, impacted society and families; it created new ways and needs in everyday life. From a time-geographic perspective, the article investigates children's mobility in everyday life in order to understand what walking to school encompassed. Moreover, whereas the common narrative of school routes in the past emphasizes distances and challenges of the journeys it often omits the adult world's comprehension and involvement. The aim of the article is to increase understandings of the school route as a phenomenon and its meanings in everyday life from a historical perspective. Through qualitative analysis of memoirs and societal discussions, the authors focus on the difficulties (conceptualized as "weights") that the school routes could entail and how the adult world tried to manage them (conceptualized as "reliefs"). One conclusion is that society and families were aware of, and tried to deal with, those hardships, and a second is that the school route was more than a distance. In this regard, variations in families' geographical and socioeconomic positions and the physical landscape played crucial roles.
Research Interests:
In Sweden, common elementary schools (folkskolan) were introduced in the 1840s. As a consequence, children started walking to and from school several days per week. The school route, as both place and practice, impacted society and... more
In Sweden, common elementary schools (folkskolan) were introduced in the 1840s. As a consequence, children started walking to and from school several days per week. The school route, as both place and practice, impacted society and families; it created new ways and needs in everyday life. From a time-geographic perspective, the article investigates children's mobility in everyday life in order to understand what walking to school encompassed. Moreover, whereas the common narrative of school routes in the past emphasizes distances and challenges of the journeys it often omits the adult world's comprehension and involvement. The aim of the article is to increase understandings of the school route as a phenomenon and its meanings in everyday life from a historical perspective. Through qualitative analysis of memoirs and societal discussions, the authors focus on the difficulties (conceptualized as "weights") that the school routes could entail and how the adult world tried to manage them (conceptualized as "reliefs"). One conclusion is that society and families were aware of, and tried to deal with, those hardships, and a second is that the school route was more than a distance. In this regard, variations in families' geographical and socioeconomic positions and the physical landscape played crucial roles.
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Research Interests:
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Utifran tvarvetenskapliga perspektiv och metoder, hamtade fran etnologin och kulturgeografin, och med en empirisk utgangspunkt i tre kulturmiljoer som forvaltas av Statens fastighetsverk (SFV) i Sv ...
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Research Interests:
Under efterkrigstiden borjade de svenska torpen, som sedan senare delen av 1800-talet alltmer betraktats som en omodern form av smabruk och lamnats for arbeten i de vaxande staderna och industriern ...
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Research Interests:
Kulturarv i kristider : Hur 2000-talets globala ekonomiska kris paverkat det offentliga arbetet med kulturhistoriska miljoer pa Irland
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The concept of the croft (Sw. torp) is complex. From the 17th century crofts were small tenant holdings on a farm or estate. Along with changes in society since c. 1850, they were converted into fr ...
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Med skarpt fokusering pa hallbar utveckling blir saval politiskt ansvariga som akademiker allt mer sysselsatta inte enbart med infrastrukturens inverkan pa ekonomi och miljo utan aven dess sociala ...
The family and the second home : On building sandcastles, sharing places and the passing of time
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Today, about 50 % of the population in Sweden has access to a second home through their family. We are now, and in the coming years, entering a time of changes in usage and ownership for many second homes. This could result in outcomes... more
Today, about 50 % of the population in Sweden has access to a second home through their family. We are now, and in the coming years, entering a time of changes in usage and ownership for many second homes. This could result in outcomes like fragmented ownership, conflicts between legal and perceived rights of use and issues around management, succession or sale that affect maintenance and usage of the second home. The reason for this is an assumed increase of generational changes and shared usage and ownership of second homes following the boom of second homes in the 1960s and 70s and the increased average age of the owners. The aim of this paper is to start to analyse second home users’ enactment, which includes their thinking, feeling and acting, of their second home in relation to existing or future shared usage/ownership and generational changes at the second home. In order to discuss this we ask: How is the situation with shared usage of second homes and the intersection of gen...