Sami Rights and Sami Challenges

In this article the authors analyse the conflict in contemporary Sami politics in Sweden. To understand this conflict a historical perspective is necessary, and the authors reconstruct the ideas and beliefs in the public debate that has legitimized a system of Sami rights over more than a century, and analyze the challenges to these by the Sami movement. Two parallel themes are discussed: the first deals with the continuity and change of the Swedish Sami policy, where the authors show how ideas and beliefs concerning the Sami have limited the possibilities of political action. The second theme focuses on the political mobilization of the Sami in Sweden and their challenges of the established view of the Sami in official policy. One of the conclusions made is that it is of importance to grant indigenous peoples, like the Sami, some kind of secure political platform from which they could participate in the democratic procedure and legitimately counter‐act the power of the nation states in which they live.     

Public game funding in the Nordic region

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore the policies related to support structures surrounding national game industries, with focus on the three Nordic countries Finland, Norway and Sweden, and investigate what kind of context the Nordic welfare state model has provided for game development. The three cases illustrate how Nordic welfare state measures have interacted with the games industry over time. While the political ideals have been fairly similar, our study demonstrates how the objectives and practical means of state engagement have differed significantly. We argue that although the three countries all have support schemes of which game companies can take advantage, there are significant differences in the degree to which each individual country has organized government interventions and support. While the Finnish state has treated game development as an endeavour in business development, the regional Nordic game program and the Norwegian state has developed a cultural policy that primarily aims to protect the cultural heritage. The Swedish state has not established a tailormade policy directed towards game development but has a broad spectrum of general policies for supporting research and business development. We suggest that future research should investigate how the public funding is structured and how discourses are formulated around appeals for more public funding for the games industry.     

Examining the Olympics: heritage,identity and performance

A major aspect of Ireland's history is the continual problems of a sectarian nature, yet the issue of 'the troubles' gets scant consideration in the permanent exhibitions mounted in Northern Ireland's museums, and is only beginning to emerge in more temporary exhibitions and statements about museums. In addition, the belief that cultural heritage plays a significant part in conflict resolution in Northern Ireland has long been expressed in statements on education policy and local government programmes. However, the concept of using museums for exploring this history for a positive outcome has not, despite the scale of the political problem, been a high-profile issue in Northern Ireland's museums nor has it had a great deal of academic attention. This paper is a contribution to this gap. It assesses the role that Northern Ireland's museums play in the current political context. It evaluates the reasons why, since their foundation, museums in Northern Ireland have largely chosen to avoid controversial issues in their displays. It considers how attitudes are changing and how museum professionals are tentatively beginning to engage with political issues and enter into dialogue on subjects such as cultural and political identities in Northern Ireland.     

Sami Counter-Narratives of Colonial Finland. Articulation,Reception and the Boundaries of the Politically Possible

Abstract

The Sami have articulated two kinds of counter-narratives of their treatment by the state of Finland: the state failing to provide welfare services and as a colonizer of the Sami. The Sami counter-narratives are discussed in light of their evolution and their perception in the interactional context of the Finnish state. The colonization narrative, which replaced the welfare narrative, has proven to be hard to legitimize in a Finnish context. Even though it lacks both external and full internal legitimacy, it is still used because of the international conventions building on the self-imagery of a colonized people. In addition, the most radical post-colonial researchers have chosen to use it, partly for ethno-political reasons. Numerous elements in the master narrative of Finland delegitimize the idea of Finnish colonialism: amongst other things, the idea of natural borders, the idea of being colonized by neighbouring empires, the long history of industrial nationalism and the economic growth and myth-building of the state of Finland as an anti-imperialist “good state”. A critique is advanced concerning the least nuanced academic practices and narratives.     

Benefits of visiting heritage museums: Chinese parents’ perspectives

Abstract

The family, as a leisure unit, is an important museum consumer group. The literature on family leisure in museums concentrates on the cognitive and the learning aspects in science museums and art galleries in western contexts. It provides limited explanation of the leisure outcomes acquired from visiting museums. This work addresses this lacuna by exploring the benefits perceived by Chinese parents who take their children to a cluster of museums along China’s Grand Canal, a world heritage site in Hangzhou. A review of museum and heritage research, combined with 17 on-site, in-depth interviews, generated information on a range of benefits which was used to design a questionnaire that was completed by 450 respondents. Five perceived benefits were identified using factor analysis. In order of significance, they are family bonding, community attachment, cultural awareness, restoration and personal growth. These perceived benefits have implications for museums and other public facilities catering to the family leisure market, as well as for governments, community organisations, the heritage sector and other stakeholders that are charged with managing cultural heritage.     

Strategic management for visitor-oriented museums

Abstract: Strategic management is a familiar concept in for-profit organisations but is relatively new to museums. This paper presents and discusses a model of strategic management for visitor-oriented museums that aims to be more comprehensive than current approaches. It shows how museums can overcome the tension between the strategic demand to develop visitor-oriented museum services and the duties and social mandate of museums as public institutions that are defined by cultural policy—enabling access to cultural heritage, promoting broad cultural participation and providing informal education. Visitor-oriented strategic museum management is concerned with attracting a variety of visitors as well as the development of museum services that are appropriate to diverse museum audiences. The model presented here emphasises the comprehensive strategic management concept. Audience research and evaluation are shown to be valuable analytic and revision tools for strategic management in visitor-oriented museums.     

博物馆实践与博物馆理论的关系——以博物馆展览为视角

博物馆学是一门后设学科,世界各地的博物馆都是用藏品来呈现人类与其环境所发生事物的真实场所,所以它是在产生功能之后才建立起模式与理论。中国博物馆机构的建立虽然是输入的“舶来品”,但是也有着相同的对收藏对象的运作、管理与使用之目的,所以在呈现给公众观赏的展览上,如何达成文化遗产讯息的传承,用观众对展览主题的认知、态度与需求...     

The policy of non-discrimination and the protection of minority cultural heritage in Albania

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at the effectiveness of the policy of non-discrimination towards minorities in the preservation of minority cultural heritage, constructing a case study within Albania. After defining the key terms used, this paper examines the legal framework of non-discrimination towards minorities in its historical development and looks into the state of preservation of minority cultural heritage on the ground throughout the 2010s combining extensive field-work with interviews with key representatives of ethnic minorities in Albania. The poor state of preservation of minority cultural heritage is mostly attributed to under-financing and the insufficient policy of non-discrimination. As I demonstrate, in the case of minorities with a kin-state in the region, most notably Greece, as well as the heritage claimed by neighbouring states, primarily Turkey, the policy of non-discrimination and the practice of under-financing paves the way for external involvement in the protection of cultural heritage, in pursuit of international political agendas. The paper concludes that more needs to be done for the protection of minority cultural heritage in Albania.     

2007 Cultural Heritage Legal Summary

Abstract

During the past year there has been continuing progress in the ratification and implementation of the two most important international conventions that deal with tangible cultural heritage. This progress is, to some extent, surprising as it involves some of the more significant market countries, such as Germany and Switzerland. At the same time, Italy's efforts to recover its stolen cultural objects continued to meet with success as the Getty and Princeton museums agreed to return significant numbers of antiquities from their collections. Finally, two cases decided in British courts have recently taken center stage in the ongoing efforts of nations to protect their archaeological heritage through the legal system.     

Towards an early warning system for oxidative degradation of protein fibres in historical tapestries by means of calibrated amino acid analysis

Flemish 15–17th century tapestries are among the most precious testimonies of European cultural heritage. Even in their deteriorated condition, they are still highly valued and exhibited in many museums all over the world. The present state of degradation evidenced by visual assessment in conservation practice, and confirmed with macro-scaled tensile strength tests, reveals the vulnerability of the wool and silk fibres to light exposure.     

From the editors

From a background in documenting traditional Sami knowledge of major predators, the author discusses the conflict of interests between Sami reindeer herding and Swedish environmental policy on the matter of governmental administration of predators. The author argues that a recognition of the fact that different cultures see and relate to nature and the countryside from different standpoints and within different frames of reference is missing in today's debate in Sweden. According to the author this could lead to a situation of eco‐colonialism if Sami experiences and apprehensions are not taken into account in Swedish environmental policy.     

Research on and by ‘the Other’. Focusing on the Researcher's Encounter with the Lule Sami in a Historically Changing Context

Abstract

A century and half ago, the encounter between the researcher and those (s)he researched were described and seen from the vantage point of the researcher. ‘The others’ participated in the encounters, but were seldom asked for advice regarding the approach or to provide their own perspectives. But this has changed. Originally playing the passive role of the objects of research, today the Sami and Kven of northern Norway have taken on the role of the active participant. These changes are apparent when examining research on the Lule Sami in Norway over the last 150 years. Several dimensions must be considered. First, the researcher and their research must be placed and understood within the contemporary ideological context, implying that the situation of the researcher will reflect the social and political conditions of the time. Analysis of research from the Lule Sami area demonstrates how the researcher's perspective on the Sami people and culture has changed over time, how the Sami role in history, and thus cultural diversity, has been revealed in greater detail, and how the Sami part of the population has increasingly participated by taking on the role of the researcher. Finally, the encounter is analysed in an international context, which shows how the local and national changes are also part of an international development.     

Remembering the 1960s: popular music and memory in Europe

Following the increasing attention paid to popular music in heritage discourses, this article explores how the popular music culture from the 1960s is remembered in Europe. I discuss the role of heritage organizations, media and the cultural policy of the EU in the construction of a popular music heritage of this period. Furthermore, I examine the ways in which attachments to local, national and European identities are negotiated. To this end, I draw upon interviews with representatives of museums, websites and archives. The article reveals a recurring tension between transnational and local experiences of the 1960s. It is found that media and heritage institutions like museums and archives predominantly have a national and local orientation, although narratives with a European vantage point are now emerging on the internet.     

遗产认同:概念、内涵与研究路径

本文从遗产产生、发展及其遗产本质属性特征的视角提出了遗产认同的概念,并从“遗产身份”和“遗产认同”两个角度解释了遗产认同的内涵,即前者强调遗产的客观属性,后者强调主体对遗产的认知。在此基础上,根据遗产与认同的四种交叉关系,作者提出了遗产认同相应的研究路径,即从时间视角的遗产化过程分析每个阶段的遗产认同;以尺度的视角从表征层面的空间身份和文化身份特征理解遗产认同;从非表征层面的遗产实践分析相关者如何通过具体行动表征和重构自己的身份认同。遗产认同概念的提出与研究不仅可能丰富新文化地理学的景观研究理论,也为遗产旅游地治理提供理论借鉴,未来还需对遗产认同与遗产保护利用关系做进一步探讨。     

Looking With Both Eyes

Private metal detecting is frequently suggested as a favourable recipe for saving objects that would otherwise perish in agricultural fields in Norway. Metal detector communities portray themselves as heritage rescuers. For this they receive considerable praise from sympathetic archaeologists and museum staff. By contrast, finders who keep objects for themselves are portrayed as so-called nighthawks. However, accounts from informants who collect, trade or search for archaeological objects reflect more ambivalent attitudes than the idealized image of heritage rescuers and the hostile image of nighthawks indicate. In this article, the issue of private metal detecting is approached through recorded interviews, official correspondence in public archives and informal accounts in online forums.

Norwegian cultural heritage law forms a background to the analysis, while certain legal concepts are employed more actively. The relation between museums and detectorists is deconstructed and explored through the legal provisions on receiving and laundering the proceeds of criminal acts in Norway’s General Civil Penal Code. It is argued here that, while it might seem practical from the point-of-view of museums to assume that finds that are handed in according to law also have been legally procured, such acceptance might also be understood as unlawful legitimation.     

The settlement mounds in Divtasvuona/Tysfjord,North Norway. Traces of a Sami fisher-farmer economy

In Tysfjord Municipality, North Norway, written sources mention Sami farms in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The farms had a mixed economy, with an emphasis on agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering. On some of these farms there are documented settlement mounds. Minor excavations have been carried out on several of these archaeological sites. A pollen sample has also been taken from one of these locations. By using radiocarbon dating and artefact analyses it is possible to date the settlement mounds back to the Early Middle Ages. The establishment of these cultural monuments documents a change in the economy, with animal husbandry becoming more important. During the Middle Ages, cultivation of barley arose as a new element of the economy. The article addresses the question of whether this change in the economy can be linked to a Sami or a Norwegian population.     

Pioneer Living 1963 Style: Imaginations of Heritage in a Post‐war Canadian Suburb

This article connects the origins of a Canadian living history museum to the cultural and social developments of 1960s suburban Canada. Although there exists a strong literature on heritage and commemoration in Canada (and around the world), few scholars have looked explicitly at museums in that country. The literature on history museums elsewhere in the world is stronger. However, despite the strengths of this international literature, its focus has been on the use of museums in the present. An important aspect of the use of heritage, the historical contexts in which past museum visitors interpreted museum themes and displays, has not received much attention. This article argues that museum patrons of the 1960s, the decade in which many living history museums were founded, saw pioneer villages in the context of their own modernising lifestyles. However much Black Creek Pioneer Village might reflect anxiety about the direction of modernity, it also framed the past in ways that legitimated modern, suburban living.     

Cultural sustainability as a strategy for the survival of museums and libraries

Cultural sustainability has become a growing priority within sustainable development agendas, and is now often depicted as a fourth pillar, equal to social, economic, and environmental concerns. Museums and libraries play a unique role within cultural sustainability by preserving their communities’ heritage. However, sustainability policy and research within these sectors still tends to focus on the social, economic, and environmental pillars. This article provides a critique of sustainability policy and research for museums and libraries. It argues that more explicit coverage of cultural sustainability is required to not only improve the contributions of museums and libraries to cultural sustainability, but also to provide an increased understanding and appreciation of the value of these institutions necessary for their continued survival.     

Social engineering and cultural policy – theoretical and empirical reflexions from Swedish cultural policy in a historical perspective

This article explores the influence of social engineering in various forms within Swedish cultural policy, seen in a historical perspective. In social engineering cultural policy measures, reforms and projects are justified by scientifically based research rather than party based ideological arguments. Karl Popper’s classification of the utopian and the step-by-step engineering make up the starting point, redefined as paternalistic engineering, welfare state engineering and utilitarian engineering in order to apply these ideas to cultural policy. Social engineering was predominant in Swedish cultural policy mainly during the post war period. In the 1950s as well as in the 1970s this engineering takes on a paternalistic character, in the struggle against injurious culture, such as video violence. Current practice of paternalistic engineering is directed at revealing and identifying invisibles structures in the field of cultural heritage. The welfare state engineering had its highlights in the planning era of the 1960s and the 1970s, and today culture as a beneficial factor for both citizens and society is labelled utilitarian engineering.     

博物馆理论研究与博物馆发展方向——苏东海先生专访

21世纪以来,我国的博物馆事业进入新的发展高潮,博物馆理论与发展研究面临许多新的重大课题。博物馆学家苏东海先生认为:博物馆理论研究需要从博物馆发展实践着手,博物馆发展研究要重视发展战略和时代主题的研究;生态博物馆作为一种文化遗产保护理论与行动的新思维,呈现出与传统博物馆两极分化、对立统一的关系,其成功应建基于让文化的主人真正成为自己文化的主人;文化遗产的保护与发扬体现了当前国际博协的战略思想,是博物馆的时代主题;博物馆应充分认识并强化自身独特的知识、审美和道德特征及其价值,提升专业功能与社会职能,增强文化竞争力;博物馆理论工作者应直面博物馆领域的复杂形势,加强对国内外博物馆以及博物馆学基础理论的研究,探索适合中国博物馆发展的理论体系和发展道路,建设有中国特色的博物馆学。