Ethnology is a disciplinary field that is more or less interwoven with anthropology. Its main focus is the analysis of various cultures and cultural expressions, usually within a national context. In practice, ethnologists favor an approach toward culture from the individual perspective, with a key interest in how single ordinary individuals, seen as active cultural beings, think and act in their everyday lives. This implies that they are both shaped by and contributors to the shaping of cultures in their everyday lives. However, within ethnology, culture viewed as a bidirectional phenomenon is not merely regarded as an individual process. Rather, it is regarded as something that occurs in collective social contexts. When analyzing culture, ethnologists usually employ a combined focus on its ideational and folkloric aspects as well as aspects of materiality, locality, and identity. Ethnology's general methodological approaches comprise ethnographic fieldwork as well as studies of artifacts and sociocultural structures.

Ethnology is a disciplinary field that is more or less interwoven with anthropology. Its main focus is the analysis of various cultures and cultural expressions, usually within a national context. In practice, ethnologists favor an approach toward culture from the individual perspective, with a key interest in how single ordinary individuals, seen as active cultural beings, think and act in their everyday lives. This implies that they are both shaped by and contributors to the shaping of cultures in their everyday lives. However, within ethnology, culture viewed as a bidirectional phenomenon is not merely regarded as an individual process. Rather, it is regarded as something that occurs in collective social contexts. When analyzing culture, ethnologists usually employ a combined focus on its ideational and folkloric aspects as well as aspects of materiality, locality, and identity. Ethnology's general methodological approaches comprise ethnographic fieldwork as well as studies of artifacts and sociocultural structures.

Ethnology. The Adaptability and Continuity of a Discipline

This article discusses the development throughtime and space of ethnology as a multifaceted disciplinaryfield. The objective of the article,however, is to challenge possible pre-assumptionsof ethnology as an incoherent i.e. variable and inconstant discipline, due to national limitations andtheoretical and methodological responsiveness, byproposing some core aspects regarding focalpoints,perspectives and methods that may beconsidered as prominent and unifying amongstethnologists both in Sweden and abroad. The articleargues for a general and continuing disciplinarianfocus on culture as a pluralistic, complexand individual-based phenomenon, as well as fundamentalinterest in the functions, social structures,constructions and experiences of cultures.Furthermore, the article describes how both earlierand later generations of ethnologists in generalhave chosen to study culture based on a selectionof recurring perspectives that comprise boththe intangible and tangible aspects of culture, aswell as the spatial and social contexts in whichcultures are formed and maintained. Finally, thearticle highlights how different types of ethnologicaldata are collected and analyzed via a combinationof constantly developed methods of culturalanalysis, though rooted in a disciplinarian tradition. In conclusion, despite a continuous progressionand adjustments within ethnology in regardto perspectives and methods over time and space,this has more often resulted in additions ratherthan replacements. For this reason, it seems relevantto define ethnology as a coherent discipline,designated by both adaptation and continuity.

Ethnology. The Adaptability and Continuity of a Discipline

This article discusses the development throughtime and space of ethnology as a multifaceted disciplinaryfield. The objective of the article,however, is to challenge possible pre-assumptionsof ethnology as an incoherent i.e. variable and inconstant discipline, due to national limitations andtheoretical and methodological responsiveness, byproposing some core aspects regarding focalpoints,perspectives and methods that may beconsidered as prominent and unifying amongstethnologists both in Sweden and abroad. The articleargues for a general and continuing disciplinarianfocus on culture as a pluralistic, complexand individual-based phenomenon, as well as fundamentalinterest in the functions, social structures,constructions and experiences of cultures.Furthermore, the article describes how both earlierand later generations of ethnologists in generalhave chosen to study culture based on a selectionof recurring perspectives that comprise boththe intangible and tangible aspects of culture, aswell as the spatial and social contexts in whichcultures are formed and maintained. Finally, thearticle highlights how different types of ethnologicaldata are collected and analyzed via a combinationof constantly developed methods of culturalanalysis, though rooted in a disciplinarian tradition. In conclusion, despite a continuous progressionand adjustments within ethnology in regardto perspectives and methods over time and space,this has more often resulted in additions ratherthan replacements. For this reason, it seems relevantto define ethnology as a coherent discipline,designated by both adaptation and continuity.

Many minor post-industrial communities in Sweden, such as Surahammar and Timrå, struggle with financial difficulties and socio-cultural challenges due to the industrial decline and increased dependency on immigration from neighboring cities. In the light of this, arranging annual local festivals with a focus on cultural heritage can be seen as an opportunity to strengthen local identity as well as its inhabitant’s coexistences and sense of belonging. This article aims to analyze two local festivals, viewed as platforms for the production, communication and experiences of local cultural heritage values. Empirically resting on data collection and analysis of mainly ethnographic fieldwork, comprising interviews and observations, the article argues that these post-industrial local festivals involves identificational negotiations in regard to both the ritualized communication and implementation of local cultural heritage values. In conclusion, these festivals confirms a clearly industrial linked local cultural heritage but at the same time challenges it through enlargements, sufficiently vigilant connected to a local past in order to allow for inclusive local identifications, regardless of e.g. spatial origins.

Celebrating local history – Cultural heritage festivals in post-industrial small towns as prerequisites for local identification

Many minor post-industrial communities in Sweden, such as Surahammar and Timrå, struggle with financial difficulties and socio-cultural challenges due to the industrial decline and increased dependency on immigration from neighboring cities. In the light of this, arranging annual local festivals with a focus on cultural heritage can be seen as an opportunity to strengthen local identity as well as its inhabitant’s coexistences and sense of belonging. This article aims to analyze two local festivals, viewed as platforms for the production, communication and experiences of local cultural heritage values. Empirically resting on data collection and analysis of mainly ethnographic fieldwork, comprising interviews and observations, the article argues that these post-industrial local festivals involves identificational negotiations in regard to both the ritualized communication and implementation of local cultural heritage values. In conclusion, these festivals confirms a clearly industrial linked local cultural heritage but at the same time challenges it through enlargements, sufficiently vigilant connected to a local past in order to allow for inclusive local identifications, regardless of e.g. spatial origins.

Ideologization, manifestation and community making 

- Processes of heritage production in two local communities in transition

As the local industry has taken on an increasingly marginalized role in post-industrial small towns, like Surahammar and Timrå, in Central and Northern Sweden, an industrial past has emerged as the more valuable politically, economically but also socio-culturally, to nurture, preserve and identify with in these local industrial communities that undergo transition. This article aims to analyze local heritage production as a use and representation of history. Empirically resting on data collection and analysis of primary and secondary sources, comprising interviews, observations, archives and contextual literature, the article argues that local post-industrial heritage production may involve continuation as well as alterations of processes started in the past industrial society. Also, it comprises local adaptation as well as adjustments on heritage discourses. In conclusion, despite of local differences similarities may, as shown in Surahammar and Timrå, indeed occur in both design and content. This involves a pre-dominance of “non-professional” producers and including and excluding representations of places and people. Furthermore, local heritage provide combined political, economic and socio-cultural arenas of different ideologies as well as sites for creation of shared values and evoking emotions of belonging in diversified communities. In Surahammar and Timrå this has been done recurrently with the use of effective homogenization strategies within the field of heritage, i.e. by emphasizing sufficiently remote pasts to induce temporary but nevertheless efficient “classless and rootless” unity in pride of local place and values.

Ideologization, manifestation and community making 

- Processes of heritage production in two local communities in transition

As the local industry has taken on an increasingly marginalized role in post-industrial small towns, like Surahammar and Timrå, in Central and Northern Sweden, an industrial past has emerged as the more valuable politically, economically but also socio-culturally, to nurture, preserve and identify with in these local industrial communities that undergo transition. This article aims to analyze local heritage production as a use and representation of history. Empirically resting on data collection and analysis of primary and secondary sources, comprising interviews, observations, archives and contextual literature, the article argues that local post-industrial heritage production may involve continuation as well as alterations of processes started in the past industrial society. Also, it comprises local adaptation as well as adjustments on heritage discourses. In conclusion, despite of local differences similarities may, as shown in Surahammar and Timrå, indeed occur in both design and content. This involves a pre-dominance of “non-professional” producers and including and excluding representations of places and people. Furthermore, local heritage provide combined political, economic and socio-cultural arenas of different ideologies as well as sites for creation of shared values and evoking emotions of belonging in diversified communities. In Surahammar and Timrå this has been done recurrently with the use of effective homogenization strategies within the field of heritage, i.e. by emphasizing sufficiently remote pasts to induce temporary but nevertheless efficient “classless and rootless” unity in pride of local place and values.

Surahammar och Timrå är två mindre orter i mellersta respektive norra Sverige som förenas i ett framgångsrikt industriellt förflutet. Båda har även, i likhet med många andra orter som präglats av en industriell produktion, drabbats av den senare tidens förändrade villkor för industrin. För Surahammars och Timrås del innebär det att ett beroende av industrin succesivt kommit att ersättas med ett beroende av nyinflyttning från i första hand de intilliggande städernas befolkning. Invånare som har ett förflutet från tiden då industrin dominerade i samhället samsas numera om den lokala ytan med dem som har flyttat in under senare tid. Den här etnologiska studien handlar om hur människor skapar sig en plats i två mindre industrisamhällen som genomgår omvandling. Vilka betydelser tilldelar man platsen man bor och verkar på, och hur hävdar man sin lokala existens inför sig själv och gentemot andra?

Surahammar och Timrå är två mindre orter i mellersta respektive norra Sverige som förenas i ett framgångsrikt industriellt förflutet. Båda har även, i likhet med många andra orter som präglats av en industriell produktion, drabbats av den senare tidens förändrade villkor för industrin. För Surahammars och Timrås del innebär det att ett beroende av industrin succesivt kommit att ersättas med ett beroende av nyinflyttning från i första hand de intilliggande städernas befolkning. Invånare som har ett förflutet från tiden då industrin dominerade i samhället samsas numera om den lokala ytan med dem som har flyttat in under senare tid. Den här etnologiska studien handlar om hur människor skapar sig en plats i två mindre industrisamhällen som genomgår omvandling. Vilka betydelser tilldelar man platsen man bor och verkar på, och hur hävdar man sin lokala existens inför sig själv och gentemot andra?

This thesis is based on the demise of industry that has led to a search for new solutions for the survival of smaller communities traditionally dependent on industrial production. In two local industrial communities in central and northern Sweden, Surahammar and Timrå, industrial dependency has gradually been replaced by a dependency on immigration, largely from the neighboring cities of Västerås and Sundsvall. In the changed order of these local communities, old and new inhabitants have had to negotiate positions in order to co-exist. The objective of the thesis is to present how old and new inhabitants relate to and are attached to the local community as a place in which they reside and live their lives. In focus is an interest in the local identity construction of the inhabitants, i.e. how they identify with the place in which they dwell and live their everyday lives, with and in reference to each other and the outside world. Another concern relates to just how different local options for identification can be for individuals and for collective groups of people.

Adopting a phenomenological and constructivist perspective, I regard local place as something that both old and new inhabitants are shaped by and shape in a collective process based on contrasts. The analysis is based on empirical data gathered during several years of fieldwork in the studied communities. The empirical data mainly consists of interviews and participant observations with old and new inhabitants in Surahammar and Timrå. Moreover, biographical literature, newspaper articles and data retrieved from the Internet have contributed important insights into how the local place is experienced and valued among the different groups of inhabitants. The thesis recognises the values and symbols that old and new inhabitants agree upon and that often result in spatial attachments. In addition, ideological, social and cultural differences are depicted as factors that shape a place as old and new inhabitants articulate local attachment and identification based on different grounds, needs and dreams.

This thesis is based on the demise of industry that has led to a search for new solutions for the survival of smaller communities traditionally dependent on industrial production. In two local industrial communities in central and northern Sweden, Surahammar and Timrå, industrial dependency has gradually been replaced by a dependency on immigration, largely from the neighboring cities of Västerås and Sundsvall. In the changed order of these local communities, old and new inhabitants have had to negotiate positions in order to co-exist. The objective of the thesis is to present how old and new inhabitants relate to and are attached to the local community as a place in which they reside and live their lives. In focus is an interest in the local identity construction of the inhabitants, i.e. how they identify with the place in which they dwell and live their everyday lives, with and in reference to each other and the outside world. Another concern relates to just how different local options for identification can be for individuals and for collective groups of people.

Adopting a phenomenological and constructivist perspective, I regard local place as something that both old and new inhabitants are shaped by and shape in a collective process based on contrasts. The analysis is based on empirical data gathered during several years of fieldwork in the studied communities. The empirical data mainly consists of interviews and participant observations with old and new inhabitants in Surahammar and Timrå. Moreover, biographical literature, newspaper articles and data retrieved from the Internet have contributed important insights into how the local place is experienced and valued among the different groups of inhabitants. The thesis recognises the values and symbols that old and new inhabitants agree upon and that often result in spatial attachments. In addition, ideological, social and cultural differences are depicted as factors that shape a place as old and new inhabitants articulate local attachment and identification based on different grounds, needs and dreams.

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.

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.

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.

Similar to other northern peripheries, remote, and sparsely populated areas (SPAs) in Sweden’s far north have been confronted with decreasing populations and economic stagnation, forcing local governments to more actively engage in strategies for attracting and retaining populations. This exploratory community case study considers rural place-marketing efforts in the municipalities of Åsele and Storuman, with a particular focus on understanding differing local strategies for attracting consumption-driven movers to "amenity-poor" and "amenity-rich" areas. The case study examines two research questions: what target groups do these municipalities envisage as desired new populations; and to what extent, and how, do they engage in rural place-marketing efforts? Our study reveals that the municipal officials’ views on rural place-marketing strategies differ considerably, as Åsele participates in Europe’s largest emigration expo while Storuman draws on its increasing tourism development to attract seasonal residents and returning young adults in the family-building stage of the life course. The findings further illustrate how production and performance aspects of mobility are essential when studying the socio-economic sustainability of everyday life in sparsely populated northern Swedish municipalities at different geographical places and levels.

Similar to other northern peripheries, remote, and sparsely populated areas (SPAs) in Sweden's far north have been confronted with decreasing populations and economic stagnation, forcing local governments to more actively engage in strategies for attracting and retaining populations. This exploratory community case study considers rural place-marketing efforts in the municipalities of angstrom sele and Storuman, with a particular focus on understanding differing local strategies for attracting consumption-driven movers to "amenity-poor" and "amenity-rich" areas. The case study examines two research questions: what target groups do these municipalities envisage as desired new populations; and to what extent, and how, do they engage in rural place-marketing efforts? Our study reveals that the municipal officials' views on rural place-marketing strategies differ considerably, as angstrom sele participates in Europe's largest emigration expo while Storuman draws on its increasing tourism development to attract seasonal residents and returning young adults in the family-building stage of the life course. The findings further illustrate how production and performance aspects of mobility are essential when studying the socio-economic sustainability of everyday life in sparsely populated northern Swedish municipalities at different geographical places and levels.