idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
There are approximately 85,000 known cultural heritage sites in the Västra Götaland region in western Sweden, and some 4,000 within the municipality of Gothenburg . Some of these locations are well-known and attended to, while the majority are rather anonymous and neglected. Who uses these small cultural heritage sites and for what? These are questions that the archaeologist Anita Synnestvedt tries to answer in her thesis.
Cultural heritage sites are protected by Swedish law and have to be preserved. Synnestvedt therefore investigates what resources are available for these sites and what possibilities there are for them, over and above representing costs for society in the form of care and maintenance and functioning as monuments to previous cultures. Her aim is to study whether they might constitute capital that can be utilised in local and regional development in the future.
Paradoxes exist with regard to how cultural heritage sites should be used and preserved in the landscape. The author of the thesis focuses on utilization and addresses different ways of using the sites with the perspective on areas such as health, schools, preschools and experiences of various kinds. An overall theme of the thesis is interpretation. The concept is given an explanation and is further on discussed related towards performances, staging and stories.
Anita Synnestvedt has conducted two case studies in the districts of Styrsö and Bergsjön in Gothenburg. Both projects were interdisciplinary and involved collaborations, primarily with schools in the two districts.
- Attention needs to be paid to small cultural heritage sites and activities in relation to them need to be put in place if they are not to be forgotten, says Anita Synnestvedt. In her opinion, all sites have something to tell us and an educational perspective is therefore needed in the cultural landscape.
Allowing and acknowledging diverse, playful historical uses of our cultural heritage sites represents a democratisation of our cultural heritage, and the author feels that we should make the sites flourish so that more people than is currently the case can engage in love affairs with them, ensuring that they are not simply dull history.
Title of the thesis: Cultural Heritage Sites. Love affair or dull history
The thesis will be public defended on Friday 19 December at 1.00 pm
Location: Room T 302, Arkeologen, Olof Wijksgatan 6
Opponent: Dr. Grete Lillehammer, Stavanger, Norway
For further information contact Anita Synnestvedt, tel. +46 (0)31-786 5948 or mobile: +46 (0)706-60 85 00, e-mail: anita.synnestvedt@archaeology.gu.se
Criteria of this press release:
History / archaeology
transregional, national
Research results
English
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