<p>The empirical focus of this study is the contemporary transition of the industrial area Koppardalen, situated in Avesta in the middle of Sweden. Koppardalen (literary translated “The Copper Valley”) got its name in 1987 when the Avesta municipality bought the area from an iron and steel company. For a century the Koppardalen area, or Norra verken which was its name before 1987, housed production of iron and steel and at its peak employed more than 2000 men.</p><p>In the beginning of the 1980s, iron and steel production had moved out and left the area almost abandoned. When the Avesta municipality became the new owner of Koppardalen it was part of a strategy to transform the area to make it more attractive to light industry and by doing so provide Avesta with new employment opportunities. These plans failed and what happened instead is the object of my analysis.</p><p>The overall purpose of the thesis is to describe and analyse the place of history in the transition process of the Koppardalen industrial area between 1987 and 2003. More specifically, the aim is to answer the two questions: What does the place of history look like? What does the place of history mean?</p><p>My basic theoretical inspiration comes from the French philosopher and critical hermeneuticer Paul Ricoeur and his reasoning about the logic of explanation and understanding. As an operative theoretical tool I use four fundamental historical tropes in order to analyse the place of history in the transition process.</p><p>I have chosen three physical and clearly visible changes in Koppardalen that each constitute one chapter in the study. The first change concerns the old blast furnace, which has been renovated and used for art exhibitions, museum installations and other cultural purposes. The second change concerns two former rolling mills, which have been partly torn down and partly rebuilt into a sports arena and office spaces. The third change concerns a new built bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists that connects the Koppardalen area with Avesta city centre. These two parts had earlier been separated from each other, physically as well as mentally.</p><p>By analysing these three changes I conclude that the most dominant historical trope to be found in Koppardalen is the story about “the foreign country”. The past becomes a different and thrilling contrast that could be used in the effort to make the former industrial area a beautiful, interesting and attractive place. Beside the trope of the foreign country, the story of similarity through history is also present in Koppardalen. Here, the past is compared with today’s situation and periods of change in the past are put into parallel with contemporary challenges of the post-industrial society. Both these tropes, the one of history as a foreign country and the one of history as a parallel of today, paradoxically strengthen the transition process and the power of those actors who work to transform the Koppardalen area.</p><p>One surprising element is the lack of the historical trope of a lost golden age. The proud and prosperous past in the sense of a lost golden age is not to be found in Koppardalen, or at least not in the rhetoric of the politicians and white-collar workers who are the driving forces in the process. In sum, the study shows how the place of history in a contemporary transition process contains a great variety of simultaneously occurring, non-competing historical tropes.</p><p>Key words: industrial history, history of technology, cultural heritage, place of history, use of history, re-use of industrial buildings, urban transition, Sweden, Bergslagen, Avesta.</p>

This critical examination of the concept of cultural heritage is based on an overall phenomenological approach, with focus on Alfred Schütz’s further development of Edmund Husserl’s idea of the lifeworld. With strong emphasis on the subjective and intersubjective dimensions, the concept of cultural heritage is contextualized, analysed and criticized from different aspects for the purpose of enriching the discourse of cultural heritage. A literature based methodology is used, including a hermeneutic analysis of theoretical texts in the field of cultural heritage studies and the new Swedish Culture Environmental Law (“Kulturmiljölagen”) and related bills. Qualitative interviews deal with people’s notions about the concepts of culture, cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage. Finally, this study includes field observations of the Mount Dajti National Park in Albania, involving a visual methodology (photos) and non-visual field notes. A linguistic analysis with a gender perspective, finds that the concept of cultural heritage can be criticized for its patriarchal connotations. The central issue with the concept of cultural heritage concerns its involvement in the complexity of fixed notions and definitions, causing arbitrariness and ambivalence. The interview data indicates a strong connection between cultural heritage and history, despite their distinction. The field observations verify this complexity through an account of the relationship between cultural and natural heritage. The constitutions and values of cultural heritage are established within the Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD), obviating alternative notions of heritage. Thence, this thesis stresses the importance of going beyond the discursive frames and of transparency and critical reflection within the field of cultural heritage. Phenomena can always be interpreted in a subjective or intersubjective way, leading to dissonant and contested heritage, and a new term called “life values”. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

This compilation thesis contains an introductory chapter and four original articles. The studies comprising this thesis all concern aspects of how historical culture is constituted in historical media and history teachers’ narratives and teaching. It is argued that the teaching of history is a complex matter due to an internal tension resulting from the fact that history is both a product and a process at the same time. While historical facts, and knowledge thereof, are an important aspect of history, history is also a product of careful interpretation and reconstruction. This study analyses and discusses how history is constituted in history textbooks and popular history magazines, i.e. two common historical media, and in teachers’ narratives and teaching of history. The study finds that the historical media studied generally tend to present history as void of perspective, interpretation and representation, suggesting this to be the culturally warranted form of historical exposition. Moreover, the teachers studied also tend to approach history as if it were not contingent on interpretation and reconstruction. These results indicate that the history disseminated in historical media and history classrooms presents history in a factual way and disregards the procedural aspects of history. Applying the history didactical concepts of historical consciousness, historical culture and uses of history, this thesis argues that an essential aspect of historical understanding is an appreciation of the contextual contingency that characterises history. All history is conceived within a particular context that is pertinent to why and how a certain version of history is constructed. Furthermore, all history is also received within a particular context by people with particular preconceptions of history that are contextually contingent, in the sense that they are situated in a certain historical culture. Readers of historical media are members of societies and are thus affected by how history is perceived and discussed in these contexts. This thesis argues that an awareness of these aspects of history is an important factor for furthering a complex understanding of history that encompasses the tension highlighted above.

The purpose of this essay has been to explore Alexander the Great from two different perspectives in Greece. The village Proti Serron represents the local area and the national area named Macedonia represents the second perspective. Oral history has been used as a method in addition to literature and trips to museums and archaeological places. As a guideline for the essay and its contents a stereotyped schedule has been created. This schedule is presented below, and it is also possible to read it backwards. The villagers who identify themselves with Alexander the Great from their local area Proti Serron which is a part of the national area named Macedonia. This study proves that the villagers who has been interviewed, identify themselves with the place they live in as well as its history and that they feel that it is their duty to pass this knowledge forward. Alexander the Great is described as intelligent, humble, a man of strength and courage as well as a strategist and sovereign. This picture of the former king is also valid in the national area of Macedonia.

<p>The purpose of this essay has been to explore Alexander the Great from two different perspectives in Greece. The village Proti Serron represents the local area and the national area named Macedonia represents the second perspective. Oral history has been used as a method in addition to literature and trips to museums and archaeological places.</p><p>As a guideline for the essay and its contents a stereotyped schedule has been created. This schedule is presented below, and it is also possible to read it backwards.</p><p>The villagers who identify themselves with Alexander the Great from their local area Proti Serron which is a part of the national area named Macedonia.</p><p>This study proves that the villagers who has been interviewed, identify themselves with the place they live in as well as its history and that they feel that it is their duty to pass this knowledge forward. Alexander the Great is described as intelligent, humble, a man of strength and courage as well as a strategist and sovereign. This picture of the former king is also valid in the national area of Macedonia.</p>

The aim of this thesis was to compare the use of the Hasli legend in Sweden and Switzerland during the 19th century. The Hasli legend, which derives from the middle ages, talks about Swedes and Frisians that emigrated to the central part of Switzerland. By comparing the use of the myth in the two nations I wanted to analyze how it was used for shaping identities and how the use varied with, and was affected by, the social context. I have studied historians work about the national Swedish and Swiss history, published during the 19th century. I chose the comparative method and have taken the social context and transnational aspects into consideration. The use of the myth was more uniform in Sweden than in Switzerland, but in both countries the myth was related to the nation and its origin. The national identity is emphasized, but is overlapping other identities. In both countries the use of the myth originates from the ideas of nationalism and national romanticism, but while the use of the myth in Sweden can be explained by the Gothicism and the idea of a Scandinavian nation, the use of the myth in Switzerland was a result of the creation of the Swiss nation in the 19th century. / Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka Haslisagans identitetsskapande funktion i Sverige och Schweiz under 1800-talet. Sägnen som härstammar från medeltiden handlar om att utvandrare från Sverige och Friesland ska ha bosatt sig i Schweiz. Genom att jämföra bruket av sägnen i de två nationella rummen ville jag undersöka hur skapandet av identiteter varierade med och påverkades av den samhälleliga kontexten. Jag har undersökt historikers verk utgivna under 1800-talet, som behandlar den schweiziska respektive svenska nationella historien. Bruket av sägnen har undersökts genom en komparativ ansats, där den samhälleliga kontexten och transnationella aspekter har tagits i beaktande i analysen av resultatet. Undersökningen visar att bruket av sägnen var mer enhetligt i Sverige än i Schweiz, men i samtliga verk länkas sägnen samman med den egna nationen och dess ursprung. Den nationella identiteten betonas, men är överlappande med andra identiteter. Bruket av sägnen kan i båda länderna länkas samman med nationalismen och nationalromantiska idéer, men medan det svenska bruket av sägnen förklaras med göticistiska och samskandinaviska idéer, så svarar det schweiziska bruket av sägnen mot behovet att skapa en schweizisk nation.

Uppsatsen studerar historiebruket av Amaltheadådet och gärningsmannen Anton Nilson. Metoden som andvänds för studien är en kvalitiativ innehållsanalys med hermeneutisk läsning av tidningsartiklar från 18 olika dagstidningar som skrivits varje decennium från 1918 till april 2018. Klas-Göran Karlssons teoretiska typologi om historiebruk fungerar som ett kategoriseringsverktyg för att dra en slutsats i hur Amalthea och Anton Nilson skildrats i svensk press. Karlssons ideologiska historiebrukskategori har dessutom legat till grund för studiens teoretiska ansats som menar på att bruket av Amalthea och Anton Nilson förändras med tiden och följer den ideologiska samhällsutvecklingen. Studien slår fast att Amaltheadådet och Anton Nilson i nörjan av undersåkningsperioden används som en symbol för arbetarklassens kamp mot ett system som försakat dem. När det globala och även det svenska samhället förändras efter attentatet mot World Trade Center och lastbilsattacken på Drottninggatan i Stockholm förändras också bruket av Amalthea och Anton Nilson. Vid millenieskiftet blir Amalthea och Anton Nilson en symbol för terrorismens fasor.  Amaltheadådet och Anton Nilson har från 1900-talet till 2000-talet fått ett förändrat symbolvärde. Från att vara starkt förknippad som arbetarklasshjälte och de svagas kampför rättvisa till att framställas som en radikal galning och jämställas med terrornåtvärk som IS och Al-Qaida / The essay studies the use of history concerning the Amalthea bombing and convicted offender Anton Nilson. The method used for the study is qualitative analysis of content in news articles from 18 different newspapers written every ten years from 1918 to April of 2018. The theoretic typology of Klas-Göran Karlsson regarding use of history works as a tool of categorization to form a conclusion of how the bombing of Amalthea and Anton Nilson has been portrayed in Swedish mass media. It has furthermore laid the foundation for the theory of this study. Karlssons category of ideological use of history brought the conclusion that the use of history of Anton Nilson and the bombing of Amalthea will be affected by the flow of ideological ideas throughout the time period. The study confirms that the Amalthea bombings and Anton Nilson were, in the beginning of the studies timeframe, used as a symbol for an understanding of the working-class struggle against a system that has denied there rights. At the turn of the millennium the Amalthea bombing and Anton Nilson becomes the symbol of something completely different. The Amalthea bombings and Anton Nilson becomes the symbol of the horrors concerning terrorism. The Amalthea bombings and Anton Nilson has from the 20th century to the 21th century changed in symbolism from a strong and compassionate hero to a despised radical no better than other terrorist networks like IS or Al-Qaeda.

This study aims to analyse the mediation of cultural memory in Christopher Nolan’s newest production Dunkirk. Furthermore, the audiences are supposed to identify and create meaning from cultural memories they have not inherited. This problem will therefore be analysed in relation to the mediation of cultural memory. A critical discourse analysis will mark the cornerstone of a methodical analysis model, followed by a semiotic textual analysis. Both the discourse and semiotic analysis will be preceded by a socio historical theory of contemporary ideology.    Dunkirk assumes the form of a popular-cultural text itself, and will therefore be analysed as such. With the help of cultural-historical concepts such as identity creation and collective, cultural and prosthetic memory the study in question will supply a relevant contribution through analysis and result. The result itself concluded that Nolan dedicated his depiction of the events at Dunkerque to the people and civilians.  Through heavily romanticised depictions of civilian efforts, small boats in focus, and the intimate narratives of the soldiers’ struggles, the identification easily cements itself in the audience through sheer emotional investment with the characters and the intricate social hierarchies they produce through isolation and exclusion. In relation to mediating a cultural memory through popular-culture film, these possibilities of identification also create possibilities of prosthetic memories to develop, through which audiences undertake cultural memories they are not entitled to by heritage.

The timeframe of the south Scandinavian rock art tradition extends from c.1700/1600 to 300 /200 BC. The chronological boundaries of the rock art phenomenon thereby coincide roughly with the timeframe of the Nordic Bronze Age, and rock art figures have come to be understood and interpreted as a Bronze Age phenomenon. It is argued that a dominant Bronze Age narrative has come to direct the discourse and fieldwork alike towards a focus on the origin , rather than the use, of rock art. The rock carver’s intention with the image, explicitly or implicitly, has come to equate with its meaning. The aim of the thesis is to approach rock art figures from a different perspective, with the aim of understanding how south Scandinavian rock art has been used and interpreted over time. The question of what archaeological evidence the use of rock art may have left behind is taken up, and the archaeological excavations carried out at rock art sites in southern Scandinavia​ are summarized and discussed. The survey shows that finds and features date to some extent from the Bronze Age, yet most of the dateable evidence comes from periods after the tradition of creating new images had ended, especially the Early Iron Age. This phenomenon is of particular interest given the explicit uses of the past-perspective of the thesis. It is argued that some of the rock art sites were still being used during later prehistoric periods. Other examples of later period´s uses of rock art sites are presented and discussed, such as runic inscriptions on rock art panels as well as the use of rock art and cup-mark sites during historic times. ​ A study of the chronological development of the rock art tradition in the Himmelstalund-region in the county of Östergötland is also presented, based on recently developed ship chronologies of rock art. The study shows that the earliest ship figures, which are found in the Himmelstalund area, were probably made in the Bronze Age period I/II. Yet the majority of the dateable ship figures date from the Bronze Age period II–III, after which the number of dateable ships declines in period IV, a development becoming even more prominent in period V-VI.  Another theme discussed in the thesis is archaeology’s own uses of rock art and how this has affected the interpretations of the material. The thesis shows it is feasible to combine a discussion on the prehistoric use of rock art sites and images with a critical view of interactions between archaeological and antiquarian practice and the source material. It has also shown the potential for a broadened discussion, where we regard the use of rock art, during the Bronze Age as well as during later periods, as integral and essential to rock art research​.

I denna studie har ett spårande och tolkande i utvalda böcker av Astrid Lindgren skett med hjälp av historiebruk. Syftet var att ta reda på hur och om dessa tolkningar av historiebruket kan användas i historieundervisningen. Studien riktar sig mot historieämnet på gymnasieskolan. Tolkningarna av historiebruket utgår från en historiebrukstypologi där likheter mellan verkliga händelser och händelser i barnböckerna spåras. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att det genom tolkningar av historiebruk går att spåra händelser i den verkliga historien kopplat till totalitarism i barnböcker skrivna av Astrid Lindgren. Resultatet visar också att med stöd av läroplanen för gymnasieskolan är undervisning med denna typ av tolkningar möjlig. Tolkningarna av berättelserna kan fungera som ett stöd för lärare i gymnasieskolan som har för avsikt att använda sig av denna metod.