Grete Swensen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Grete Swensen

Journal of Heritage Tourism, 2019

In today's tourism industry, merely offering tourists a variety of cultural events is not enough.... more In today's tourism industry, merely offering tourists a variety of cultural events is not enough. Fully understanding their desire for an experience is the key. The attraction value increases if tourists can become personally involved and be affected by the narratives involved in placemaking. This article examines the connections and cooperation among museums in a region where an important heritage trail is operating. When the old Telemark Canal was active (1892-1990), this enabled important products to be shipped from the upper mountainous areas to the coastal urban region in Telemark County, Norway. Shortly after being closed, the canal was transformed into a heritage trail and tourist attraction through renovation initiatives. Based on a closer examination of two of the attraction clusters along the heritage trail of the canal, we ask whether there is a key narrative that can link the local museums and cultural centres in the canal region. The discussion will consider how the widespread use of the internet has created new options for museums and cultural centres to benefit from neighbouring tourist attractions such as heritage trails.

Landscape Research, 2013

In discussions on how to handle local heritage values, local values or insider-ness are often see... more In discussions on how to handle local heritage values, local values or insider-ness are often seen as synonymous with intangible aspects of heritage. At the same time, expert knowledge is usually associated with material objects, whereby experts have had the power to define what to preserve. In this study of three Norwegian towns, complementary and interdisciplinary methods have been used

Heritage and Sustainable Urban Transformations, 2019

Planning Practice & Research, 2017

Prime aim is to examine the way the culture sector reuses industrial buildings to instigate cultu... more Prime aim is to examine the way the culture sector reuses industrial buildings to instigate cultural activities in the municipalities. The discussion of various actors’ motivation for engagement is based on results from a case study, supplemented with findings from a coarse-meshed telephone survey. At national level overarching political guidelines can be traced back to white papers concerning cultural policy, urban transformation and cultural heritage, and the municipalities’ cultural policies mirror these guidelines. What tends to decide if such initiatives are considered successful are local abilities to cross sectorial divisions and instigate cooperation between municipal planners, private entrepreneurs and NGOs.

The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice

Ethnologia Europaea

In autumn 1915 Niels was held in custody. From two recordings in the reprimand protocol, it becom... more In autumn 1915 Niels was held in custody. From two recordings in the reprimand protocol, it becomes obvious he had major problems conforming to the prison rules: He has broken the peephole in the cell door to be able to look out into the corridor. He rings; calls nonstop and disturbs his surroundings. He has broken the peephole several times before. Niels received a warning two days ago from the chief constable, but in vain. It was decided that Niels would receive a reprimand of six days on bread and water. (Chapter 29 § 2 in the Regulations, p. 8) Thirteen days later new recordings of his offences were made, and now Niels was reported for having thrown a newspaper parcel and tobacco to convicts when they were out in the exercise yard. This took place today in the morning at 9 o'clock. Three to four days ago he was also seen throwing food to bread-and-water prisoners. When Svendsen (the prison guard) talked to him today, he answered back "Shut up, and kiss my arse!" He repeated this several times in the presence of several convicts. Niels was presented with the information that was recorded about what had taken place, but he denied that it is correct and accused the prison guard of telling lies. It was decided that he would be punished with six days on bread and water combined with three days in a dark cell. (Chapter 29 § 2, pp. 8-9. Recited and signed) Niels may have felt he had achieved something: he was recognised when he threw highly appreciated goods to other prisoners. His protests and attempts to overrule the strict regulations of everyday life in prison were acknowledged by other prisoners when Based on a critical reading of three prison protocols from 1860 to 1930, this article examines the affective quality of prisons as social spaces. Guided by concepts such as affect and embodiment, it looks closer at the ways anger, rage, and frustration were bodily expressed. In a place where silence ruled, anger and frustration were channelled through the use of material devices and bodily practices (involving breaking material devices into pieces, making noise, catching glimpses of light, communication with other prisoners via piping systems, etc.), all at the cost of longer imprisonment and reduction in meagre food rations. The soundscape experienced by insiders stands in contrast to outsiders' views of prisons as large secluded fenced-in buildings enveloped in silence.

Landscape Research

ABSTRACT Contemporary urban development takes place mainly in already built areas. The article’s ... more ABSTRACT Contemporary urban development takes place mainly in already built areas. The article’s objective is to examine how towns on the outskirts of large cities can use and revitalise green areas and the urban heritage of garden cities to contribute to filling the societal demand for building sustainable cities. Lillestrøm, a former garden city on the outskirts of Oslo, Norway’s capital, is used as the starting point to discuss how learning from the past can provide a foundation for developing new solutions. The case study was carried out as a DIVE analysis by using qualitative methods to describe the town’s cultural environments, their characteristics, and heritage assets. The analysis is supplemented with practical advice. Local planners need convincing arguments to promote urban heritage and green infrastructure as resources in sustainable urban development in a time of accelerating densification and climate change.

Planning Practice & Research

ABSTRACT The ‘compact city’ is generally considered to represent a sustainable urban form. Howeve... more ABSTRACT The ‘compact city’ is generally considered to represent a sustainable urban form. However, transformation of urban sites as consequence of compact city planning potentially conflicts with heritage interests. A reading of a selection of scientific articles in land-use and heritage journals, supplemented with thematic plans, indicates that there is a need to bridge the gap between urban heritage policy and planning for the compact city. When challenged by strong pro-development partners to present convincing alternative perspectives, specialised heritage competence would benefit from skills within land-use planning and vice versa. Disciplinary and sectorial barriers need to be crossed.

Museum and Society

Museums have several means of communicating with their audiences. The problems discussed here con... more Museums have several means of communicating with their audiences. The problems discussed here concern how local museums interact with their audience when the past they want to portray is multiple, complex and sometimes disputed. It is based on an analysis of three exhibitions in local museums situated in a region where archaeological findings indicate that the South Sámi have been present since the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. It highlights the various ways in which the pluralistic past in the region is being portrayed by asking whether its history appears as neutralized, i.e. transmitted in passive impartial terms, or is exoticized, repressed or mediated through other images. The one common identity marker the three exhibitions share, although portrayed in different ways and with different effects, is the gåetie, a turf hut in common use in the South Sámi region. A tendency to neutralize the multiple and complex past in the South Sámi region takes place, either by operating i...

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability

Abstract Inspired of Lefebvre’s and De Certau’s perspectives on social production of space, this ... more Abstract Inspired of Lefebvre’s and De Certau’s perspectives on social production of space, this study aims to explore cemeteries’ functions in urban life nowadays. Our starting point is that green urban cemeteries have two main functions: their primary purpose is as a burial ground, while their secondary function is as public spaces for reflections, recreation, and cultural encounters. We ask for whom the cemeteries are designed and managed, and in what ways they are actually used. To explore these questions, qualitative data from two cemeteries in Oslo is analyzed. Both visitors and people passing through the sites were interviewed during the summer of 2014 about their intention to be at the cemetery and their views about the place. We point to a series of positive measures rather than forbidden signs that should be instigated to help promoting the great potential green urban cemeteries have for citizens and a future sustainable city.

Museum Management and Curatorship

Increased migration has prompted discussions regarding most of the prime functions of museums as ... more Increased migration has prompted discussions regarding most of the prime functions of museums as societal institutions. When the population and potential users of museums become more heterogeneous and diverse, the idea of a shared common national history becomes contested. Immigrant cultures have an important function in history writing and in heritage production. Many museum officials are currently concerned about developing new means to enable museums to face the challenges arising from increased migration. Such societal changes effect both the larger, long established national institutions, and the smaller regional or local museums. Although their means and methods vary significantly, the degree of inventiveness, engagement and resourcefulness is not necessarily proportional to the institution's age or size. In this article, we ask what are the means and approaches that Norwegian museums currently use to involve migrants in museum work and how do they include stories and experiences from modern migrants in their collections.

Mortality

Abstract Population increase has drawn attention to the need in cities for easily accessible and ... more Abstract Population increase has drawn attention to the need in cities for easily accessible and attractive public spaces that will promote interaction regardless of gender, age, ethnicity and religious belief. This paper focuses on the role urban cemeteries play in a culturally and religiously diverse society. Norway is described as an increasingly secularised society. Immigration and transmigration, on the other hand, have brought a revived interest in religion and interreligious interaction. We explore two questions that relate to the cemetery as a public shared urban space: The first concerns the need for communities of all faiths and none to access burial space that meets their need. The second relates to the appropriateness of using cemetery as amenity space in a multicultural context. Diverse qualitative methods have been used; a focus group interview with participants from different religious and life-philosophy communities, interviews with key informants representing various religious communities and with visitors in two cemeteries in Oslo in 2014. The findings imply that there is a commonality that bridges differences: sharing human compassion. These sites have a potential in stimulating intercultural and interreligious encounters. Their special character as open shared urban sites can increase understanding and acceptance of each other’s difference and hereby render strangeness and differences harmless.

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

Abstract Some researchers have claimed that cultural heritage can best be understood as ‘the cont... more Abstract Some researchers have claimed that cultural heritage can best be understood as ‘the contemporary use of the past’ (Graham et al., 2000). While parts of heritage may be material remains of a long forgotten past, the way these fragments are viewed, interpreted and appreciated as social and cultural assets is a product of today. The basis of this paper is a study of the role that old cemeteries play as green public spaces in contemporary cities. The layout of the cemeteries and their locations within cities influences their everyday use. By comparing three urban cemeteries, one in Oslo (Norway), one in Sheffield (United Kingdom) and one in Kaliningrad (Russia), this article will reflect on how these city’s histories have influenced the form and layout of the cemeteries, as well as their potential roles as future green areas in a modern urban context. At present, one of the cemeteries is in active use, one is a secluded public garden, and the third is on the verge of obliteration. Their common denominator is the character they share as memory sites. They can be read as a complex conflation of religious and moral belief, societal power and hierarchy, landscape and architectural ideals, health legislation and management practices. Their prospects as historic assets valued in future urban development are dependent both on planning contexts and strong cooperation with those who care about their future.

Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 2013

Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography, 2016

Belgeo Revue Belge De Geographie, 2012

ABSTRACT The market for selling experiences and products influenced by various connotations of th... more ABSTRACT The market for selling experiences and products influenced by various connotations of the past is continuously increasing. Guidebooks play a role in introducing cultural history to a growing tourist market. A study of four European cultural historic guidebooks draws attention to some of the differences that appear in the way national heritage assets are presented. The analysis reveals that guidebooks are more restricted in representation form and writing genre than initially presumed. By choosing a representation form dominated by a cartographic style of writing, where factual information play a dominant role, the text in the guidebooks leaves the reader in the role of a distanced observer. It is primarily via the illustrations that the heritage assets act as a scene for contemplation, involvement or for adventure. The material is interpreted within a framework that draws attention to the interaction that takes place between the representations of the past and contemporary society.