Bodil Axelsson
Linköping universitet, Sweden
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Published in: Current Issues in European Cultural Studies; June 15-17; Norrköping; Sweden 2011
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 62:19, p. 175-181
Published: 2011-11-22
ISBN: 978-91-7519-993-1
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
The Samdok network has since the 1970s connected cultural historical museums in Sweden in a joint effort to collect and record the contemporary nation. Together the local; regional; special and central museums joining in on Samdok; form a networked museumscape in which Nordiska Museet act as a central node.
This paper will look into Samdok’s presentation of itself in books; reports and its regularly distributed periodical to understand how this network represents and materialises Sweden. It will tentatively argue that Samdok promotes societal and cultural; as well as scholarly and disciplinary; ideals of transformation and change. The network has re-invented itself over the years in order to keep up with transformations in the wider society such as globalisation; migration; and the move from industrialism to consumerism with the rise of the service sector. It has reinvented itself in terms of directions for collecting; and it has reinvented itself in terms of how it looks upon itself as an organisation by shifting from ideals of scientifc rationality to reflexive cultural analysis. As a consequence; looking at Sweden from within Samdok; means looking at a nation and a network in perpetual change.