Nation, region and homeland : history and tradition in Dalarna Sweden.

Abstract

This paper looks at how one regional identity has interacted with a national identity, suggesting the relationships are more complex than either simply changing scale or a hierarchical set of affiliations. The paper focuses on one institution which has been involved in promoting ideas of national belonging and local identification at the same time – the Open Air Museum. It takes the case of such institutions in Sweden, linking them to the particular circumstances of the beginning of the twentieth century. It examines how national scale and local institutions (Hembygdsgård) work to create senses of identity. It is argued they mobilise space and time through a particular configuration of history and tradition. This configuration is rooted in a particular historico-geographical moment that cannot be simply transposed from one end of a century to the other. The paper concludes by suggesting that a different relationship of tradition, museum and practice in these institutions is emerging.