Connecting Collecting - Sveriges Museer

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LEADER&No 2, November 2007. Volume 31.Towards extendedcollaborationBy Christina Mattsson»Thirty years ago, the Swedishmuseums of cultural historycreated the cooperative organizationSamdok to steer attention away fromthe old peasant society towards the rapidlychanging industrial society. Withthe aid of Samdok, the museums woulddescribe the entire transition from selfsufficiencyto the information society,perhaps the most dramatic period inthe life of individuals in Sweden – thetime when people experienced morechanges in their living conditions thanany previous generation.Samdok has also argued over theyears for a more problem-orientedway of working, studying the presentday to arrive at descriptions of socialand cultural processes. It is a matter ofsuch central contemporary issues aswork and unemployment, career andexclusion, new technology and newknowledge requirements, racism andxenophobia, and so on. The aim is tofoster continuous research on everydaySwedish life.Collecting is possibly an even moreburning issue now than when Samdokwas started. The museums’ sphere ofoperation has grown, so that the scopetoday is enormous. Visitor statisticsand priority goals tend to become moreimportant than the actual collecting.Outreaching work takes over and thecollections risk being neglected. Yet thecollections are the very foundation ofthe museums’ work.The museums play an immenselyimportant role as a collective memory.2 • Samtid & museer no 2/07It is we museum employees who passjudgement on what is to be rememberedand what is to be forgotten, whatfuture generations should see. No otherinstitutions take the responsibility forpreserving material culture. The museums’collecting work is also significantfor today’s people, by observing andparticipating in contemporary processes.Museums in different parts of theworld have similar missions, and ourproblems are in general the same. Thisalso applies to the exploration of ourown times, the investigation of thingsthat we ourselves can see and experience.Documenting the present has itsspecial questions, and internationalcooperation is necessary, particularly intimes when resources are scarce.Samdok is a shared resource formuseums in Sweden, and the task ofthe Nordiska Museet as the country’sbiggest museum of cultural history isto give stability to the organization. Wenow hope that an international forumfor dialogue and collaboration on collectionmatters can be established. Theaim of this autumn’s conference is tocreate a platform for continued workalong these lines, preferably on thefoundation of the experience gained bySamdok, the network for contemporarystudies that has functioned for threedecades. pChristina Mattsson is director of the NordiskaMuseet and chair of the Samdok Councilchristina.mattsson@nordiskamuseet.seContentsTowards extended collaboration 2Christina MattssonA network for developing collectingand research 3Eva FägerborgReflecting collecting 4Eva SilvénUpdating Sweden – contemporaryperspectives on cultural encounters 6Leif MagnussonWhat’s it like at home? 8Mikael Eivergård and Johan KnutssonLeisure as a mirror of society 10Marie Nyberg and Christine FredriksenBetween preservation and change – thebuilt environment as a mirror of the times 12Barbro Mellander and Anna UlfstrandNature – an exploited heritage 14Ann-Katrin Wahss and Eva GradinPeople at work 16Charlotte Åkerman, Carin Andersson,and Ann Kristin CarlströmPublic institutions in change 18Eva Thunér-Ohlsson and Kristina StoltIn the midst of the world 20Anne Murray and Eva SilvénImages of contemporary Sweden 22ISSN 1402-3512Published by Samdok, an association of Swedish museumsof cultural history devoted to collecting, documenting, andstudying the present day.EDITED BY Eva FägerborgRESPONSIBLE EDITOR Christina MattssonCOPYRIGHT Text: Samdok/Nordiska Museet and the authors.Illustrations: The respective photographer/picture archive.Opinions are those of the authors. Unsigned contributionsare by the editor.COVER PICTURE Members of several Samdok pools at thefoot of ”Potato Hill” in Ammarnäs during the field seminar inAugust 2007. Photo Petter Engman, Västerbotten Museum.NEXT ISSUE will appear in May 2008DESIGN underhuset.comENGLISH TRANSLATION Alan CrozierPRINTED BY Ljungbergs, KlippanSAMDOKSEKRETARIATETNordiska museetBox 27820SE-115 93 StockholmTel +46 8 519 546 00Fax +46 8 5195 45 72samdok@nordiskamuseet.senordiskamuseet.se/samdok
Connecting Collecting X 30 years of SamdokA network for developingcollecting and researchBy Eva FägerborgFor thirty years, Swedish museums of cultural history haveex plored contemporary society within the framework of Samdok,the museums’ network for contemporary studies and collecting.This issue of our periodical Samtid & museer (“The Present Day &Museums”) is intended as an up-to-date presentation of Samdok’swork for an international readership.»When Samdok was established, the focuson contemporary collecting, both nationallyand internationally, broke with traditionalviews of what museums should be concernedwith. The basic tasks of cooperation in studyingpresent-day life and collecting present-day artefactsremain. In the course of time Samdok hasalso become a forum for scholarly discussions oncontemporary culture and society, a forum forprofessional development and further educationwhere we can share experiences of the empirical,methodological and theoretical dimensionsof the creation of the publicly managed and preservedcultural heritage.Organization and working methodsSamdok currently has about eighty members:county museums, central museums, municipalmuseums, and specialist museums, along withsome other institutions. The members cooperatein working groups (pools), and the core of theSamdok work is the studies and collection carriedon in the pools by the respective museums.The work is supported by the Samdok Secretariat,the Samdok Council, and Samdok’s researchcouncil.The pool system has become Samdok’sperhaps best-known characteristic. The originaltwelve groups are now eight: The group forCultural Encounters, the pools for Domestic Life,Leisure, Local and Regional Spheres, Managementof Natural Resources, Manufacture and Services,Sami Life, and Society and Politics.In recent years the pools have formulatednew guidelines/policy statements to supporttheir work. The questions, perspectives, andmethods currently being used are described inthe following articles.The Samdok Secretariat is located at andfinanced by the Nordiska Museet. As the administrativehub of the network it is responsible fordevelopment work, information, and administration.The decision-making Samdok Councilconsists of representatives of national, county,and municipal museums. The Nordiska Museet’sresearch council is now also Samdok’s scientificcouncil.In Samtid & museer (1977–96 under thetitle Samdokbulletinen) one can follow Samdok’swork and read about ongoing investigations,current research, methodological and theoreticalissues. The periodical reaches a wide audienceand is a link between the museums and othersectors of society. It appears twice a year, coveringvarying themes. Regular features alongsidethe theme articles are researchers’ diaries,presentation of new publications, and the pools’columns where they bring up topical issues forthe members.The online database Samdokregistretpresents investigations which have been done atthe member museums and reported to the secretariat.It contains details of the subjects and phenomenathat have been studied, questions andproblems, when, where, and by whom the studieswere conducted, the types of material theygenerated, and how they have been presentedand published. The source material is kept at therespective museums.Major joint seminars, conferences, andcourses are arranged by the secretariat. Autumnconferences in recent years have been devoted tovarious aspects of collecting – from the scrutinyof policy documents to discussions about therole of artefacts and the museums’ contemporarystudies in a societal perspective.International collaborationfor the futureQuestions arising today are how museums ofcultural and social history can and should studyand collect the global society. This applies bothto newly established museums and those whichmanage and expand on collections created inearlier ideological and scientific contexts. Whenthe concept of cultural heritage no longer hasa taken-for-granted local, regional, or nationalconnection, collecting must be problematized innew ways, in relation to the world and the circumstancesin which the museums act. Here weare facing a common challenge. New conditions,scientific and ethical considerations have consequencesfor collecting policies and practices, forthe cultural heritage that the museums produce.It is becoming increasingly urgent to pursue internationaldialogue and collaboration to learnabout each other’s views, methods, and experiences.In the Nordic countries we have formedthe Norsam network and we know the value ofthis kind of exchange.Samdok’s anniversary conference 2007The international perspective is the theme ofthis year’s major Samdok event, the conferenceConnecting Collecting, to be held at the NordiskaMuseet on 15–16 November with financialsupport from the Bank of Sweden TercentenaryFoundation. The aim of the conference is tocreate the international forum for knowledgedevelopment and collaboration that has hithertobeen lacking when it comes to collecting issues.In ICOM there are committees for the managementof museum collections, but there is nonedevoted to the considerations governing the supplyof material to the collections. We hope thatthe conference will be the starting point for aninternational network which can then be developedinto a new ICOM committee on collecting– an issue of concern for the future of museumsin all countries. pEva Fägerborg is in charge of the Samdoksecretariat at the Nordiska Museet,eva.fagerborg@nordiskamuseet.seConnecting Collecting X 30 years of Samdok»In this issueSince the periodical this time is intended togive an overview of Samdok today, it is arrangedin a different way from usual, besidesbeing published in English. This introductionis followed by a summary of two projectsconducted in recent years. The major part istaken up with articles where the pools themselvespresent their work. At the end we showpictures of contemporary Sweden, in a spreadwith examples of museums’ photo documentation.Samtid & museer no 2/07 • 3
Page 1: S A M D O K • S V E N S K A K U L
Page 5 and 6: Connecting Collecting X 30 years of
Page 7 and 8: The Cultural Encounters GroupFrom p
Page 9 and 10: The Pool for Domestic LifeWhat kind
Page 11 and 12: The Pool for LeisureLeisure = spare
Page 13 and 14: The Pool for Local and Regional Sph
Page 15 and 16: The Pool for Management of Natural
Page 17 and 18: The Pool for Manufacture and Servic
Page 19 and 20: The Pool for Society and Politicsin
Page 21 and 22: The Pool for Sami Lifemuseum, Sámi
Page 23 and 24: i Photo Ramón Maldonado, Stockholm

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