Kulturarvspolitik. Kulturarv som samhällsresurs i svensk politik

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the values and functions ascribed to the concept of cultural heritage as used in the Swedish government bill «Cultural heritage policy» from 2017. In this bill the Swedish government have the intention to treat cultural heritage as a separate political field for the first time. The bill uses a more open definition of the concept and state that cultural heritage is traces of the past that people choose to value in the present, and that cultural heritage is not fixed but always changing due to this definition. The argument made is that the bill treats cultural heritage as a resource, and the analysis investigates the articulations made about the values and functions connected to cultural heritage in the text. I argue that by using such a wide and loose definition of the concept, the Swedish government is trying to include a very wide range of things and uses under the ‘umbrella’ of cultural heritage. The article means to show the status of cultural heritage in Swedish politics today.