The Poetics and Politics of the Swedish Model for Contemporary Collecting

Bibliographic Data

ID4821391
AuthorsBodil Axelsson (0000-0001-7361-3068, Link Institut (Switzerland), corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume12
Issue1
Pages14-28
Publication date2015-04-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMuseum and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1479-8360 • E-ISSN: 1479-8360
PublisherUniversity of Leicester (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.29311/mas.v12i1.244
OpenAlexW2144149633
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited3

Between 1977 and 2011 the Swedish organization Samdok presented a nationwide programme for contemporary museum collecting, including an increasingly flexible intellectual and methodological framework. This article considers Samdok, its evolving programmes and self-presentations. It suggests that Samdok's self-image was one of inclusive progressiveness, social engagement and equality. It also suggests that they display four major rhetorical shifts: from an economic rationale to a social and cultural approach; from studies of a welfare state based on industrial production to fieldwork concerning the adaptation to a postindustrial economy; from modern to post-modern epistemologies; and finally from engineering collecting to networking collecting, connecting contemporary collecting in Sweden to a transnational professional community. It is suggested that the case of Samdok casts light on the ways in which museums negotiate managerial issues, professional values and needs for inspiration and friendship

Art · Literature · Poetics · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European Cultural and National Identity · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Law · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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