Text and object

The Bus Shelter That Became Cultural Heritage

Bibliographic Data

ID5700882
AuthorsHalldis Elina Valestrand, Halldis Valestrand (UiT The Arctic University of Norway, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume21
Issue1
Pages81-98
Publication date2015-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13527258.2014.914558
OpenAlexW2015256404
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited22

In order to meet the increasing critique of official heritage as elitist and hegemonic, several attempts have been made to become more inclusive, participatory and democratic. The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage undertook an interesting and surprising move when they decided to grant 12 ‘everyday’ sites Special Protection Orders as a contribution to the Norwegian 2009 Cultural Year. An assumption is that such an approach could represent a particular challenge for heritage experts by broadening the perspective on what to include and exclude in their appraisals. This article examines how one of the chosen sites, an unusual bus shelter, was constructed as official heritage, by critically examining the narratives the heritage authorities produced to sustain their listing of this object. A central argument is that the Norwegian heritage authorities contributed to construct the bus shelter as ostensibly harmless by creating it as a symbol of a rather vague local past, while the object from the outset represents a potentially dangerous and ambiguous object containing lots of complex history. It discusses how the textual construction of the bus shelter’s relation to its locality, a small mining community, tends to bolster and reinforce the impression of a masculinist society and a dominant company, and thereby forecloses alternative visions, in contrast with the initial intentions of the everyday perspective on heritage

Aesthetics · Cultural heritage · Cultural heritage management · Democracy · Environmental ethics · Industrial heritage · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Values · Vision · Anthropology · Archaeological Research and Protection · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration

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