Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Report from the conference D’Autre Corps, D’Autre Jeux (in English Other Bodies, Other Games), Paris, 12-14 June 2024.

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the heritagisation of Swedish sports, which is examined through studies of five Swedish sports museums of today. Additionally, the disseration explores the heritagisation of Swedish sports in a wider historical perspective, mainly focusing on the years between 1900 and 2000.

 There are plenty of sports museums in Sweden today, most of them run by amateurs related to sports history associations. The number of sports museums seem to have increased from the 1980’s, a development that can be seen in relation to a wider interest in heritage, especially heritage produced by amateurs and enthusiasts rather than experts. In the study, this tendency is referred to as “the heritage boom”, a term coined by archeologist Rodney Harrison. Heritage is seen as a both social and material construction which on one hand is determined by language, on the other hand by structural circumstances. When analysing heritage making on sports museums of today, categories such as gender, class, nation and generation have been used. Methodologically, archive studies have been conducted in order to study the heritagisation from a historical perspective, and ethnographic methods such as descriptions and interviews have been used to collect material in sports museums of today. All material have mainly been interpreted through discourse analysis.

 The results show that the heritagisation of Swedish sports is as old as the organized sports in Sweden, since the first attempts to collect and exhibit the heritage was conducted in the early 1900s. However, despite numerous attempts, the sports heritage have had problems finding ways to be consistent until the very last few decades when the amateur-based heritage production have had its glory days. According to changes within museology and visitor interactment, the future for the Swedish sports heritage is difficult to predict. In the sports museums of today, exhibitions are generally focused on men’s sports, although changes seem to be in the making. Apart from that, there are several differences in how the sports museums constructs generation, class and nation, often depending on how the museums are managed.

This article examines the debate surrounding an ice hockey museum in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. In 2013, the local ice hockey club, Modo Hockey, received a loan from Örnsköldsvik municipality to build an ice hockey museum in its home arena. The ice hockeymuseum was a part of a bigger heritage project that involved various sites in the area around Örnsköldsvik, with the intention of increasing the number of tourists and branding the region as an attractive destination. However, the museum was never built in its intended form. The financial resources were instead used to cover regular costs for the club. This led to a conflict between Modo Hockey, Örnsköldsvik municipality and parts of the civil society. Theoretically, this study is inspired by heritage theory, stating heritage as a social constructed collective memory, yet also something that can be used for marketing and commercial branding. Lastly, the article is positioned against previous research about sports heritage in general, revealing that the planned ice hockey museum in Örnsköldsvik could be seen as an example of the priority conflict between balancing the heritage and continuing to be a financially strong elite club.

Keywords: heritage, sports heritage, museology, sports museums, history

This article examines the role of equipment managers in Swedish male elite ice hockey. This is in relation to a major shift in terms of professionalization and commercialization that has occured within elite ice hockey as a whole during the past 40-50 years. The article themes are identified through an investigation of how equipment managers are portraited in Swedish media.

Additionally, in order to deepen the historical perspective, the article also features an interview with Anders Weiderstål, a former eqipment manager for Team Sweden. Said interview is analysed according to theories of professionalization and it reveals how both the daily work and the role within the team has changed. From being "another team member", "equipment manager" has become a professional role with a certain working language and a position of power within the team. However, many equipment managers still manifest values that can be traced back to former, more amateur-oriented ideals, which give them a unique position among players and leaders in today's elite ice hockey.