Kulturarv i politikens tjänst : Hur det förflutna används för att forma framtiden i svensk politik

Sammanfattning

This essay contributes to a deeper understanding of how the concept of cultural heritage is implemented, articulated and politicized within the Swedish political sphere. It does so by examining party platforms, ideological programs, and principle statements produced by the political parties represented in the Swedish Parliament in 2025, as well as structured interview responses from 2022 by each party’s cultural policy spokesperson. Through qualitative dokument and discourse analysis, the thesis explores how cultural heritage is conceptualized, which functions it is assigned, and to what extent it is used as a tool for identity formation, symbolic politics, or ideological positioning. The study thus explores similarities and differences in how the political parties employ cultural heritage policy and the concept of cultural heritage itself, as well as whether these are connected to the parties’ ideological positions. The study explains these patterns by analyzing and interpreting Laurajane Smith’s theory of the Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD), which is used both as an analytical lens and as a critical explanatory model for identifying patterns and ideological differences in how cultural heritage is framed by each party. Preliminary findings suggest that political parties across the ideological spectrum engage with cultural heritage in distinctly different ways, with variations in emphasis on national identity, inclusion, diversity, and cultural preservation.