Our modern history in the shape of high-rise buildings, industrial estates, football fields and squares is a cultural heritage in the same way that ancient relics, churches and old names of places are. The question is, which parts of what is around us today should be documented or preserved for the future? Already, we decide now what is to become history.

To a great degree, our lives are governed and affected by the environments that we live and work in. the modern society around us is very much built by people, but society also shapes the people who are part of it. Parking lots, terraced houses, kindergartens, shopping centres and offices are a cultural heritage that has a wealth of stories to tell about our age.

It is a difficult task to manage a cultural heritage that is so close to the present. We can't see the modern age in the rear-view mirror of history, and we don't have a subsequent era to compare it to. So how do we know what is characteristic and especially interesting? And whose is the defining perspective?

Modern environments surround us in our everyday lives and we don't see them as cultural heritage. But if we don't pay attention to them, they risk decaying, being torn down and disappearing when they are replaced by something else. That's why we must use historical terms to relate to our present and decide now what will become history in the future.

At the same time, material relics are so abundant that the process by which some are selected for documentation, valuation and selection can easily appear to be fragmentary and random. The selection must be made based on the stories of the modern age, so as to capture that which is characteristic for the environments of our modern society.

In the dialogue with residents and users, cultural conservation comes into contact with groups whose cultural heritage hasn't received much attention so far. Here, perspectives from people with different ethnic backgrounds, ages, experiences and social backgrounds meet. Generation and gender issues are given great importance, and from this perspective the environments have different meanings for people depending on their group affiliations and their motives for being in these environments. The task of cultural environmental conservation is to highlight all of these meanings and relate them to a culture-historical discussion about values and meaning.

Contact:

Karin Arvastson - phone 08-5191 8422