The Voice of the Authorized Heritage Discourse : A critical analysis of signs at ancient monuments in SKåne, southern Sweden

• The study presents an investigation of a regionalauthorized heritage discourse, represented by theCounty Administrative Board on signs set up at ancientmonuments and sites in the province of Skånein southern Sweden. The starting point is a criticalanalysis of layout, texts and illustrations to ascertainthe narratives conveyed by the signs. The results showthat slightly less than half of the studied signs workwell according to the criteria set up for the study. Theresult also demonstrates that more than half of thestudied signs do not work well according to these criteria.Those that work well give detailed informationabout the ancient monument or site. The signs that donot work well give inadequate information and riskexcluding a majority of the people who read them.The latter signs confirm what so many other discourseanalyses have shown, that the authorized heritage discourseto a large extent still privileges the perspectivesof a white, middle-class male. The former signs, thatis, those that are judged to work well in terms of thecriteria applied in this study, show that the authorizedheritage discourse does not only offer something thatprivileges the perspectives of that white, middle classmale, but also has the ability to offer narratives withother perspectives.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Cultural heritage management

authorized heritage discourse

information signs

critical analysis

Archaeology

Arkeologi

Allmän didaktik

General Didactics

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)