Materialitet og mening. En studie av de besøkende på bygdetun

Both in Norway and Sweden, there are a large number of small rural museums that aim to tell the story of the local community and that intend to serve as meeting places for the inhabitants. Most of these museums were established in a period when they were heavily influenced by the values shaping society at the time, such as a very prevalent rurally based nationalism. Based on a master thesis, this article asks what these museums mean to the visitors today, and especially, how the materiality affects the visitors when entering such museums. The article also discusses what challenges this poses to the contemporary, everyday museum practice in museums like these.