Processes of Reinterpretation of Mining Heritage: the Case of Bergslagen, Sweden

Mining heritage is often used as a powerful tool in maintaining a sense of place and national identity, and Sweden is not different in this respect. Another important motive for the revival of the mining past is the opportunity for the economic revitalisation of the space marked by the deindustrialisation process. The aim of this paper is to investigate how mining heritage is interpreted and used for the goals of tourism destination development based on the five provinces in the middle part of Sweden that are called Bergslagen. The first decade of the 2000s was characterised by the prevailing top-down approach to the regeneration process of the mining landscape of Bergslagen; the process was led by public institutions that were mainly concerned with preserving the cultural heritage left over from the mining era. This resulted in the absence of a diverse and innovative thinking in terms of the touristic development of these destinations. Municipalities in the region ended up with multiple mining sites trying to attract visitors with similar types of experiences based on the limited representations of the regional mining heritage. Enhancing communication between the managers of the mining sites and closer collaboration with other tourism sites in the same region would improve visitation. Additionally, alternative interpretations of the heritage might allow for a wider representation of local people, as well as an awareness of the local or regional heritage of Bergslagen