The Belonging of Archives : Four Case Studies of Repatriation of Archives in Sweden

This thesis focuses on repatriation of archives and records in a Swedish context with the aim to highlight the agency of the material object and its value in the repatriation process, as well as its connection to authenticity. The thesis consists of four case studie that focuses on different cases where some form of repatriation has occurred. Two of the four cases were completed before this thesis was written, and two were still ongoing processes while it was being written. All four processes took place in a Swedish context, for example between different nations where Sweden was one of them, or between different archival institutions in Sweden. The method that was used to study the cases was document analysis, a type of qualitative content analysis. The results of the study show that repatriation processes are complex and that they can be executed in several different ways with different motivations. In every process there are multiple claimants, values and contexts that effect it. The archives and records are connected to culture, history and identity and throughout these case studies it also becomes apparent that there exists an idea of them belonging in a specific place, whether that be in a na- tion, a city or within a community. The study also show that the claimants place an importance on the archive as the authentic original object and on the ownership of that object. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Archival Science