Carola WINGREN, Department of urban and rural development, SLU, Sweden
Roger MARJAVAARA, Department of Geography AND Center for Regional Science, Umeå University , Sweden
In the very North of Sweden in a place called Kiruna, a world-unique transformation of urban space is undertaken (Sjöholm, 2016). A city is being moved or dislocated from its current position, due to the expanding subterranean mine and the danger that this impose to the city and its citizens. Such important change to a landscape is normally received with extensive protests, but is it possible to protest when your life and wealth is closely related to the continuation of the mining activity? Is place and territorially fixed for the citizens in Kiruna, or do they have the ability to “...bringing the there here" (della Dora, 2009)? What happens to the feeling of place identification and belonging, when buildings, places, streets, parks, church and part of the cemetery is moved and what or demolished? What happens to memorialization and continuing bonds, in a space specifically consecrated to it: the cemetery, its memorial grove and the 5000 human remains that will be moved from there (LKAB, 2019)? How is such a move perceived, especially as the move might partly be symbolic? Comparison will be made with other symbolic relocations will be made (Maddrell, 2011). With a qualitative study of different texts and documents written in relation to the move of the cemetery and human remains (public press, media, protocols and plans), the local discussions, opinions, argumentation and beliefs related to the conditions for the planned move are revealed and analysed, and how this mobility influence the value and identification of the changing landscape as territory or as sacred space will be evaluated. Important concepts for this evaluation will be passage landscape and memory object (Petersson & Wingren, 2011). Result will be the base for following research phases: questionnaire and stakeholder workshops. Final results can inform other processes when relocation of graves are needed, in relation to the value and identification of a landscape as territory or as sacred space.
Mots clés : Cemeteries|continuing bonds|place belonging|mobility|territory
A105472CW