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Leisure Cultures and the Making of Modern Ski Resorts pp 93–115Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Skiing Through Time: Articulating a Landscape Heritage of Swedish Cross-Country Skiing

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Part of the book series: Global Culture and Sport Series ((GCS))

Abstract

Daniel Svensson’s chapter discusses the landscapes of skiing in postwar Sweden from a heritage and memory perspective. Svensson asks whether certain landscapes of cross-country skiing can be viewed as a cultural heritage, what constitutes these landscapes and how are they portrayed in tourism and marketing today. The history of tourism in Sweden is closely linked to skiing, and from its inception, skiing was one of the activities promoted by the Swedish Tourist Association. Cross-country skiing has also been important for iconic ski resorts, which have built a reputation as genuine landscapes for skiing. Through the analysis of three examples, comprising Hindås and Vålådalen, and the ski race Vasaloppet, this chapter analyses how “history” and “landscape” are used to market skiing and to attract ski tourism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Västerbottens Museum, accessed December 4, 2017, http://www.vbm.se/en/se-and-gora/utstallningar/skidutstallningen.html

  2. 2.

    Olle Backman, Nordenskiöldsloppet 1884: historien om världens hårdaste skidtävling. (Helsingfors: Nordenskiöldsamfundet i Finland, 2011).

  3. 3.

    Mattias Qviström, “Landscapes with a heartbeat: tracing a portable landscape for jogging in Sweden (1958–1971)”, Environment and Planning, 45 (2003): 317.

  4. 4.

    Mattias Qviström, “The nature of running: On embedded landscape ideals in leisure planning,” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 17 (2016).

  5. 5.

    Svenbjörn Kilander, “En nationalrikedom av. hälsoskatter”: om Jämtland och industrisamhället 1882–1910, (Hedemora: Gidlund, 2008). The connection between transportation and tourism in Sweden is further discussed in: Per Lundin, “Coping with Cars, Families and Foreigners: Swedish Postwar Tourism,” ed. Per Lundin et al., The making of European consumption: facing the American challenge, (Basingstoke Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

  6. 6.

    Per Åke Nilsson, Fjällturismens historia: en studie av. utvecklingen i Åredalen. (Östersund: Mitthögskolan, 1999).

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Swedish Tourist Association, accessed February 22, 2018, www.svenskaturistforeningen.se/om-stf/

  9. 9.

    Daniel Svensson, Scientizing performance in endurance sports: The emergence of ‘rational training’ in cross-country skiing, 1930–1980, (Stockholm: Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, 2016).

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Sverker Sörlin, “Nature, Skiing and Swedish Nationalism”, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 12:2, (1995): 150.

  12. 12.

    Niels Kayser Nielsen, “Movement, Landscape and Sport. Comparative Aspects of Nordic Nationalism between the Wars”, Ethnologia Scandinavica 27, (1997): 87–89.

  13. 13.

    Björn Tordsson, “Rötter i ‘barbari’ och ‘romantik’” (Roots in Barbarism and Romanticism). Sandell, Klas & Sörlin, Sverker (ed.): Friluftshistoria. Från “härdande friluftslif” till ekoturism och miljöpedagogik (A History of Outdoor Life. From Hardening Outdoor Life to Ecotourism and Environmental Pedagogics), (Stockholm: Carlsson Bokförlag, 2000): 52.

  14. 14.

    Sverker Sörlin, “The articulation of territory: landscape and the constitution of regional and national identity”, Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift – Norwegian Journal of Geography 53, no. 2–3, (1999): 105.

  15. 15.

    Hans De Geer, Rationaliseringsrörelsen i Sverige: effektivitetsidéer och socialt ansvar under mellankrigstiden, (The Rationalization Movement in Sweden: Efficiency Programs and Social Responsibility in the Interwar Years), (Stockholm: SNS, 1978).

  16. 16.

    Daniel Svensson, Scientizing performance in endurance sports: The emergence of ‘rational training’ in cross-country skiing, 1930–1980. (Stockholm: Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, 2016).

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    Gösta Olander, Träningsråd för skidåkare (Training Advice for Skiers), (Stockholm: Swedish Ski Association, 1948).

  19. 19.

    Percy Wells Cerutty, Athletics: how to become a champion: a discursive textbook, (Richmond, Victoria, 1960).

  20. 20.

    Nicholas D. Bourne, “Fast science: a history of training theory and methods for elite runners through 1975,” (Ph.D.diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2008), 200–203, 222–223.

  21. 21.

    Svensson, Scientizing performance in endurance sports, 23–24.

  22. 22.

    Vybarr Cregan Reid, “Running Wilde: Landscape, the Body, and the History of the Treadmill,” Critical Survey 24, no. 3, (2012): 84.

  23. 23.

    In the most important book on natural training in Sweden, women as skiers were not mentioned at all. See: Olander, Träningsråd för skidåkare (Training Advice for Skiers).

  24. 24.

    Britt Strandberg. Interview by author. January 13, 2015.

  25. 25.

    Sörlin, “The articulation of territory.”

  26. 26.

    Daniel Svensson, Sverker Sörlin and Nina Wormbs, “The movement heritage – scale, place, and pathscapes in Anthropocene tourism” in Tourism and the Anthropocene, ed. Martin Gren et al. (London: Routledge, 2016).

  27. 27.

    Matti Goksøyr, “Sivilisering, modernisering, sportifisering: fruktbare begreper i idrettshistorisk forskning?” (Civilization, Modernization, Sportification: Fruitful Concepts in Sport History Research?), (Oslo: Oslo Universitet, 1988); Allen Guttmann, From Ritual to Record. The Nature of Modern Sports, (New York, Columbia: University Press, 1979): 54–55; Leif Yttergren, Täflan är lifvet: idrottens organisering och sportifiering i Stockholm 1860–1898 (Competing is Life: Organization and Sportification of Sports in Stockholm 1860–1898), (Stockholm: Stockholmia, 1996): 21–22.

  28. 28.

    Curt Ewert, “Hur verkar Skid- och Friluftsfrämjandet?” (How does the Ski and Outdoor Association Work?), In Skidhandboken (The Ski Handbook), edited by Sigge Bergman et al., (Stockholm: Skid-och friluftsfrämjandet, 1944), 315.

  29. 29.

    Eric Hohwü Christensen, “Träningens fysiologi” (The Physiology of Training). In Skidhandboken (The Ski Handbook), edited by Sigge Bergman et al., (Stockholm: Skid-och friluftsfrämjandet, 1944).

  30. 30.

    Pierre-Olaf Schut, “How the Touring Club de France Influenced the Development of Winter Tourism”, The International Journal of the History of Sport 33, no. 10 (2016): 1134.

  31. 31.

    Swedish Tourist Association, Yearbook 1922, (Swedish Tourist Association, 1922), 383.

  32. 32.

    Olander, Träningsråd för skidåkare (Training Advice for Skiers), 4.

  33. 33.

    Dag Hammarskjöld, “Att flyga i Sarek” (Flying in Sarek National Park), (Stockholm: Swedish Tourist Association, 1962), 43.

  34. 34.

    Svensson, Scientizing performance in endurance sports.

  35. 35.

    Vålådalen, accessed November 30, 2017. https://www.valadalen.se/sv/var-historia

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Olander, Träningsråd för skidåkare (Training Advice for Skiers).

  38. 38.

    Erik Wickström, accessed November 30, 2017, https://erikwickstrom.se/2016/04/02/tack/

  39. 39.

    Svensson, Sörlin and Wormbs, “The movement heritage.”

  40. 40.

    David Lowenthal, “Authenticities past and present,” Journal of Heritage Stewardship 5, no. 1 (2008): 6–17.

  41. 41.

    Daniel Svensson, “Changing tracks? The battle between natural and scientific training in Swedish cross-country skiing, 1948–1972,” Idrott, historia och samhälle (Sport, History, Society) 33, (2014).

  42. 42.

    Alf Nygaard, Vålådalen: en pärla bland turiststationer (Vålådalen:A pearl among tourist stations), (Östersund: Jamtli, 1996). 41–42.

  43. 43.

    Bertil Larsson, Hindåsbygden i tid och rum (The Hindås Area in Time and Space), (2001), 113–116.

  44. 44.

    Larsson, Hindåsbygden i tid och rum, 115.

  45. 45.

    Hindåsgården, accessed November 28, 2017, https://www.hindasgarden.se/historik/

  46. 46.

    Idun, February 9, 1913, 26:6, 93. Idun was a Stockholm-based Swedish weekly journal published 1887–1968. In 1913 it was edited by Johan Nordling, assisted by Ernst Högman and Elin Wägner. Idun was primarily aimed at female readership.

  47. 47.

    Vasaloppet, accessed December 4, 2017. http://www.vasaloppet.se/om-oss/vasaloppsarenan/

  48. 48.

    Gustaf Näsström, Dalarna som svenskt ideal (Dalarna as a Swedish Ideal), (Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1937).

  49. 49.

    Vasaloppet, accessed December 4, 2017. http://www.vasaloppet.se/om-oss/vasaloppsarenan/

  50. 50.

    Sörlin, “Nature, Skiing and Swedish Nationalism.”

  51. 51.

    John Bale, Sports Geography, (London: Routledge, 2003).

  52. 52.

    Alan Bairner, “National sports and national landscapes: In defence of Primordialism”, National Identities 11, no. 3 (2009): 236.

  53. 53.

    Bairner, “National sports and national landscapes,” 233–234.

  54. 54.

    Vasaloppet, accessed December 4, 2017, http://www.vasaloppet.se/nyheter/vasaloppets-vintervecka-2017-i-siffror-pa-sondag-oppnar-anmalan-till-2018/

  55. 55.

    Svensson, Scientizing performance in endurance sports.; Hans Bolling, Sin egen hälsas smed: idéer, initiativ och organisationer inom svensk motionsidrott 1945–1981 (The Maker of His Own Health: Ideas, Initiatives, and Organizations within Swedish Sports for All Between 1945 and 1981), (Stockholm: Stockholms Universitet, 2005.

  56. 56.

    Stellan Kvärre, IFK Mora: de första 100 åren (IFK Mora: The First 100 Years), (More: Dala Media, 2009): 32.

  57. 57.

    Joacim Larsson von Garaguly, Vasaloppet – resan från skidtävling och skidlöpare till produkter och kunder: en studie om kommersialisering och professionalisering (Vasaloppet – The Journey from Ski Race and Cross-Country Skiers to Products and Customers), (Stockholm: Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, 2016).

  58. 58.

    Svensson, Scientizing performance in endurance sports.

  59. 59.

    Qviström, “Landscapes with a heartbeat.”

  60. 60.

    Qviström, “Landscapes with a heartbeat,” 317.

  61. 61.

    Sörlin, “Nature, Skiing and Swedish Nationalism.”

  62. 62.

    Qviström, “The nature of running,” 352.

  63. 63.

    Qviström, “Landscapes with a heartbeat.”

  64. 64.

    Johan Loock, Förändringarnas Åre: Kulturhistorisk landskapsanalys av. riksintresset Åredalen (The Changing Åre: A Cultural-Historical Landscape Analysis of the National Interest Åre Valley), (Östersund: Länsstyrelsen Jämtlands län, 2009): 14.

  65. 65.

    Sandra Wall-Reinius, and Peter Fredman, “Protected areas as attractions,” Annals of Tourism Research 34, no. 4 (2007).

  66. 66.

    Svensson, Scientizing performance in endurance sports.

  67. 67.

    Rayvon Fouché, Game Changer: The Techno-scientific Revolution in Sports, (Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press 2017).

Acknowledgements

This research was funded via the following projects: “Negotiating Pathways to Multifunctional Landscapes: A Pilot Model in the Jämtland Mountains” (2016–2017, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency); “Mistra Arctic Sustainable Development” (2014–2018, Mistra); and “The movement heritage: paths and trails in sustainable and inclusive heritage management” (2017–2019, Swedish National Heritage Board). I would like to thank my colleagues in the projects listed above, and the editors for valuable feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Science, Technology and Society, Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Daniel Svensson

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Correspondence to Daniel Svensson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Contemporary History, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Philipp Strobl

  2. School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Aneta Podkalicka

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Svensson, D. (2019). Skiing Through Time: Articulating a Landscape Heritage of Swedish Cross-Country Skiing. In: Strobl, P., Podkalicka, A. (eds) Leisure Cultures and the Making of Modern Ski Resorts. Global Culture and Sport Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92025-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92025-2_5

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