Carina Sjöholm

I am Associate Professor of Ethnology at the Department of Service Management and Service Studies. My research interests focus on culture, economy, media, consumption and social life, from both contemporary and historical perspectives. My previous research is about spatial aspects of popular culture and experience economy, and life style entrepreneurship in tourism and hospitality. In my research I am adopting a cultural analysis framework and has more specifically centered on social relations, identity formation, commodification of places and materiality. 

I am currently working on one project about heritage politics on the garden market, Roots en route: heritage politics on the garden market, funded by the Swedish Research Council, together with Katarina Saltzman and Tina Westerlund, both Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg. This project examine the role of heritage in the exchange of plants with history, based on a critical perspective on heritage-making. The aim is to examine how cultural heritage is produced and articulated within contemporary, formal as well as informal, markets for garden-related items and services. At the intersection between garden, heritage and market crucial questions concerning contemporary ideals can be raised; questions related to the role of the past in the present, relations between people and plants, nature/culture, and the making of values. One of the central research questions is: Where, when and how is heritage articulated as a value at markets related to gardening? 

Together with Erika Andersson Cederholm at the Department of Service Management and Service Studies I work with the project The social and cultural arena of hunting tourism entrepreneurship. The aim is to increase the understanding of the specific characteristics and conditions of hunting tourism entrepreneurship in Sweden, and to identify factors in hunting tourism that may sustain or prevent a sustainable development. By analyzing the perspective of the hunting tourism entrepreneurs, the study focuses on the meaning ascribed to the hunting tourism enterprise and the tourism product, and the ‘relational work’ involved, that is, how the entrepreneurs themselves understand, value and work with various actors in their social network and local community. Various forms of social and cultural capital will be analyzed, as well as symbolic boundary work and sources of tensions and conflicts. Theoretically, the study adopts the analytical framework of economic sociology and cultural analysis, investigating hunting tourism firms as a form of ‘lifestyle entrepreneurship’. 

During 2020-2021 I am part of the interdisciplinary Pufendorf-group, started as an Advanced Study Group 2019-20, The human aspect of Invasive Alien Plants – the Paradox of Plants, People and Personal Preferences. The theme investigates how key actors view and take action regarding invasive alien plants, and proceed to set this in the context of a sustainable future, using prevailing value conflicts as point of departure. The aim is to problematize the apparent dilemma that certain plant species can be both desired and problematic, and to analytically build upon this to formulate solutions that provide a scientifically sound basis for future measures addressing this new societal challenge where legally binding directives aiming to protect biodiversity clash with public appreciation of local flora and fauna irrespective of origin.

Other research areas:
Friendship at Work: Reciprocity and relational work in the academic workplace together with Dianne Dredge and Erika Andersson Cederholm. The study investigates personal relationships in academic work through the lens of friendship, values and conditions of work. The aim is to gain knowledge of the valuing of friendship, and its social forms and practices in a work context with blurred boundaries between informal networking and formalised work roles.

Does crime pay? Crime writing as profession and life style on the Swedish book market together with Sara Kärrholm, lecturer in literary studies and publishing studies at the Department of Arts and Cultural Science at Lund University.