The Social Construction of Swedish Nature As a Touristic Attraction That Is the Focus of This Thesis

Department of Thematic Studies Environmental Change The Social Construction of Swedish Nature as a Touristic Attraction Emelie Fälton MSc Thesis (30 ECTS credits) Science for Sustainable development ISRN: LIU-TEMA/MPSSD-A- 16/005- -SE Linköpings universitet, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden Upphovsrätt Detta dokument hålls tillgängligt på Internet – eller dess framtida ersättare – från publiceringsdatum under förutsättning att inga extraordinära omständigheter upp- står. Tillgång till dokumentet innebär tillstånd för var och en att läsa, ladda ner, skriva ut enstaka kopior för enskilt bruk och att använda det oförändrat för icke- kommersiell forskning och för undervisning. Överföring av upphovsrätten vid en senare tidpunkt kan inte upphäva detta tillstånd. All annan användning av dokumentet kräver upphovsmannens medgivande. För att garantera äktheten, säker- heten och tillgängligheten finns lösningar av teknisk och administrativ art. Upphovsmannens ideella rätt innefattar rätt att bli nämnd som upphovsman i den omfattning som god sed kräver vid användning av dokumentet på ovan be- skrivna sätt samt skydd mot att dokumentet ändras eller presenteras i sådan form eller i sådant sammanhang som är kränkande för upphovsmannens litterära eller konstnärliga anseende eller egenart. För ytterligare information om Linköping University Electronic Press se för- lagets hemsida http://www.ep.liu.se/. Copyright The publishers will keep this document online on the Internet – or its possible replacement – from the date of publication barring exceptional circumstances. The online availability of the document implies permanent permission for anyone to read, to download, or to print out single copies for his/her own use and to use it unchanged for non-commercial research and educational purpose. Sub- sequent transfers of copyright cannot revoke this permission. All other uses of the document are conditional upon the consent of the copyright owner. The publisher has taken technical and administrative measures to assure authenticity, security and accessibility. According to intellectual property law the author has the right to be mentioned when his/her work is accessed as described above and to be protected against infringement. For additional information about the Linköping University Electronic Press and its procedures for publication and for assurance of document integrity, please refer to its www homepage: http://www.ep.liu.se/. © Emelie Fälton ii Table of content 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Aim and research questions .............................................................................................. 2 2. Previous research .............................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Nature and Swedish tourism ............................................................................................. 3 2.2 Perspectives on the concept of nature ............................................................................... 4 2.3 Nature features .................................................................................................................. 5 2.3.1 The authentic .............................................................................................................. 5 2.3.2 The sublime ................................................................................................................ 6 2.3.3 The pristine ................................................................................................................ 7 2.3.4 The wild ...................................................................................................................... 7 3. Theoretical framework ..................................................................................................... 9 3.1 Discourse theory ............................................................................................................... 9 4. Materials and methods ................................................................................................... 11 4.1 The mix of content analysis and discourse analysis ....................................................... 11 4.2 Collection and organization of material ......................................................................... 12 4.3 Analysis of material ........................................................................................................ 13 4.3.1 Coding and analysis 1 .............................................................................................. 13 4.3.2 Coding and analysis 2 .............................................................................................. 15 4.4 Ethical aspects ................................................................................................................ 17 5. Result and analysis .......................................................................................................... 18 5.1 The presentation of Swedish nature ................................................................................ 18 5.1.1 Visual images of Swedish nature ............................................................................. 18 5.1.2 Textual descriptions of Swedish nature ................................................................... 23 5.2 The four features of nature ............................................................................................. 27 5.2.1 Wild nature ............................................................................................................... 27 5.2.2 Authentic nature ....................................................................................................... 29 iii 5.2.3 Sublime nature ......................................................................................................... 31 5.2.4 Pristine nature ......................................................................................................... 33 5.2.5 Examples of images that represent all four features................................................ 35 5.3 The relation between human and nature ......................................................................... 37 5.3.1 The relation between Swedish hosts and Swedish nature ........................................ 37 5.3.2 The relation between tourists and Swedish nature .................................................. 40 5.4 The touristic approach to Swedish nature ....................................................................... 42 5.4.1 Traveling .................................................................................................................. 42 5.4.2 Staying ...................................................................................................................... 43 5.4.3 Eating ....................................................................................................................... 45 5.4.4 Doing ........................................................................................................................ 47 5.5 Main findings .................................................................................................................. 50 6. Concluding discussion .................................................................................................... 51 iv List of figures Figure 1. Word cloud of the 107 most frequently mentioned words ....................................... 23 Figure 2. Identified themes from the 107 most mentioned words ........................................... 24 Figure 3. An example of how the coding was performed in Microsoft Excel ......................... 71 Figure 4. An example of how the coding was performed in NVivo 11 ................................... 72 v List of tables Table 1. All existing filters in the Image Bank Sweden ........................................................... 12 Table 2. Coding scheme for the first coding ............................................................................ 14 Table 3. Descriptions of interpretations of the wild, the pristine, the sublime and the authentic ...................................................................... 15 Table 4. Descriptions of interpretations of the touristic components of eating, staying, traveling and doing ................................................................. 16 Table 5. Theme Nature with belonging patterns ...................................................................... 24 Table 6. Theme Seasons with belonging patterns .................................................................... 24 Table 7. Theme Tourism with belonging patterns ................................................................... 25 Table 8. Theme Animals with belonging patterns ................................................................... 25 Table 9. Theme Adjectives with belonging patterns ................................................................ 25 Table 10. Theme Farm with belonging patterns ...................................................................... 25 Table 11. Theme Sweden and the world with belonging patterns ........................................... 25 Table 12. Theme Openness with belonging patterns ............................................................... 25 Table 13. Mapping of the existing filters in the Image Bank Sweden with number of tagged images ..............................................................

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