Search

Recent European studies in the field of primary English education identify a number of challenges related to language development, motivation, and diversity of proficiency levels among learners. Nevertheless, early language instruction remains under-researched. The current study investigates challenges perceived by Swedish primary teachers of English and their thoughts and experiences regarding teaching materials. The study takes a special interest in picturebooks because they are often foregrounded as useful resources for promoting both motivation and language learning. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through an online questionnaire with 109 Swedish teachers for school years F–6. The findings reveal that the substantial heterogeneity of proficiency levels among learners is the biggest challenge facing teachers. In addition, the teachers reported challenges related to this diversity, such as a shortage of teaching materials to cater to varying needs and difficulties in engaging all learners in oral language production. Teaching materials used often comprise downloaded resources, coursebooks, or YouTube clips. Although many teachers are positive toward the potential of picturebooks as an instructional resource, most reported not using them. The findings are discussed in relation to the goals of early English instruction, the current understanding of young language learners, and communicative language teaching.

According to the Swedish curriculum (SKOLFS 2018, p. 50), preschool teachers bear the responsibility for teaching and incorporating music into preschool practice. However, due to limited time dedicated to music in preschool teacher education, teachers specialized in music play a critical role as valuable resources in practice. Existing music education research has focused predominantly on music in preschool from the perspectives of preschool teachers and students, rather than specifically examining a group of teachers specialized in music. Hence, this study aims to explore and discuss how teachers specialized in music approach music practice within preschool settings. The study adopts an educational philosophy and music didaktik perspective in analyzing focus group discussions with teachers specialized in music. The results reveal that music knowledge focuses on craftsmanship, courage, and visions for the music specialist. Alternative combinations of theoretical perspectives shed light on a complex and intertwined practice with shifting emphases.

In research on music conducting, there is a lack of studies concerning conductors’ score-reading. The present investigation explored the reading strategies of four Swedish choral conductors. Two interconnected studies addressed the conductors’ explicit conceptions about score reading and their silent-reading strategies in actual reading situations. All conductors emphasized overviewing and script-like cognitive strategies, read relatively linearly, and tended to combine holistic descriptions with quicker scanning. However, verbal reports also revealed individual cognitive orientations that appeared to influence the conductors’ eye movements. These findings contribute to the understanding of the contrast between shared models of professional practice and individual reading styles.

The lonely ones? Citizenship ideals in Swedish early childhood education policy. The aim of this article is to discuss the democratic function of education by exploring and comparing the citizenship ideals expressed in Swedish early childhood education policy in 1987 and 2018. The study shows that citizenship that was previously foremost emphasizing the horizontal relationship within a community has shifted towards an emphasis on the vertical relationship between the individual and the state. The ideal has thus shifted from a lived citizenship emphasizing community and belonging to citizenship as an individual status based on ownership of rights. The article concludes that the empowerment of children regarding their formal rights in a context characterized by increased focus on individual learning and freedom may contribute to reducing other aspects of democracy such as community, belonging and care, therefore significantly altering the societal task of education.

In this paper, the outcomes of a school improvement project about differentiated instruction and digital technology in Swedish preschools and schools are identified and analysed. The project was between Mälardalen University and teachers and head teachers in preschools and schools in the Mälardalen region. A multi-methods approach was adopted. Examples of outcomes were enhancement of professional language and increase in engagement. On a group level, the participants self-rated their knowledge, usages and skills regarding differentiated instruction and digital technologies higher after the project was finished than before the project. In the paper, we discuss a three lines project model and provides implications for further school improvement projects.

Bogen Baltikums befrielse fra 2023 af T. Berglund og N. Sennerteg giver en meget bred fremstilling med mange personlige beretninger af krigene i Baltikum i 1918–1920, der førte til at estere, letter og litauere kunne oprette egne stater. Delen om Litauen er noget kortfattet, men generelt giver bogen fine indblik i meget forskellige aktørers perspektiver, hvilket hjælper til at forstå de især i Letland meget komplicerede interessekonflikter. The book Baltikums befrielse (Freeing the Baltic) by T. Berglund and N. Sennerteg offers a very broad presentation with many personal reports of the wars in the Baltics in 1918–1920 that made it possible for Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians to form their own states. The part about Lithuania is quite brief, but in general, the book offers good insights into the perspectives of very different players. This helps to understand the very complex conflicts of interest that were at play, in Latvia in particular.

Education has responded to global Sustainable Development (SD) goals by drawing on a range of issue-related, context-based, and cross-curricular approaches to teaching SD. This paper aims to examine how teachers describe the content in SD and how they justify this content concerning their teaching practice. The Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) framework, with its reflective tool Content Representation (CoRe), was used in combination with semi-structured interviews to capture 18 Swedish upper-secondary science teachers’ reflections. The results indicate four themes of content that the teachers emphasise: energy and global warming, ecosystem services and biodiversity, presence of harmful substances and materials in nature, and imbalance of natural substances in nature. The teachers justified these content themes in terms of the importance of students’ gaining different perspectives (local, global, ecological, social, and economic), belief in the future, action competence, and general scientific education. The paper contributes to sustainability education research, as it focuses on teaching sustainability in the light of the PCK framework. Also, it can support and inspire teachers when they decide what content to include when teaching SD.

It all started on Facebook in 2010, with a suggestion to celebrate the first Thursday of March. The suggestion was posted by a former resident of the town Jönköping. The posters suggestion emanated from the observation that ”r” in front of an ”s” is skipped in the particular dialect spoken in and around Jönköping. The first Thursday of March. Första torsdagen i mars, thus will be pronounciated Fössta tossdan i mass. Two years later somebody suggested that people from Jönköping could celebrate by eating a special cake with marzipan, in this special dialect massipantååta. 2010-2019 this celebration has exploded, on Facebook and also outside internet. Marzipan cakes are baked in all bakeries in Jönköping and surroundings, but the very last years also in other cities in Sweden. People with a background in Jönköping and the county of Småland offer their colleagues marzipan cake this very day, and everyone can follow the celebrations, pictures of cakes, special newly written songs and shows, on Facebook and other social media, like Instagram and Twitter. This is an example of how a dialect which has been used in films and other popular culture as a symbol of something rural, a little oldfashioned and embarrissing, is turned to something positive in a self- ironic and humoristic way. It is also an example of how a phenomenon – which might be shortlived, we do not know that yet - moves from the digital to the real world.

Den här artikeln tar ett geografididaktiskt perspektiv på geografisk kunskap och hur geografiskt kunnande kan utvecklas i geografiundervisningen i grundskolan. I den geografididaktiska forskningen har det poängterats hur geografiska perspektiv med fokus på världen (relationer i rummet till exempel från lokalt till globalt) och jorden (relationer mellan natur och samhälle) kan kopplas till olika former av att tänka geografiskt. Geografididaktiken försöker också beskriva vilket geografiskt kunnande som elever kan få tillgång till när de utvecklar ett geografiskt tänkande. I det här sammanhanget blir det tydligt att olika kunskapsformer behöver integreras i en undervisning för att utveckla förmågan att tillämpa geografiskt tänkande. Vårt syfte med den här artikeln är tudelat. Vi vill dels lyfta fram centrala delar i den internationella geografididaktiska teoretiska diskussionen men också genom tre konkreta geografididaktiska exempel visa vägar att utveckla det geografiska språket, där lärare och forskare tillsammans utformar en undervisning som fokuserar geografiskt tänkande. ENGLISH: On developing geographical thinking in geography teaching This article takes a subject didactical perspective on geographical knowledge and how geographical knowings can be developed in geography teaching in the compulsory school. Research in geography education has highlighted how geographical perspectives focusing on the world (spatial relationships e.g. from local to global) and the earth (relationships between nature and society) can be linked to different forms of geographical thinking. Geography didactics also seeks to describe the geographical knowings that students can access as they develop geographical thinking. In this context it becomes clear that different forms of knowledge need to be integrated in teaching and learning with the aim of developing the ability to apply geographical thinking. Our aim in this article is twofold, on the one hand we want to highlight key elements of the international theoretical discussion in geography education research. On the other hand we want to show, through three concrete geography didactic examples, where teachers and researchers work together to find ways to develop geographic language and design teaching that focuses on geographical thinking. Keywords: Geography didactics, Powerful knowledge, Geographical thinking, Forms of knowledge, Educational development, Collaborative projects

This report describes Mapping Lived Religion, an ongoing research and digitization project based at Linnaeus University and in collaboration with the University of Gothenburg. The project members are building an open access, online database of objects and texts connected to the cults of saints in medieval Sweden and Finland. The database is connected to a digital map and includes a register of medieval places. As part of its work, the project has enabled the digitization and digital publication of the Iconographic Index, housed by the Swedish National Heritage Board. Additionally, the photographs from The World of Medieval Images have been re-digitized as high-resolution images in collaboration with the Swedish National History Museums. By the end of the project, the database will be a major research and educational resource for those working on and teaching this period. As an open access portal published in both Swedish and English, it will offer data on the cults of saints to anyone with an interest in the field in Sweden, Finland, and internationally.

In Swedish preschool and school classrooms, all children should be offered an education that includes instruction and digital devices. The instruction should be meaningful and interesting for all children, and the digital devices should facilitate teachers’ work and children’s learning. This study concerns differentiated instruction as well as uses and possible benefits gained by digital devices in Swedish preschools and school classrooms. The study is part of a large-scale co-produc-tion project between academy and the surrounding society. Sixty-seven teachers and head-teachers, who value digital devices, participated, and shared their experiences and views on these two matters. A qualitative research approach, including research circles and thematic analyses, was used. The themes prove, for example, the importance of acknowledging children’s interests, joint exploration, provision of parallel support as well as extra challenges, association to children’s previous experi-ences and integration of digital devices of various kind. The result of the study can form a basis for interesting preschool and school discussions. It has relevance for teachers and head-teachers in training, researchers in special education as well as for those who are interested in differentiated instruction and the integration of digital devices.

In the spring of 2020, the novel Corona virus was about to change everyday life in Finland. On March 12, the government recommended that people, if possible, should avoid going to the office and instead work from home. Activities considered non-essential was restricted in order to reduce the spread of the virus. On March 16, a state of emergency was declared. The normal rhythm and order of everyday life became unpredictable and chaotic, empty shelves in grocery stores became headline news. The aim is to investigate how the virus resulted in new practices, routines and narratives that to some extent re-established a sense of cultural and existential order. Inspired by Mary Douglas, we show how routines such as going to the grocery store, taking the bus or washing hands became re-organized and charged with new cultural meaning; the virus resulted in intense attention to bodily practices and thus self-regulation. Furthermore, we discuss how Othering became integral in a narrative strive to regain a sense of control. The article is based on a questionnaire focusing on how Corona affected everyday life in Finland. It was published on March 12 and some 350 answers were received in just under a week. Most of the answers are dated March 15, i.e. the day before a state of emergency was declared.

This article focus on smart habits established as the telephone became a mundane technology in Finland during the first part of the 20th century. Smartness is defined as tactical practices based on experience, knowledge, and situated cultural rationale. The article argues that new habits contained a degree of smartness as the telephone was used to protect one’s own or a common interest and to solve mutual problems. Long gossiping conversations confirmed social ties. One learned how to manage the delicate boundary between private and public conversations, as well as to expose eavesdroppers and to speak in an enigmatic, yet comprehensible way. Smart practices encompass tactical creativity based on situated, cultural rationale.

This special issue focuses on the cultural practices of smartness and problematise what might be defined as a cult of smartness. In today’s society, the epithet smart signals development, innovation and sustainability. Smart equals being able to solve various problems and carries a promise of progress and prosperity. One can even talk about a contemporary cult of smartness. Smartness organise and reorganise the relationship between individualcollective; it affects how moral values and identities are negotiated and performed; it intervenes in everyday life and, ideally, allows people to establish new, resilient habits. From a discursive perspective, however, smartness is understood as unstable, conflictual, and in a process of constant becoming. This, in turn, makes smartness a complex web of narratives, and bodily and materialized practices. The articles critically examine such practices in different contexts: street-smart, populist politicians; the conflictual relationship between humans and wolves; seaweed as a smart actor in a sustainable society; the smart home as mundane reality; the micropractices of the homemade; the smart practices of old technologies and; the quest to create smart children through genetic technologies.

In this article we critically examine and problematize the concept of teaching in contemporary Swedish preschool provision, and sketch a holistic preschool didactics aimed at addressing key problems that emerge from the implementation of the concept of teaching in preschool. We briefly survey how teaching is conceptualized and managed from different theoretical perspectives and institutional discourses. Drawing on cultural historical activity theory and situated learning approaches, we argue for the formation of a preschool didactics based on a socio-cultural understanding of play in combination with a Reggio Emilia-inspired understanding of exploratory and project-based work methods.

This article is about “social innovation”, a concept and a set of methods that have had a major impact in recent years in different sectors of society and in research. With empirical examples from Kirunabo, a two-year social innovation project in the town of Kiruna, the article illustrates different meanings of social innovation and how it is applied in practice. The article also discusses how social innovation is legitimized and motivated in general, and how it could be understood in relation to general (ideological) tendencies in society. Furthermore, the article comprises a discussion of limitations and strengths with social innovation, and one conclusion is that social innovation has contributed to the strive for social sustainability in Kiruna.

This article is a presentation of Critical Animal Studies (CAS), and an attempt to apply perspectives from CAS on representations of dogs in Swedish media. Central questions are how anthropocentrism permeate such representations, and what anthropocentrism means for the status of dogs (and animals) in general. The article illustrates how power is central for the relation between humans and dogs, and how the living conditions of dogs (and animals) are completely determined by human interests.

Recently, the problem with fake news, fact resistance and the growing digital, global circulation of disinformation have caused debates and worries, and posed a challenge for several institutions of knowledge in society. In this article, we discuss how the news industry, museums and higher education confront the challenges of the ‘post truth’ era. We can see a mobilization by these institutions in Sweden: The news industry has initiated so-called fact checking sites, the major museums create exhibitions about false news and educate youth in digital literacy and many universities have launched initiatives to legitimize scientific knowledge production, thereby safeguarding professional authority. However, these initiatives are faced with dilemmas concerning how concepts of knowledge, truth and facts are negotiated and understood. This article discusses such epistemological issues in general, and focuses in particular on the risk of falling into the trap of so called neorigorism.

Since the early 1990s more social sectors, including the health care sector, have been met by requirements to make their professional practices evidence-based. In 2013–2014, the evidence-based care model Hospital-based Home Care for children newly diagnosed with diabetes was implemented at a large paediatric diabetes care facility in Sweden. The first step of the implementation was to promote readiness for change among the professionals through regular meetings. Using ethnographic observations, these meetings were studied in order to analyze what the diabetes team perceived as the possibilities and obstacles with the evidence-based care-model. What conceptions, ideals and identities were complicated, or facilitated, by the implementation? Drawing from a discourse theoretical logics perspective, the article addresses the competing logics at play during the implementation process. The findings suggest that there is a need for an increased awareness of the conceptions and ideals that form the basis of a certain professional practice; in order to anticipate in what way these ideals might be challenged by the implemented evidence.

During the entire 20th century, interest in work and work life as a cultural phenomenon was central to the development of Ethnology as an academic discipline: from an interest in the work and tools of peasant communities, to extensive research on different occupational cultures, including working class ones, to a focus on the processes of professionalization and on policy changes that have an impact on working life. However, with labor market changes in neo-liberal society, such as increasing requirements of flexibility, measurability, efficiency, and implementation of evidence-based practices, ethnological interest in work seems to have waned. In this special issue, we wish to stress the importance of this field of study to Ethnology, and urge the resumption of research in it, which would include posing vital questions about how changes in working life are articulated, implemented and experienced. There is a need for new analytical "takes" on how work life and everyday life intertwine in neo-liberal society. How are work situations influenced by the interjection of new discursive ideals and logics? How are the identities and subjectivities of employees affected? How are new power structures formed and old ones reproduced? With a variety of contributions in this issue that draw on a range of organizational and professional contexts, we aim to highlight the impact these changes in working life have had in the everyday lives of people both inside and outside such settings.

Most of all violence is commited by men, both in war and in peacetime. Half of the victims of male violence are men - the other half are women and, directly or indirectly, children. This pattern is global and historical constant - violence has a gender. This article analyzes men´s violence against themselves, men’s violence against other men and mens violence against women, in a cultural and feministic perspective. Elimination of violence against women has been one of the UN’s highest priorities since 1993, a goal which is also incorporated in Swedish gender equality policy. In recent years in Sweden there has been a shift in perspective of the political work from gender equality issues to handling issues, that is, prevention, detection and treatment as well as violence as a health problem. Issues like these could not, however, be properly managed without a solid theoretical base explaining the connection between all forms of men´s violence – for example, how male violence in war is related to male violence in everyday life. Such research in Sweden has difficulty establishing itself after the 2000s backlash, and the ruling perception seems to be that the theoretical question is ”completed”.

This article examines how the Swedish Shareholders’ Association set out to foster an interest in stocks and the stock market among young people. Beginning in 1985, the association published special membership magazines targeting youth: Aktiespararen Junior (1985–1988), The All Time High (1989– 1994), and Stock Magazine (1994–). By analysing the magazines’ content and interviewing five key people involved in the venture, we demonstrate how a particular equity culture for young people developed in Sweden. In our analysis, we highlight three distinct phases. First, in the mid-1980s, investing in stocks was promoted by adults as a suitable hobby for young people. Second, in the late 1980s, young people with an interest in finance and perhaps a business career set an independent, rebellious tone. Third, in the wake of the financial crisis of the early 1990s, young people distanced themselves from the ”yuppie era” while simultaneously embracing stocks as a natural part of everyday life. The socially acceptable practice was to continually acquire new knowledge and invest for the long term, while spectacular trades and a luxurious lifestyle were frowned on, so that by the mid-1990s we see the contours of an equity culture that closely resembles its thriving counterpart in the 2020s. Our study contributes to the international research on the financialisation of daily life by adding a youth perspective and emphasising the role of civil society in the change. While the deregulation of financial markets and the political reforms of pension systems were important, we would argue that it is also vital to look at what organisations and individuals who embraced the financial markets did. It is clear from our study that there was no master plan for what to create, rather a continuous grappling with changing circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text introduces the special issue of Kulturella Perspektiv called "Perspectives on death". Since the topic of "death" has been extensively researched from a cultural and social science perspective, one would think there is nothing "new" to say about the subject. The ten writers try, however, to use the concept of "death" to see where it takes them. It is obvious that "death" was a productive tool to work with. The texts show how death as a cultural concept seems to be firmly rooted in understanding of an absolute ending, and yet, almost all contributions reveal an on-going elaboration with the concept.

This article deals with Cryonics (freezing of “dead” bodies) and how it is described and criticized in media in the US. The results show three forms of criticism. First, Cryonics is accused of being unprofessional and not scientifically motivated. Secondly, it is said to dupe people, and thirdly, described as a form of self-deception. Reasons for media’s critical perspectives are discussed in relation to the Cryonics organizations’ challenge of a liberal discourse on the subject and a medical discourse about life and death.

ARTIKLAR Lars Eckerdal: Liturgivetenskapliga forskningslinjer Bertil Nilsson: Internationell kyrkorättslig forskning. En översikt Alf Härdelin: Spiritualitet – ny deldisciplin eller kyrkovetenskapligt totalperspektiv? Jan Arvid Hellström: Kyrka och kulturliv. Konturer till ett forskningsprogram LITTERATUR Martin Metzger: Königsthron und Gottesthron. Thronformen und Throndarstellungen in Ägypten und im Vorderen Orient im dritten und zweiten Jahrtausend vor Christus und deren Bedeutung für das Verständnis von Aussagen über den Thron im Alten Testament. Anm. av Trygge N. D. Mettinger Bo Johnson: Hebräisches Perfekt und Imperfekt mit vorangehendem wᵉ. Anm. av Christopher Toll Christian Braw: Bücher im Staube. Die Theologie Johann Arndts in ihrem Verhältnis zur Mystik. Anm. av Johannes Wallmann (övers. B. Hägglund) L.-M. Dewailly O.P.: Laurentius Petri et la Kyrkoordning de 1571. L ’Ordonnance ecclésiastique suédoise. Anm. av Remi Kick W. Boyd Barrick & John R. Spencer: In the Shelter of Elyon. Essays on Ancient Palestinian Life and Literature in Honor of G. W. Ahlström. Anm. av Trgggve N. D. Mettinger AKTUELLT Religionsvetenskapligt etermedieprojekt DISKUSSIONSINLÄGG Erik Aurelius: Slutreplik till Anders Jeffner FRÅN REDAKTIONEN

N/A

Library and Information Studies is a multidisciplinary subject drawing on insights from the humanities as well as from more technical and scientific domains. Both teaching and research are concerned with issues of how patrons use the library for informational and cultural purposes, children’s media use, book history and the role of libraries in local and national cultural policy. The peer reviewed Nordic Journal of Cultural Policy is edited at the department at the University of Borås.

The Sámi electorate in Sweden votes to the same extent as the general population in elections to the Riksdag, something that differs considerably from other parts of the world where turnout in elections to national parliaments usually is significantly lower among people who identify themselves as belonging to an Indigenous People in comparison with the majority population. How the Sámi in Sweden vote in parliamentary elections is, however, an unexplored field of research so far. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, to analyse how the Sami electorate votes in elections to the Riksdag, and second, to explain the voters' choice of party on an individual level. The study shows that the Social Democrats and the Left Party would have had a parliamentary majority in all elections since the 2010 parliamentary elections, if the Sami electorate had the decision-making power. In comparison with the election results for the entire Swedish population in the elections 2018, the Social Democrats and the Left Party were about ten percent larger within the Sami electorate, while the Conservative Party and the Sweden Democrats were around ten percent smaller. The analysis also indicates that the voters' opinions on specific political issues are decisive for how the Sami electorate votes in the Riksdag elections: the Sémi electorate votes to a large extent on the Left Party and the Green Party, two small parties in the Riksdag clearly stating that they work for a strengthening of Sámi rights, simultaneously as the two parties that most clearly has opposed Sami rights, the Conservative Party and the Sweden Democrats, have a considerably weaker support among the Sámi in comparison to the majority population in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Ethnology has an important research task in studying the changeability of Facts in terms of cultural processes, specifically to pose the questions who, where, how and why in relation to a certain area of knowledge. A fruitful way to do so, the author maintains, would be an analytical approach, combining discourse theory and sociological concepts with inspiration from Laclau and Mouffe, as well as Bourdieu. By exemplifying the theoretical discussion with empirical results from the Thesis Gender power or witch hunt? antagonistic conceptions about men’s violence against women (2009) is highlighted various analytical tools to study the changeability of Truth.

Much ethnography is experimental in one way or another, fieldwork practices as well as the written representations. In this text, we use commentaries on thesis drafts as examples in order to track and highlight how supervising and textreadings may be performative in the pursuit of what we would call a kick-seeking ethnography.

The theme of this issue of Kulturella Perspektiv is cultural perspectives on the Swedish royal family. Academic cultural approaches to monarchies and royal families are unusual, maybe because royalties are generally considered to be outdated political symbols. However during the last two decades there has been a growing interest within Nordic research on the royal families' mass media exposure. This is in line with a far more extended tradition in Great Britain comprising studies on the relations between monarchy and media, as well as on ideas on nationalism and national identity. Many of the articles in this issue touches on questions of mass media and nationalism in a similar way. Since studies on monarchies and the royal family are rare even in an international perspective we have found another quite new interdisciplinary field of research that serves our purposes well — celebrity studies. Celebrity studies focuses on both the production and the consuming of celebrities, on how audiences, groups or individuals use and reproduce celebrities. Since royalties are losing in political power they are no turned into high-rank celebrities with unquestionable fame since birth. But how is royal celebrity performed and what kind of values are connected with it? All articles, except one, focus on representations of the Swedish royal family, in painted portraits, an annual tv-show, satire and humour programmes, a theatre play etc. One common theme in the articles is the dichotomy of private/public. Different understandings of private/public is used and/or constructed for various reasons.

There are many jokes and humorous stories about Swedish kings. For example, the current king Carl XVI Gustaf has been the object for jokes in several humour programs on radio and TV, and in humorous stories on the Internet. This article describes and analyses royal jokes, and how these can be understood rhetorically and ideologically. The concept of ideology represents notions that are collective or semi-collective, and which speak both about how the world is and how it should be. Ideologies describe something, but also help to reproduce and create the described. The article discusses how jokes can challenge the king and the monarchy as well as the bourgeoisie in more general terms. But in many cases this questioning is (only) on a rhetorical level. Jokes are inside the ideological, which means that they represent a more or less legitimate genre in which it is accepted but also harmless to challenge the upper classes.

Kiruna is a relatively young and small town in the north of Sweden. Due to the expansion of the mining industry parts of the central Kiruna has to move a few kilometers in a northwest direction. About ten percent of the population are in the long run going to be affected by the relovation. The mining company, LKAB, and Kiruna municipality argue for the necessity of the city moving, and the same view is reproduced by local and nationwide media. This article discusses the ideological strategies involved in the argumentation for a relovation, e.g. the use of historical perspectives and the production of a king of utopian future. The article also discusses how a semitraditional masculinity is reproduced through this argumentation and its focus on technological aspects of for example moving houses and building new roads. Social, cultural and emotional aspects are more or less invisible in the process.