Sarah Holst KjaerUniversitetslektor
Om mig
I am on 80 % leave (Autumn 2022 to Autumn 2023) from my position as associate professor. Still, I am, during this period, teaching the Swedish language online course Folklore: Ritual, berättelse och tradition (ETG350).
I have two main research topics, namely 'romance, coupling and heteronormativity' and something more instrumental: 'culture-based experience innovation in the tourism- and experience industry'. This research area I am currently working on under the title Staycation.
As a specialist in the cultural rituals of the romantic, heteosexual couple relationship in late modernity, I finished my doctorate thesis Sådan er det at elske. En kulturanalyse af parforhold in 2009. I wrote about the cultural fantasies men and women have about relationship ideals. How couples in their everyday life 'work' on their relationship through leisure rituals and practices such as holidays, eating at restaurants on Valentine's Day, going to the cinema, engaging in evening school acitivies to improve the relationship, or, laxing at home, are my main interests. Also cultural fantasies about The One and Only, how to select a partner and not least how to repair and maintain a relationship is the focus of my reseach. You can read my thesis (in Danish) here. I speak to the press, for example Kristeligt Dagblad, Berlingske, another article from Berlingske on how we engage in famous people's affairs and what it says about romantic dreaming, or the television station TV2 about romance and about the norms for how men and women (should or should not) engage when they relate romantically. In 2021, I participated as a love-expert in a Danish reality show on Danish Broadcasting, DR3, Mit hemmelige match, season 2, 2021. As an academic, this is a very effective way to distribute scientific knowledge. Over a two week period, 150.000 viewers had seen the full show. Often, I get questions about whether 'traditional gender-behaviour' is still acceptable and many people feel lost on a date not knowing the cultural rules of engagement. Being in a relationship there is, in addition, always something to fix which seems to be the late modern mantra of the heteronormative relationships.
A large part of my research is also dedicated to culture-based experience innovation. I assist, do reports and run courses on how museums, county-, and city councils, and not least private experience businesses can place-make and develop their places through place-bound cultural expressions. How museums can play an active part in collaborating with the surrounding community when creating experience and identity in local societies is one of my main interests. This spills over into tourism and staycation studies: how does regional tourism-, experience-, and culture industry deal with the transformation of a place and how is it (sometimes not) guided by leisure behavior and various consumer desires such as meaning-making, relationships-building or the place-attachments of people? This part of my research-profile can be categorised as 'business ethnology within the culture- and tourism industries'. I do ethnographic fieldwork with a special interest in experience-, service-, and product innovation. How the actual conditions of the industry affect facilitating the visitors' cultural presuppositions and desires is also investigated and discussed. I too assist different societal groups in affecting urban and regional culture heritage transformation with a focus on community-driven place development and the power-structures in urban and regional transformation. As a result, I have written several publications within the field of business ethnology, experience innovation and consumer desires in a regional and urban experience setting.
Undervisning
My teaching experience has over the years been applied. I have instrumentalised ethnology and folklore studies into business management and development in small and medium sized firms, especially in the regional culture-, experience,- and tourism industry.
I have taught advanced cultural studies, globalisation and diversity management, consumer studies, hospitality management, tourism studies, experience economy, storytelling in organisations, arts- and museum management on both a technical college-level, on a phd-level and on an executive level in companies.
At the Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies, Stockholm University, I supervise and teach European ethnology, urban studies, museum studies, critical culture heritage studies, folklore studies, migration studies and the history of science. I also teach European ethnology in English to our international students.
Forskning
Since 2008, I have converted my academic knowledge into developing the regional tourism and culture industry in Scandinavia. This practise originates from action research but is today often called culture-based innovation. The method is ethnographic and concern using the concepts of 'culture and experience' in the broadest sense in order to create social and economic sustainability in small communities. 'Theming' experience space towards certain target groups, designing experience products and ways of businesses collaborating through different business-models are my fields of expertise.
My research topics have been analysing and developing e.g. cultural festivals, theme parks, culture heritage towns, urban and rural leisure arenas investigating and transforming 'sense of place' into experience products. I have done a number of culture history museum studies in Scandinavia and in America in relation to the hospitality dimensions, 'friendliness' and customisations towards different types of guests.
List of references
Kjaer, Sarah Holst:
2019. Village Vintage in Southern Norway. Revitalisation and Vernacular Entrepreneurship in Culture Heritage Tourism. In: Francisco Martínez and Patrick Laviolette, (eds.), Ethnographies of Repair and Brokenness. Affective transmissions and politics of maintenance and failure. London & New York: Berghahn Books, www.berghahnbooks.com/title/MartinezRepair
2017. Getting China-ready. I: Hans Christian Garmann Johnsen, Elisabet S. Hauge & May-Linda Magnussen & Richard Ennals (eds.), Applied Social Science Research in a Regional Knowledge System: Balancing validity, meaning and convenience? London & New York: Routledge, 229-251, www.routledge.com/Applied-Social-Science-Research-in-a-Regional-Knowledge-System-Balancing/Garmann-Johnsen-Hauge-Magnussen-Ennals/p/book/9781472487827
2016. Aas, T. H., Hjemdahl, K.M. and Kjær, S.H. Innovation practices in cultural organisations: implications for innovation policy, International Journal of Tourism Policy, Vol. 6, Nos. 3/4, 212-234.
2016. The Performative Museum. Designing a Total Experience. In: Jonas Frykman & Maja Povrzanović Frykman (eds), Sensitive Objects: Affect and Material Culture. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 237-255, www.nordicacademicpress.com/bok/sensitive-objects/
2015. Den digitale rejse. Digitaliseringsprojekter i regional kulturarvsindustri. Kulturella Perspektiv, svensk etnologisk tidskrift, 3-4, årg. 24, 53-64.
2014. Scandinavian Things and Chinese Taste. Becoming China-Ready in the Regional Tourism Industry, 7/2014. Agder Research, Kristiansand, Norway. ISSN 0808-5544. Report.
2013. Skærgårdsbyen. Edvard Munchs kunst som stedsudvikling. In: Cecilie Fredriksson & Mia Larsson (eds.), Framtidskuster, Göteborg: Makadam Förlag, 71-89.
2012. Museal stedsudvikling: Tordenskjold was here! Nordisk Museologi. Tema: Museer og ulikheters kulturelle dynamikk. 2012:2, 64-82.
2011a. Designing a Waterworld. Culture-Based Innovation and Ethnography in Regional Experience Industry. In: Tom O’Dell & Robert Willim (eds.), Ethnologia Europea, Journal of European Ethnology 2011, vol. 41:1. Special issue: Irregular Ethnography, 81-95.
2011b. Kystturisme, fyrtårne og romantisk oplevelsesdesign. It’s Lovely Here! Kulturella Perspektiv, svensk etnologisk tidskrift, nr. 2, årgang 20, 21-32.
2011c. Meaningful‐Experience Design and Event Management. A Post‐Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009. In: Can Seng Ooi & Birgit Stöber (eds.), Culture Unbound, A Journal of Current Cultural Issues. Theme: Policies, Governments and the Creative and Cultural Industries, vol. 3, 2011, 243-267.
2011d. Home and the Longing for Easy Familiarity. Ethnologia Scandinavica, Journal of Nordic Ethnology, vol. 41, 2011, 56-69.
2010. Den emotionelle storby. In: Jahn Thon & Roy Eriksen (eds.): Hvem eier byen? Tekst, plan og historie, Oslo: Novus Forlag, 127‐141.
2009. A Little Death Around the Eyes. Heroin, kulturindustri og Pete(r) Dohertys autofiktioner. Kulturella Perspektiv. Svensk Etnologisk Tidskrift,nr 3‐4, 70‐80.
2009. Future Capsule. Norway, manuscript and storyline production with Dan Korneli, director. Documentary Film.
2009. Sådan er det at elske. En kulturanalyse af parforhold [Such is it to Love. A Cultural Analysis of Coupling], Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. Dissertation, www.mtp.dk/details.asp?eln=202711
2008. Sørlandets op- og nedture i historien. In: Sarah Holst Kjær, Per Strömberg & Jon Olav Pedersen (eds.), Fremtidskapselen. Fra vugge til grav, Agder Research, Prosjektserie 29/08. Report.
2008. Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg – Kommercialisme, atmosfære og byfestivaler, www.festivals.no. Web-Article.
2008. Festivaler er ren musik‐nostalgi! www.festivals.no. Web-Article.
2008. Roskilde festival 2008 evalueret. Også i maskulinitetsperspektiv. www.festivals.no. Web-Article.
2008. Festivaler fungerer som teambuilding i næringslivet. www.festivals.no. Web-Article.
2008. Sydspidsen. Oplevelsesdesign i fire turistnæringer. Agder Research. Report.
2008. Verden er i Norge. Om kulturfestivaler. www.festivals.no. Web-Article.
2007. Oceaner och kaptener? Om könsdrömmar, sex och parförhållande. In: Lars‐Eric Jönsson (ed.) Kulturens Årsbok, Lund: 121-131.
2006. Manden og husarbejdet ‐ det mørke kontinent? In: Robert Willim (ed.), ETN‐HEM (2006:2), Etnologiska Insitutionen, Lund University: 121-128.
2006. Backpacker Non‐stop! In: Tidsskriftserie for ungdomsforskning, Learning Lab Denmark, DPU, Denmark.
2006. Silence. In: Orvar Löfgren & Richard Wilk (eds.), Off the Edge. Experiments in Cultural Analysis, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 141-148.
2005. Silence. In: Orvar Löfgren & Richard Wilk (eds,), Ethnologia Europaea, Journal of European Ethnology (35:1‐2, 2005), Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 141-148.
2003. Pornstar. Når eksperter konstruerer unges sekseuelle identitet, NIKK Magasin, nr. 1.
1999. Vad har du med i ryggsäcken? In: Tom O’Dell (ed.), Non‐Stop! Turist i upplevelsesindustrialism, Lund: Historiska Media, 236‐255.