Paper short abstract:

The concept of "world culture" for Sweden's state-owned museums of exotic & foreign things originally carried a certain emancipatory potential. I outline this opportunity, and probe the reasons for why it was lost. I attempt to identify the socio-political developments involved in its still-birth.

Paper long abstract:

The concept of "world culture" as proposed in the 1990s for Sweden's state-owned museums of exotic and foreign things, originally carried a certain emancipatory potential, including for transcending the nation-state constraints on global heritage. In this paper I outline this opportunity, and probe the reasons for why it was lost, in the ensuing debates and bureaucratic rearrangements of the Swedish "world culture" museums. I recall the debates of the 2000s, including my own contributions, and reflect on the abandonment of further discussion, which later ensued. I seek to identify the social-political developments that contributed to the still-birth of Swedish "world culture," and the lessons to be drawn for this, for our future.