The good experience -
Of cultural heritage from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages in Central and West Zealand and other places in Northern Europe

The dissertation uncovers history culture, experiences and dissemination trends in Viking and medieval attractions in Denmark, Germany and Sweden.

This is done with the strategic aim of presenting examples of cultural heritage experiences that can serve to develop the Central and West Zealand cultural heritage industry. The dissertation focuses on overall patterns of consumption, as well as on the essentials of the visitor's personal encounter with the cultural heritage. Thus, the dissertation presents a theoretical alternative to the dominant (typically critically constructivist) paradigm, as well as new knowledge about where the attractiveness of cultural heritage from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages lies - well, the attraction that 'goes deeper' than pedagogy and technology. Furthermore, the dissertation presents an overview of the 'attraction landscape', which among other things suggests that the attraction potential within Viking Age experiences, as these unfold in 2016, is overestimated by the museum and tourism industry. The dissertation also presents a new user group division, where feelings about concrete narratives and materialities in the cultural heritage experience are included in an unprecedented way. A number of examples of extremely successful cultural heritage experiences are presented in the dissertation under the phenomenon super-attractions - an attraction phenomenon that can be an inspiration for Central and West Zealand's attraction development. What experiences can be characterized as super-attractions holds a number of surprises.      

Ph.d. the project was a collaboration between When Denmark was created, Museum Vestsjælland, Ny Trelleborg / Slagelse Municipality and the Danish Agency for Culture.