Staffan Appelgren, Researcher, Uni of Gothenburg
Staffan Appelgren is senior lecturer in Social Anthropology at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is also co-leading the research cluster Making Global Heritage Futures of the Center for Critical Heritage Studies, (a partnership between University of Gothenburg and University College London). His research revolves around the dynamic relationships between transformation and stability, expressed in phenomena such as heritage, consumption, tourism, architecture and cities in Japan and Sweden. Earlier research includes the construction of themed environments in Japanese cities, preservation strategies in Tokyo’s urban landscape and depopulation issues on the Japanese countryside. Currently, he investigates the circulation of material culture through the second-hand markets as an alternative form of heritage focusing on how aging things are “growing” through use. In relationship to the circular economy he investigates the collaborative becomings of people and used things in the field of reuse interior design in the research project, a kind of “design of the concrete” departing form available materials and things. This research is carried out through the following projects: “Re:heritage. Circulation and Marketization of Things with History” (The Swedish Research Council), Living (with) Things (Seedbox), with the Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg and The Circular Customer (Vinnova), with Research Institutes of Sweden and the City of Gothenburg.