ABSTRACT
Although the concept of nature conservation is linked to modernity, that of the national park is loaded with landscape symbolism and romanticism, alluding to wilderness and pristine nature (Haila, 2012; Mendoza, 1998; Poirier & Ostergren, 2002). By these associations, national parks “are not the authentic places they claim to be, but rather abstractions that function as national icons” (Knudsen & Greer, 2008, p. 18). In this sense, national parks are heritage landscapes, marked by historical references imbued with cultural, political, and economic meanings (Graham, Ashworth, … Tun-bridge, 2000, p. 3). Focusing on the National City Park in Stockholm, this chapter examines what happens when the national park concept is applied in the heart of a big city. How are the park as place and its identity discursively constructed? What meanings of the past, present, and future are conjured up in this construction?
