Corporate history culture and the useful industrial past– A case study on history management in Finnish cotton company Porin Puuvilla Oy
: Anna Sivula
Publisher: Folk Belief and Media Group of Estonian Literary Museum
: Tartu
: 2014
: Folklore : Electronic Journal of Folklore
: 57
: 29
: 54
: 26
: 1406-0957
: 1406-0949
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2014.57.sivula
: http://www.folklore.ee/folklore
Abstract: Histories are used and produced for several reasons and purposes.
History culture consists of the entirety of generations, modifications, transformations
and utilisations of the images of the past. This article is concerned with
corporate history culture that is manifested in commissioned company histories
and other representations of company history.
History culture is always oriented to the future. Corporate history culture
developed out of the demand in companies, not within universities. I clarify, in
the light of a microhistorical case of Porin Puuvilla Oy, how and why different
actors select one past to be historicised and leave another to be obsolete.
I open my contribution with an introduction to the concepts and practices of
corporate history culture and history management. Then I move on to the case
study and analyse the way that practice and representations of corporate history
culture changed between 1948 and 1973. As my methodological contribution, I
introduce the analytical four-field of the internal and external dimensions of
history management. I conclude the article with a discussion of the corporate
history culture in the context of the concepts of retro and nostalgia.