Työn paikasta teollisen kulttuurin perinnöksi

Porin puuvillatehdas 1898-2010

Authors

• Anna Sivula

Abstract

From a venue of work into Industrial Heritage: The Pori Cotton Mill 1898-2010

The downturn of Finnish cotton industry begun after the textile industry crisis during the slow-growth years of the mid-1970s. The end of industrial activity marked the official beginning of the Industrial Heritage. This article is based on a case study of Björneborgs Bomullsmanufaktur Aktiebolag - Porin Puuvillateollisuus Osakeyhtiö. The enterprise was founded in 1898, and the cotton mill was built, and was continuously under construction from 1899 to the late 1950s. Industrial work and production ended slowly during the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, and its histories and historical records became raw material for the production of a new kind of Cultural Heritage. A small case study opens big perspectives to the changing politics and cultures of national history. Industrial heritage was developed in the encounters of the Workers’ Culture studies and Industrial Histories. The Pori Cotton Mill reached a status of listed building as early as in 1976. It happened in a complex network action of material remains, discourses, classifications, and practices; owners, local newspapers, municipalities and central government. Approach of this article is methodologically inspired by Action Network Theory, but the means of research are those of a historian.