Företagsarkiven och kulturarvet : en kvalitativ undersökning av svenska hantverksbryggeriers arkivbildning

Sammanfattning: Business archives and cultural heritage : a qualitative study of Swedish craft breweries’ records management In 2019, the Archives Inquiry submitted a proposal that corporate archives should be covered by the Archives Act to ensure the preservation of the cultural archives. The purpose of the thesis is to determine the attitude of companies to long-term preservation through a case study of craft breweries. The issues I address in this essay are not unique to the brewing industry. They are relevant to the entire business community. What is the alternative to legislation? Do craft breweries want to dedicate resources to building and preserving their own archives? What is required for a craft brewery to voluntarily invest resources in arranging, listing and securing the long-term storage of its archive? These questions are addressed using a theoretical framework consisting of John Locke's ideas that people own the fruits of their labor, Adam Smith's ideas around the free market and John Stuart Mill's ideas that the state should not restrict people's freedom to gain an understanding of the relationship between citizens and state in today's society. These ideas help explain why the Archives Inquiry's proposal to legislate is problematic, but it does not explain why companies do not preserve their archives. With the help of organizational research's theories about companies' brand building, the question is answered on what is required for companies to voluntarily put resources into archives. It is a qualitative case study of craft breweries interviewed with the methods transfer and reference calls. The thesis concludes that the alternative to legislation is to encourage and incentivize companies to preserve their archives and companies are willing to do so if it benefits the company.