Heritage everywhere and nowhere: displaced heritage discourse in Swedish hydropower transitions

Hydropower infrastructures are central to sustainability transitions but are also embedded in historically layered landscapes of meaning, identity, and governance. This article examines how cultural heritage is mobilised and constrained in the relicensing of Swedish hydropower facilities under the National Plan for Modern Environmental Conditions (NAP). Drawing on critical heritage studies, particularly the concept of Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD), and Emerson and Nabatchi’s framework for collaborative governance, the study examines how governance arrangements shape the recognition and actionability of heritage claims within environmental decision-making. The analysis is based on 120 semi-structured interviews with government officials and hydropower operators, complemented by site visits and document analysis. The findings show that cultural heritage is widely invoked but understood and positioned differently across stakeholder groups. Hydropower operators frame heritage in existential and place-based terms linked to continuity, identity, and historical rights, whereas public authorities treat it primarily as an administrative concern subordinate to ecological and legal mandates. Consequently, heritage remains symbolically present but procedurally weak. To capture this dynamic, the article introduces the concept of Displaced Heritage Discourse (DHD), describing governance contexts in which heritage is recognised as meaningful yet lacks institutional actionability. The study argues that legitimate and durable sustainability transitions require governance approaches that engage cultural and historical dimensions alongside technical and ecological concerns.