Det populære svenske spil- og underholdningsprogram, Bingolotto, har været vist på national svensk tv lige så længe der har været kommer- ciel tv i Sverige. Programmet har haft skiftende succe siden starten i 1991 og havde på sit højdepunkt over 2 milllioner seere. Artiklen be- skriver Bingolotto som et særligt format inden for spil- og legeprogram- mer. Det sker gennem en diskussion af formatbegrebet i forhold til be- grebet genre, og gennem en identifikation af 4 karakteristiske dimen- sioner i formatbegrebet. Forfatteren fremhæver tv-formatet som en konceptuel beholder, der dels kan kapitaliseres, men som også kun kan anvendes på visse genrer. Desuden betragtes tv-formaternes fremvækst som et slags kulturelt oversættelsesarbejde i en globalise- ret tid, hvor internationale formater versioneres til et bestemt publikum ved at give formatet nationalt kulturelt særpræg.

With the expansion of the European Union eastwards,nations have adopted various strategies for being included in the Europeancommunity. This article discusses examples of cultural technologies used bypost-communist countries in aligning with Western Europe. It is argued that thephenomenon is in fact not new, as the marketing of nations has occurred since atleast the World’s Fairs of the 19th century. However, while the World’s Fairsaddressed the nation-states of high industrialism, cultural technologies are thefeatures used in a post-industrialized context, where it is more important toimpress with abilities of symbolic production rather than with traditionalindustrial production. In terms of modernization processes, it can be argued thatthe increased emphasis on symbolic production indicates a shift fromtechno-industrial modernization to techno-cultural modernization.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe have attracted increasing interest from researchers from various disciplines. This book gathers researchers from the humanities, the social and natural sciences, who in their respective ways, and from a wide range of perspectives, attempt to come to grips with the challenges that the region poses for research.