The attempt for objectivity within research often results in the careful extraction of human emotion. This results in an incomplete understanding of the interactions and motivations surrounding human beings and the societies in which they are a part. Emotional geographies provide a cross-disciplinary example of how to attempt to embrace emotions in the conceptual and experiential understanding of the socio-spatial interactions and expression. This article explores how individuals verbally construct authentication of genealogical relevant places, the choices of which elements are included/excluded, and how they use this authentication process to situate themselves as a continuation of the past. This study is significant in challenging the perception of the passivity of individuals and place, by highlighting the multiplicity of individuals’ interactive emotional engagement and performance based on Deleuzian desire.

Participants of this study comprise of 16 Swedish Americans previous contestants of the Swedish reality genealogy television programme Allt för Sverige (in English, Great Swedish Adventure). A programme focused on individuals' family history, contestants are exposed to Swedish historical and cultural places and activities, competing in elimination challenges with the goal to win a family reunion. Drawing upon qualitative data collection of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, participants’ descriptive narratives were examined developing from Dovey’s theoretical framework of “place-as-assemblage” through narrative discourse analysis.

Results of this study revealed that individuals describe not stagnant historical places, but rather performatively construct and/or deconstruct using a variety of components to create an emotional assemblage of place reflective of their own purposes and desires.