The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine parents’ and librarians’ views on censorship in children’s library. Similarities and differences between the opinion of librarians, and parents with children in the age of 0 to 12 years, have been examined. To analyse the result Jürgen Habermas’ theory of lifeworld and system has been used, together with research, mostly from USA, about censorship of children’s library. There is not much research available on censorship at children's libraries in Sweden, instead newspaper articles on controversial children's literature have been used in this paper to shed light upon the current Swedish views on censorship in children's libraries. Qualitative interviews with two librarians, working in the children’s library, and two parents, with children who visit the children's library regularly, were made. In summary, the research shows that there are actually not many differences in opinion of censorship in children’s library between the parents and librarians. A new question arises: why do we have a discussion in media about censorship of children’s library, when the respondents of this research think the controversial books should not be moved. And is it coincidental that all our respondents shared the same view on censorship of children's literature, or is it the common opinion among children's librarians and parents of younger children in Sweden?

This paper aims to examine the different perspectives that emerged during the debate surrounding the right-wing newspaper “Nya Tider” and their participation at the Swedish bookfair in Gothenburg back in 2017. The study relies on the theoretical foundation that is known as Spiral of Silence and Agenda-Setting. But is examined and operationalized by the historical perspective given by John Durham Peters in his book “courting the abyss”. Peters portrays in his book a variety of different takes on the free speech phenomenon. The study’s aim was then to see if similar perspective were protruding now as it has before.A research question regarding what perspective were protruding in the debate that followed “Nya Tider” and their announcement that they were going to attend the bookfair once again where therefore coined. The direct translation of this questions is “What perspective of where the limit of free speech should be drawn is present in the Swedish media outlet regarding the debate of “Nya Tider” participation at the book fair in Gothenburg 2017.In order to examine what perspective protruded in the debate the approach of a qualitative content analysis was deemed the best way to examine the phenomenon. A total of (n) 36 articles were systematically analyzed and a total of 4 perspectives where formed, the liberal, the absolutistic libertarian, the opponent perspective and the victim perspective. Each one different from each other. The study also examined the level occurrence of the different perspective and found that in 18 out of the 36 article’s the opponent perspective where present, whereas the absolutistic libertarian perspective only occurs in 4 out of the 36 articles’. A big difference where therefor found in what coverage the different perspectives were given in the Swedish news outlets.In a time where political censorship is at a rise around Europe with the implementation of laws that prevent people from speaking their minds. Or compelling them to address people a certain way, not by choice but by legislation, the need to examine what perspectives are occurring in our media might for the uneducated seem like a vague way to approach a complicated matter.But Agenda-Setting research has shown that the media agenda affects both the public agenda as well as the legislative part of our society. Therefore, a lack of occurrence of certain perspectives can also affect what laws are put in place. It is therefore imperative to examine what sort of perspective occurs in the Swedish debate to prevent an infraction of the Swedish free speech law, and to keep Sweden a free, secular society.

In this bachelor thesis, strategies used for collection development in Swedish public libraries are presented. Librarians from four different libraries from cities of different sizes are interviewed about the way they manage acquisitions, users’ requests for books, and other collection development related tasks. Ranganathan’s five laws for libraries, which are his guidelines for how libraries should work, are used in the analysis, where they are compared to the views of the librarians who are interviewed for this study. The results showed that the different librarians used similar tools when building their collections, and that the most prominent thing they all cited as most important to have in mind was the needs of the libraries users.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine how Swedish public libraries approaches purchasing potentially controversial and anti-democratic books. According to the The Swedish Library Act, libraries should work towards the development of the democratic society and act for the benefit of free speech. If that is the case, how do libraries approach non-democratic works, for example works that speculate in racism or even genocide? This have been a widely discussed topic in media the last couple of years, fuelled by two decisions by the Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman (Justitieombudsmannen) that ruled that two public libraries acted wrongly in their decisions to deny purchase of a couple of controversial books that had been requested to be purchased by patrons. This study is based on five qualitative interviews of managers representing five different Swedish public libraries, supplemented by a review of the libraries steering documents. To summarize this study finds that there has been a shift over the last couple of years how public libraries approach potentially controversial books. In the past, it was more common for libraries to not carry any books considered anti-democratic or xenophobic. However, today it is very common for libraries to add these kinds of books to their collection. The only aspect a library can deny a purchase on is the “quality” of the work, not the values or opinions expressed in it. Because of the lack of a national definition of what exactly “quality” entails some libraries have worked out their own definition that they use when making decisions regarding media purchases. The representatives didn’t think that a national definition was needed and that and under the current configuration the libraries have more manoeuvrability and can apply their professional competence to a higher degree.

During recent years, there has been a major change in the way people engage in politics. The introduction of social media to the world, as well as the fact that the number of members of political parties has halved between 1990 and 2010, are part of a major shift in the study of political participation and engagement. This change shows that there has been a switch in political engagement, from the traditional representative democracy institutions to a much more digital way. Having taken this into consideration, this study aims to explore how young first-time Swedish voters experienced the political climate on social media during the Swedish general election in 2022. The focal point of this study is firstly to answer how the voters believe that the political climate on social media affected their political gathering of information ahead of the election. Secondly, to gain a deeper understanding of the students' opinions and experiences on politics in social media in relation to concepts like tolerance, freedom of speech, intolerance and censorship. And thirdly, if these experiences seem to influence the first-time voters' political participation and engagement on social media. The theoretical framework is foremost based on Henrik Bang’s theory on project-oriented identities, John Stuart Mill's understanding of freedom of speech and political scientist Sigal Ben-Porath’s definition on censorship. The method that will carry out this paper is face-to-face interviews with 10 upper secondary school students in a social science class in Orebro. The chosen method is content analysis, combined with an analysis scheme which will outline the empirical collection based on four main categories. The results show that the first-time voters did not use social media voluntarily for political information gathering, but that it rather happened because social media is part of their everyday life. The study also demonstrates that the first-time voters considered the political climate on social media as relatively harsh. Their opinions also vary regarding the political climate in relation to tolerance, freedom of speech, intolerance and censorship. Lastly, it was rather difficult to know with certainty whether the first-time voters’ experiences of the political climate had an impact on their political participation and engagement or not, but that it may possibly have been the case.

<p>The aim of this study is to analyse how pornography is used in the American comics X-Men, published by Marvel under the authorship of Chris Claremont.</p><p>I have applied Butler and MacKinnons theories about pornography as a performative speech, to this special art form. I have also investigated how censorship has influenced the comics evolution and whether it has affected the way women and sexual and ethnical minorities are represented. To corroborate how these theories apply, I have analysed three main female fig-ures in The X-Men comics - Storm, Phoenix and Shadowcat - and I have tried to identify how they relate to existing stereotypes.</p><p>The conclusion of this essay is that the women characters in X-Men break the existing stereo-types and create new implications. This reinforces Butler’s theory about the possibility to re-verse hate speech and diminishes MacKinnons perspective of pornography as an imperative.</p>

The aim of this study is to analyse how pornography is used in the American comics X-Men, published by Marvel under the authorship of Chris Claremont. I have applied Butler and MacKinnons theories about pornography as a performative speech, to this special art form. I have also investigated how censorship has influenced the comics evolution and whether it has affected the way women and sexual and ethnical minorities are represented. To corroborate how these theories apply, I have analysed three main female fig-ures in The X-Men comics - Storm, Phoenix and Shadowcat - and I have tried to identify how they relate to existing stereotypes. The conclusion of this essay is that the women characters in X-Men break the existing stereo-types and create new implications. This reinforces Butler’s theory about the possibility to re-verse hate speech and diminishes MacKinnons perspective of pornography as an imperative.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the historical use of "poison cabinets", or restricted shelves, in Swedish libraries. Drawing upon the theories of Mary Douglas and Michel Foucault, it also seeks to sketch a cultural and ideological context of the practice; with the emphasis on social or mental hygiene, and disciplinary aspects. Through qualitative interviews as well as digitalized recordings of librarians active during the first half of the 20th century, actual examples of poison cabinets are presented. A closer examination is conducted of past collections at Lund University Library, and two large public libraries situated in Växjö and Sigtuna. The essay also investigates views on library censorship, controversial literature, and other related subjects reflected in th elibrary press during the period 1916-1979. In summary, the researched material suggests a historically widespread use of restricted collections, although the objectives of its use differ depending on library function. While the collection at Lund University Library appears to have been the result of state censorship, and is associated with the obligation to preserve materials imposed on legal deposit libraries, public libraries' poison cabinets have had a stronger connection to an educational reading culture. As such, public libraries' main concerns have been less about bad books, more about easy-to-corrupt patrons. The study is a two-year master's thesis in Library and Information Science written at Uppsala University.

Abstract Sweden has had a long tradition of freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Today the judicial area is regulated by the constitution of the press and the constitution of speech. The purpose of the two constitutions is to secure the right for every Swedish citizen to express their thoughts, opinions and feelings. The constitutions are designed to regulate the techniques with which the information is distributed and not to regulate the information in itself. This fact has caused a debate to arise on the subject whether the constitutions are still suitable to regulate the judicial area when the technical development causes the constitutions to get out of date and in need of constant updating. As a rule the usage of social media is not regulated by the constitution of speech the information distributed through these webpages can be included by the protection given by the constitution but very few of these webpages fulfill the criteria’s demanded by the constitution. The purpose of this essay is to ask the question whether the constitution of speech should be reformed to better regulate the technical development in the future. The essay examines whether a new constitution can be developed so that it no longer is tied to a certain technique and if it, in the future, should include all the information distributed through social media. It is the author´s conclusion that the constitution of freedom of speech should be concentrated on giving a special protection to professional companies’ whose occupation it is to distribute information to the public. This is the best way to preserve a regulation that is clear, consistent and easy to practice. A constitution that is given an area that is too wide to regulate will only restrain the freedom of speech and its founding principles and should therefore be avoided.

This thesis examines how librarians, in their own point of view, can and do handle influences on their daily work routines. The main focus is on whether the librarians’ experiences suggest that these influences lead to self-censorship in how media and information is acquired, handled and distributed. The contrast between the librari-ans’ actual and ideal situations, regarding their perceived freedom to act, are also examined. Seven librarians from different fields and different parts of Sweden are questioned using semi-structured interviews. The results are analyzed using models of self-censorship from Bar-Tal and Beckman as well as an influential article on selection and censorship in libraries from Asheim. A closer reading of the librarians’ stories finds four recurring themes: Perceived autonomy and freedom, Motives and context, Examples of influence and self-censorship and Ideals and reailty. The themes are analyzed in depth, with key quotes from the librarians serving as illustrations, using the aforementioned theoretical models as tools. From these analyses, the following conclusions are drawn: Preceptions of autonomy and workload in-fluence how librarians view their freedom to propose new ideas and handle media and information in accordance with their ideals. There also seems to exist a discrepancy regarding the librarians’ expected flexibility with rules and routines, leading to confusion among the librarians. Furthermore, disinclinations towards discussion in the workplace are common when the topics are controversial, such as the removal of racist material, and attempts at discussion are often ignored. Lastly, proximity to the end users also influence the librarians, leading to an increased risk of bias in selection and weeding processes. Together these things influence how librarians cope with management of collections and activities, as well as how they treat colleagues and end users, in the context of self-censorship. The conclusions, as well as their effects on librarians, libraries and society as a whole, are then discussed. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and information science.