New Genre Public Art was originally defined by Suzanne Lacy in 1991 as an activist approach to the public; it was a type of public art that was often created outside the institutional structure which brought the artist into direct engagement with the audience, while addressing social and political issues. In 1993, the public art exhibition ’Culture in Action’, curated by Mary Jane Jacob, marked a conceptual shift from static to dynamic public art. The exhibition is considered a landmark event in the development of public art as it was among the first projects to frame communities as the structure and content of its art.During the past decade (2010–2020), urban development has become incorporated as an integral part of the work of the Public Art Agency Sweden, and the agency have established their own curatorial department in order to curate and produce their own public art exhibitions. As Public Art Agency Sweden is a State agency, their work is largely determined by official policies formulated by the Swedish government. This thesis analyzes the contemporary policies of urban public art by conducting an interdisciplinary critical discourse analysis that merges art history, curatorial– and urban studies, in order to trace the influence of discourse to how Public Art Agency Sweden has operated within this intersection during the last decade––ultimately to discuss what the Swedish policies on public art strive to achieve and the risks, ethics and responsibilities of the emerging field of urban, context-based curatorship.

This thesis examines the proposed Österskans development in Halmstad, Sweden from the approach of critical urbanism. With a steady increase of population growth for the past decades and despite the income level of the municipality's population being above the national average - the socio-economic segregation in Halmstad is prevalent. The planned development of the Österskans area, a former node of public transport located in the city centre, would see the space refitted to house a large-scale skyscraper complex containing a hotel, an urban market, a restaurant and a rooftop bar. The development and imposed semi-privatisation of the current public place have sparked debate, and a referendum on the matter will take place at the time of the national elections in september of 2022. This study employs the method of critical discourse analysis to investigate how aspects of convivial urbanism embeds the discourse on public space in Halmstad, how the development of public places can be understood through the discourse on shared spatial qualities in the case of Österskans and what implications such qualities could have on segregation. The theoretical framework consists of theory of space and place, critical urban theory on the right to the city, uneven geographical development, the human body as accumulation strategy as well as theory on conviviality. By the examination of 13 texts as qualitatively selected representatives of the discourse, the analysis centered around on how narratives, intertextual relations and structures can be understood. In the analysis, matters of how the narratives on conviviality is positioned, how social sustainability is addressed and avoided, assumptions of who constitutes the public, market value and attractiveness, the portrayal of diversity and inclusion versus the reality of it, the feasibility of achieving togetherness and the potential harmful implications of the development are all discussed. The study concludes that while claims of conviviality clearly do feature, the narratives of the discourse overlooks crucial factors of social sustainability and leaves blind spots of how to tangibly achieve inclusivity - along with the understanding of the inside experience of the consumer being prioritized and that it could negatively impact segregation by imposing an even further further socio-spatial divide.