The overall aim of the thesis is to explore and analyse graffiti in a translocal context, by asking questions about the actors' view on activity, meaning and interaction. The study has been located to a physical place, Jönköping, where actors with different interest perform graffiti-related activity. The study is based on qualitative data where participant observation and interviews form the two main methods. The study also utilizes other materials, such as newspaper articles and municipal documents. Central for the theoretical orientation is that empirical data has been collected that is first-hand information on how the actors themselves find meaning in graffiti. This implies a constructivist perspective on knowledge where meaning shifts depending on whose perspective is analysed. Theoretically, the study also is linked to Becker and his arguments that research in deviance must take notice of the interaction between actors who are perceived to deviate and those actors who respond to the deviant group. The actors consist of two main groups; graffiti writers and interveners. Graffiti writers mainly consist of young men who describe themselves as belonging to a global graffiti culture. The word “interveners” has bee selected as a generic name for actors who are involved in graffiti issues due to professional duties. Similar to the graffiti writers' interveners find the meaning in graffiti by actively select information from an “outside”, which corresponds with their professional commitment. The analysis links different approaches to perspectives of combating crime, confirming art and caring for the young men's socialisation. From those different understandings, three parallel patterns of interaction are observed. Interaction developed around graffiti as a crime has elements of a battle situation. From the graffiti writers' perspective, this fight is important when designing the local scene as an integral part of a global graffiti context. At the same time there are disadvantages managing an enemy. On a personal level, individual graffiti writers have to make an estimate how graffiti writing will affect life in the long term. Interaction developed around graffiti as an art form unites graffiti writers and interveners in an ideological consensus where graffiti can be seen as an art form that adds creative qualities to urban space. One significant difference is that the graffiti writers find the local arena as an important place. This local orientation is not necessary when actors from a cultural sector put attention on graffiti. Youth workers way of caring for graffiti writers follows a tradition of social work. This approach focuses the graffiti writers themselves and how to redirect them to accepted forms of artistic expression. The youth workers have good potential to make contact, but it seems difficult to establish long-term relations because graffiti writers themselves do not find it necessary to formalize graffiti as a scheduled activity. A conclusion made is that there is something locked up about graffiti issues because actors see graffiti from their "own" perspective, and at the same time they remain critical of alternative approaches. Somewhat contradictory to an interaction structured around distinctive perceptions, the study shows that actors express uncertainty about what they are doing. Such critical self-reflections seem to be perceived as personal objections and are not shared with others. This, together with the fact that interest in graffiti comes and goes in waves, adds ambivalence to the conflictual field of graffiti. The thesis ends with a hypothetical discussion of how the conflict level could change if graffiti would be met with a differentiated policy.

自有書寫以來就有了塗鴉的存在，但到了20世紀60年代末，因為城市青年競相以極盡時尚的方式在紐約各處留名，這種新的現象開始逐漸受到矚目。美國其他城市的年輕人隨即展開效仿，自此，塗鴉開始正式走向全球。有時作為城市藝術受到歌頌，有時作為破壞主義受到媒體和當局譴責。對於世界各地的許多年輕人而言，塗鴉也是收獲名望和地位的途徑、自我表達的管道、逃避眼前壓力的方式和一種反叛的手段。塗鴉文化在20多年前傳播到台灣，同樣吸引了在地青年因自身的種種理由、難題與想傳遞的訊息而進行書寫。雖然在許多英語系國家中已詳細研究過塗鴉文化，但我們有機會在台灣這個截然不同的社會中進行深入探索。台灣的塗鴉寫作如何與國際塗鴉世界連結？台灣獨特的文化在哪些方面影響了塗鴉文化的發展？台灣青年從參與塗鴉文化中獲益多少？本論文試圖通過符號互動主義的角度來探討這些問題。 / Graffiti has existed as long as writing, but towards the end of the 1960s a new phenomenon began gaining attention as urban youth competed to write their tags all over New York and as stylishly as possible. Soon other youth in American cities began emulating them, and from there it went global. At times celebrated as urban art, and at others lambasted by the media and authorities as vandalism, for many young people around the world, graffiti has also been a path to fame and status, a means of self-expression, a way to escape the pressures young people face, and a means of rebellion. Graffiti culture spread to Taiwan more than 20 years ago, and has similarly attracted young people here who have their own reasons for writing, their own problems, and things they want to express. While graffiti culture has been studied in many English speaking countries in great detail, in Taiwan we have the opportunity to explore it in a significantly different society. How is graffiti writing in Taiwan connected to the international graffiti world? In what ways has Taiwan’s unique culture influenced the development of graffiti culture here? And what do Taiwanese youth gain from participation in graffiti culture? This thesis is an attempt to address these questions and more through the perspective of symbolic interactionism.