This study is an attempt to shed light on the importance of fiction as a bridge between different cultures and traditions. The objective of this essay is threefold. First it explores the potentiality of fiction as a communication channel between different cultures, societies and social groups. Secondly, it studies the availability of foreign fiction in Swedish language. And thirdly it tries to approach and analyze the structures and mechanisms behind that availability. In order to achieve the goals of the study the author uses a critical realist theoretical framework and combines quantitative and qualitative techniques. Some of the main findings of the study are the domination of Anglo-American fiction and the marginalization of small languages when translating foreign fiction to Swedish.

The view on which kind of fiction that should be mediated to the public through the Swedish public library system has since the late 60´s been dominated by what in this Master’s thesis is called: ´the discourse on quality of literary fiction´. The aim of this thesis is to examine to which extent this discourse still plays an active role in the Swedish public library system or if that discourse has been replaced by a more market-led, demand responsive view, where the features of ´quality´ and ´culture´ have been downplayed and replaced by a ´customer’s service view´ on how and why fiction should be mediated to the public. The methodological and theoretical perspective in this thesis is led by the understanding of the discourse analysis in Michel Foucault’s ´The Archaeology of Knowledge´. The material of analysis has been the Swedish Government reports: (SOU) concerning the issues of mediating fiction. Another source of empirical material used in the study is a survey distributed to librarians throughout the country .The conclusion which I have been able to draw from the analysis of the textual material and the survey is that the discourse on mediating fiction has changed from the 70´s and 80´s ´quality view´ on how and why a non commercial cultural institution like the public library should mediate fiction, to a market-led ´customer’s service view´ on the public libraries functions, where the customer’s demand should be met even at the expense of the quality features of the fiction mediated. / Uppsatsnivå: D

In this thesis, we have analyzed the Swedish debate about whether to impose a national canon, and make it compulsory in school curricula. Cecilia Wikström, a Liberal MP in Sweden, made the suggestion in July 2006, and the focus of our analysis is the subsequent debate during July and August 2006. Our materials are polemical articles from three Swedish newspapers, which we have examined to find the main ideas and arguments behind the various standpoints. Three issues have been our main focus; first, we have analyzed which concepts of culture the various debaters have used, where we have seen a difference between an anthropological and an aesthetical concept, but, surprisingly, found that there isn’t a very strong correlation between an aesthetical concept of culture and being pro-canon, or between an anthropological concept of culture and being anti-canon. Secondly, we have analyzed how the different arguments in the debate related the political ideas, in this case “Nationalism”, ”A will to broaden the current canon”, and “Reach out to disadvantaged children” with literature. According to nationalism we could, in some cases, even identify right populist tendencies. The third issue that we have analyzed is how the various arguments relate to three different cultural rationales made up by Danish cultural sociologist Dorte Skot-Hansen. These three rationales are humanistic rationale, focusing on giving all people in a society access to “good” culture, a sociological rationale focused on giving different social groups the ability to express their own culture, and an instrumental rationale where a main focus of cultural policy is becoming visible, and generating profit or things not directly related to culture itself. We found, not surprisingly, that the sociological rationale was dominated by actors against canon, and that pro-canon actors belonged to the humanistic rationale. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This Master’s thesis has governmental cultural policy in focus and concludes a textual idea analysis of the governmental bill Time for culture. (Tid för kultur.) The aim of the study is to examine how the government is seeking legitimacy concerning the cultural policy. One of the starting points is that the society has changed over time in terms of for example increased globalization and multicultural and even the market adjustment is more evident. Also the economical basis in the society is different nowadays. These changes form challenges concerning the governmental cultural policy. The theoretical starting point for this thesis is based on a theory by cultural policy researcher Geir Vestheim. The theory claims that cultural policy is instrumental. The forms of instrumental culture policy are either qualitative, social, economic or democratic. The method used in the study is idea analysis. Ideal types based on a model by Vestheim are used to examine the different forms of instrumental culture policy and arguments in Time for culture. The study wants to explore which forms of arguments and instrumental cultural policy that can be seen in Time for culture. The result of this study shows that the different forms of instrumental cultural policy occur to varying extent in Time for culture. Most prominent are the economical arguments. Particularly when it comes to the cultural policy that concerns the role of the culture in the development of the society. One conclusion drawn is that the government is seeking legitimacy concerning the new cultural policy mainly throughout economical arguments.

This bachelor thesis examines the library as a public sphere in the notion of Jürgen Habermas’ theory from 1962. The questions asked concerns how the public sphere is discussed in relation to Swedish public libraries today in our late modern society. The analyzed material consists of the Swedish Cultural Bill of 2009 and five qualitative interviews with librarians. The material is analyzed with two of the four social actions presented by the sociologist Maw Weber: value-rational and instrumental. The Cultural Bill handles the importance of public spheres in society, but does not recognize the possibility of public libraries as functioning as such. The interviewed librarians stress this function, but points out the problems in using it as an economic legitimizer of the institution. The difference between the perceived role of the public libraries in the statements from the librarians and the cultural bill probably explains the ambiguity in the librarians’ statements. There is a problem when the more abstract values of the libraries are not recognized in the cultural policy of today. The solution presented in the thesis accede the ongoing LIS research in the emphasis on the need of a more extensive definition of the library as a public sphere. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to study various views of sponsorship in relation to public libraries as found within three cultural policy documents. The main objective is to discover which ideas are considered relevant in the partnership between the Swedish retail chain, Åhléns, and the children’s public library, “Room for Children” (Rum för Barn). In 2005, Åhléns provided SEK3.14 million in sponsorship to “Room for Children” at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. This funding enabled the library to realise its concept of a library particularly adapted for children. The theoretical starting point for this thesis is based on cultural policy researcher Dorte Skot Hansen’s model of the changes in cultural policy occurring since the 1960s. The model consists of three different ways of discussing cultural policy. The first is based on humanistic ideals, the second on sociological ideals and the third is based on market economics. In an ideological analysis, I examine the ideological view of cultural policy within three cultural policy documents at the international, national and local level: UNESCO’s Public Library Manifesto (1994), Sweden’s cultural policy (1996/97) and Stockholm City’s strategic public library policy document. Åhléns’ sponsorship of “Room for Children” is used as a concrete basis for the discussion. The results of this study show that UNESCO’s Public Library Manifesto completely lacked reference to ideas related to market economics, while the local document contained the most ideas related to market economics of the three documents. The collaboration between “Room for Children” and Åhléns is characterised by ideas of market economics, while at the same time the venture has retained its sociological and humanistic ideals. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master’s study is to examine the function of the public library in the local community at present. I have searched for the answers to the following questions: Which position has the public library in the local cultural policy? What characterizes each library and which are the priorities? What is the local profile of the public library? What cooperation partners does the public library have and what do they mean to the library? Does the public library intensify the local community in any way? To answer this, I have made three qualitative case studies. Interviews and collection of documents were carried out in three different communities. The people interviewed are library chiefs and local politicians. As a theoretic base I have used an analysis model, originally developed by Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen. The analysis model is designed to categorize the functions of the public library in the local community as: a cultural centre, a knowledge centre, an information centre, and a social centre. The analytical findings illustrate that all three libraries examined are clearly visible in the local cultural policy. The findings also reveal that all three libraries possess all of the functions of the analysis model, although some differences were found. One of the libraries is more distinct in the function as a knowledge centre, another is more distinct in the function as a cultural centre, and a third is more distinct in the function as a social centre. The libraries examined have several cooperation partners in the local community. The reasons why cooperation is important is partly economical and partly that it makes the library more visible in the local community. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Early Swedish films from the 1910’s and 1920’s are not only an important part of Sweden’s cultural heritage, but also an important part of the international film heritage. This period is often refereed to as the golden age of Swedish film history. Despite this fact, the possibility to watch Swedish films from this period is very small and the main purpose of this thesis is to examine why the availability of these films has such low priority in the Swedish film policy and at the Swedish Film Institute. With the use of policy analysis, I study governmental policies and policies from the Swedish Film Institute for early Swedish films and seek to identify the policy problem and its different parts. The conclusion of the study is that there is a lack of clarified policies and financial resources concerning early Swedish films. One of the major parts of the policy problem is that more power is used to preserve rather than make the films available for a broader audience and that digitalization of these films has a low priority. The definition of the audience and for whom the films has to be made available is also deficient in the policies. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to describe and compare the debates regarding the public funded publishing company En bok för alla (EBFA). On two occasions, 1992 and 2007, the public funding was threatened, which lead to debates and protests. The funding was revoked in 2007. I want to examine if by studying a particular product of cultural policy, one can se tendencies to how the cultural policy in whole change over time. Using a discourse analysis I will be able to distinguish and analyze how the debates were designed, and which discursive formations one can discern in the debates. The study is based upon articles in newspapers and political documents. The analyze shows that the debate of 1992 focuses on legitimating EBFA with economical arguments. Almost all statements from the period are in favor of a continued funding. The debate of 2007 focuses on the changed book market and whether there was room for a public funded company. In 1992 there was hegemony in the debate, limiting what actors could say about EBFA. In 2007 this hegemony was starting to come apart, opening up for new ways to talk about cultural policy. In 1992 there were no struggles about defining important terms, which could be seen in the debate of 2007. The revoke of the public funding to EBFA can be seen as a neo liberal formation taking place in Swedish cultural policy. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This Bachelor's thesis examines and describes the ideas and ideological traits surrounding the public library within the governmental cultural policy. The Bachelor's thesis demonstrates how the public library – even though its relevance in the modern society has shifted over time – has maintained a connection to the governmental cultural policy and has therefore been shaped by the ideological changes in the political sphere as a whole. The main issues are: Which ideas concerning the public library's functions are expressed in the governmental cultural policy? Which ideological tendencies can be identified in the national cultural policy? Which ideas concerning the public library can be extracted through the found ideological tendencies? The method used in order to study the governmental bill is an ideology analysis based on a framework created by Dorte Skot-Hansen. The conceptual framework is used to represent three municipal cultural political rationales – the humanistic, the sociological and the instrumental – which in the ideal types are based on the ideological tendencies of the Scandinavian cultural policy during the latter half of the twentieth century. The analysis shows that the governmental cultural policy has maintained some of its traditional values but they seem to be inferior to the new economic liberal tendencies. However, within these results the expressed ideas regarding the public library deviates from the ideological tendencies and portray a traditional and enlightening institution instead of the expected market adjusted institution.