The purpose of the essay has been to examine representations of immigrants in contemporary library and information science research in a Scandinavian context. By analyzing nine articles from the past decade we examine the perceptions that exist in the concepts of multiculturalism, culture, race, ethnicity, religion, gender and whiteness and what role and importance the library as a place is assigned in relation to immigrants as a user group. Our study consists of a qualitative text analysis, a critical oriented close reading method based on critical race and whiteness studies and intersectional theory. We have, with the help of Sara Ahmed´s theories of hegemonic whiteness, demonstrated how multiculturalism is partly presented as something desirable and good, partly as something potentially threatening. The discourse of multiculturalism can be said to express the notions of the other, which in the source material manifests itself by ascribing otherness to immigrants. We have, for example, examined how ethnical and cultural differences are highlighted by a separation of East and West, the library’s educational and assisting role in relation to immigrants as a user group as well as representations of whiteness, gender and clothes. In the analysis we point to a number of complex and paradoxical representations of multiculturalism and immigrants in earlier studies of the public library. With this study we wish to encourage further user studies to nuance these representations. The study is a two-year Master’s thesis in Library and Information Science written at Uppsala University.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-253737 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Axelsson, Maria, Jansson, Petra |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Uppsatser inom biblioteks- & informationsvetenskap, 1650-4267 ; 669 |
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