”Det känns som att jag bara sitter och väntar på att det ska explodera” - politisk påverkan på de kommunala folkbibliotekens verksamhet i sex sydsvenska regioner.

Authors

  • Hanna Carlsson Department of Cultural Sciences, Linnaeus University, Sweden
  • Fredrik Hanell Department of Cultural Sciences, Linnaeus University, Sweden
  • Joacim Hansson Department of Cultural Sciences, Linnaeus University, Sweden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/njlis.v3i1.131852

Keywords:

Public Libraries, Democracy, Institutional Ethnography, Plural Agonistics, Library Policy, Political Pressure

Abstract

Public libraries are one of several institutions that uphold Swedish democracy. The representative liberal democratic model, expressed in the Library Act, is increasingly being questioned and challenged. Political actors, mainly from the radical right, advocate a democracy focused on the will of the people at the expense of the rights of individuals. With the notion of plural agonistics, public libraries can be seen as important arenas for debates and meetings between people, offering ways to handle conflicts within democratic institutions. Methodologically, this study employs the perspective of institutional ethnography, and the aim of this paper is to develop knowledge about public libraries’ experiences of political pressure and how this is enacted in a time of political turbulence. This paper reports findings from the first stage of a survey study directed at public library managers in 77 municipalities from the six southernmost regions of Sweden. Based on replies in these surveys, interviews were conducted with seven of the participating library managers. Findings show that the interplay between libraries and the local political level, and between national and local political levels, generally functions without notable opposition. Illegitimate political pressure is uncommon, but when it occurs, it is primarily triggered by issues connected to cultural diversity. Results further indicate that local public libraries tend to respond to illegitimate political pressure by development and use of professional policy documents, but also, in some cases, by avoiding certain activities.

References

Aabø, S., Audunson, R. & Vårheim, A. (2010). How do public libraries function as meeting places? Library & Information Science Research, 32(1), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2009.07.008

Audunson, R. (2005). The public library as a meeting-place in a multicultural and digital context: The necessity of low-intensive meeting-places. Journal of Documentation, 61(3), 429–44. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410510598562

Audunson, R., Aabø, S., Blomgren, R., Evjen, S., Jochumsen, H., Larsen, H., Rasmussen, C. H., Vårheim, A., Johnston, J. & Koizumi, M. (2019). Public libraries as an infrastructure for a sustainable public sphere: A comprehensive review of research. Journal of Documentation, 75(4), 773–790. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2018-0157

Audunson, R., Essmat, S. & Aabø, S. (2011). Public libraries: a meeting place for immigrant women? Library & Information Science Research, 33(3), 220–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2011.01.003

Buschman, J. (2003). Dismantling the public sphere: Situating and sustaining librarianship in the age of the new public philosophy. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.

Buschman, J. & Leckie, G.J. (2007). The library as place: History, community, and culture. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Campbell, M. & Gregor, F (2002) Mapping social relations: A primer in institutional ethnography. Toronto: Garamond.

Carlsson, H. & Rivano Eckerdal, J. (2018). Det osynliggjorda arbetet: konflikter och möjligheter för (folk)bibliotekariens kompetenser i en politiskt turbulent tid. I: J. Hansson and P. Wisselgren (Red.), Bibliotekarier i teori och praktik: utbildningsperspektiv på en unik profession. Lund: BTJ Förlag, 191–208.

DeVault, M.L. & McCoy, L. (2006). Institutional ethnography: Using interviews to investigate ruling relations. I: Smith, D. E. (Red.), Institutional Ethnography as Practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 15–44.

Elgenius, G. & Rydgren, J. (2019). Frames of nostalgia and belonging: The resurgence of ethno-nationalism in Sweden. European Societies, 21(4), 583–602. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2018.1494297

Engström, L. & Olsson Dahlquist. L. (2020). The will to activate library users and the making of citizens: How different rationalities influence the notion of participation in a library context. The Library Quarterly, 90(3), 314–331. https://doi.org/10.1086/708960

Engström, L. (2021). Bibliotek för alla? En studie om tillgänglighet och delaktighet i folkbiblioteksplaner. Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies, 2(2), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.7146/njlis.v2i2.127562

Hanell, F., Hansson, J. & Carlsson, H. (2022). Public libraries in a changing political landscape: Results from a survey on political influence and pressure on public libraries in Southern Sweden. [accepterat short paper]. Information Research / Conference proceedings CoLIS11, Oslo, 30 maj–1 juni, 2022.

Hansson, J. (2010a). Libraries and identity: The role of institutional self-image and identity in the emergence of new types of libraries. Oxford: Chandos.

Hansson, J. (2010b). Chantal Mouffe’s theory on agonistic pluralism and its relevance for Library and Information Science research. I: G. L. Leckie, L. M. Given & J. E. Buschman (Red.), Critical Theory for Library and Information Science: Exploring the Social from Across the Disciplines. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 249–257.

Hansson, J. (2011). Public libraries and the national minorities of Sweden – results of a national survey. New Library World, 112(9/10), 406–415. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074801111182003

Hansson, J. (2019). Folkbibliotek i glesbygd: kunskapsläge och erfarenheter. Stockholm: Kulturrådet.

Lindsköld, L. (2015). Contradicting cultural policy: A comparative study of the cultural policy of the Scandinavian radical right. Nordisk kulturpolitisk tidskrift, 18(1), 8–26. https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN2000-8325-2015-01-02

Michnik, K. (2018). Samhällets allt-i-allo? Om folkbibliotekens sociala legitimitet. Borås: Högskolan i Borås.

Mouffe, C. (1999). Deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism? Social Research, 66(3), 745–758. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971349

Mouffe, C. (2008). Om det politiska. Stockholm: Tankekraft förlag.

Mouffe, C. (2016). Agonistik: texter om att tänka världen politiskt. Stockholm: Atlas.

Mounk, Y. (2018). The people vs. democracy: Why our freedom is indanger and how to save it. Cambridge, MT: Harvard University Press.

Olsson Dahlquist, L. (2019). Folkbildning för delaktighet: en studie om bibliotekets demokratiska uppdrag i en digital samtid. Lund: Lunds universitet.

Pilerot, O. (2016). The ruling relation of evidence-based practice: the case of documentary governance in a social welfare service. Information Research, 21(1), paper703.

Pilerot, O. & Lindberg, J. (2018). ’Sen går jag hem när det stänger’: en studie av nyanländas biblioteksanvändning. Uppsala: Länsbibliotek Uppsala.

Rivano Eckerdal, J. (2017). Libraries, democracy, information literacy, and citizenship: An agonistic reading of central library and information studies’ concepts. Journal of Documentation, 73(5), 1010–1033. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-12-2016-0152

Rivano Eckerdal, J. (2018). Equipped for resistance: An agonistic conceptualization of the public library as a verb. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 69(12), 1405–1413. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24069

Rivano Eckerdal, J. & Carlsson, H. (2018). Styrdokumenten i vardagen: en undersökning av kulturpolitiska styrdokuments strategiska och praktiska betydelse för folkbibliotek i fem skånska kommuner. Lund: Lunds universitet.

Rydgren, J. & Van der Meiden, S. (2019). The radical right and the end of Swedish exceptionalism. European Political Science, 18(3), 439–455. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-018-0159-6

Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional ethnography: A sociology for the people. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press/Rowman & Littlefield.

Smith, D. E. (Red.) (2006a). Institutional Ethnography as Practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Smith, D. E. (2006b). Incorporating texts into ethnographic practice. I: Smith, D. E. (Red.), Institutional ethnography as practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 65–88.

Smith, D. E. (2006c). Introduction. I: Smith, D. E. (Red.), Institutional ethnography as practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1–11.

Torstensson, M. (2012). Framväxten av en statlig folkbibliotekspolitik i Sverige. I: A. Frenander and J. Lindberg (Red.), Styra eller stödja? Svensk folkbibliotekspolitik under hundra år. Borås: Högskolan i Borås, 89–134.

Vårheim, A. (2011). Gracious space: Library programming strategies towards immigrants as tools in the creation of social capital. Library & Information Science Research, 33(1), 12–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2010.04.005

Vårheim, A. (2014a). Trust in libraries and trust in most people: Social capital creation in the public library. The Library Quarterly, 84(3), 258–277. https://doi.org/10.1086/676487

Vårheim, A. (2014b). Trust and the role of the public library in the integration of refugees: The case of a Northern Norwegian city. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 46(1), 62–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000614523636

Vårheim, A., Skare, R. & Lenstra, N. (2019). Examining libraries as public sphere institutions: Mapping questions, methods, theories, findings, and research gaps. Library & Information Science Research, 41(2), 93–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2019.04.001

Widdersheim, M. & Koizumi, M. (2016). Conceptual modelling of the public sphere in public libraries. Journal of Documentation, 72(3), 591–610. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-06-2015-0079

Widdersheim, M., Koizumi, M. & Larsen, H. (2021). Cultural policy, the public sphere, and public libraries: a comparison of Norwegian, American, and Japanese models. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 27(3), 358–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2020.1751142

Downloads

Published

2022-06-16 — Updated on 2022-06-16

Versions

How to Cite

Carlsson, H., Hanell, F. ., & Hansson, J. (2022). ”Det känns som att jag bara sitter och väntar på att det ska explodera” - politisk påverkan på de kommunala folkbibliotekens verksamhet i sex sydsvenska regioner . Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies, 3(1), 26–43. https://doi.org/10.7146/njlis.v3i1.131852