{"title":"Public libraries in a changing political landscape: results from a survey on political influence and pressure on public libraries in Southern Sweden","authors":"Fredrik Hanell, Joacim Hansson, Hanna Carlsson","doi":"10.47989/colis2216","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"When the definition of democracy and the meaning of a democratic society is renegotiated and reinterpreted, the mission of the public library is placed in a new context. This paper reports findings from an ongoing research project focused on library managers’ and librarians’ lived experiences of recent political developments in Sweden. Methodologically, the research project applies the perspective of institutional ethnography and combines a longitudinal survey study with interviews, focus-group interviews, and document studies. This paper reports findings from the first stage of a library manager survey. Results indicate that the interplay between libraries and the local political level is experienced as mostly well-functioning, although notable exceptions exist, and that the correspondence between national cultural- and library policies and politics of the participating municipalities is perceived as high. However, the Library Act paragraph, stipulating that particular attention should be devoted to national minorities and persons with a native language other than Swedish, causes notable opposition between local and national political levels. Illegitimate political pressure is uncommon, but when it occurs, it is often connected to issues pursued by radical right-wing parties. The study indicates a need to further investigate the intersection of (national) policies and (local) politics.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2216","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
When the definition of democracy and the meaning of a democratic society is renegotiated and reinterpreted, the mission of the public library is placed in a new context. This paper reports findings from an ongoing research project focused on library managers’ and librarians’ lived experiences of recent political developments in Sweden. Methodologically, the research project applies the perspective of institutional ethnography and combines a longitudinal survey study with interviews, focus-group interviews, and document studies. This paper reports findings from the first stage of a library manager survey. Results indicate that the interplay between libraries and the local political level is experienced as mostly well-functioning, although notable exceptions exist, and that the correspondence between national cultural- and library policies and politics of the participating municipalities is perceived as high. However, the Library Act paragraph, stipulating that particular attention should be devoted to national minorities and persons with a native language other than Swedish, causes notable opposition between local and national political levels. Illegitimate political pressure is uncommon, but when it occurs, it is often connected to issues pursued by radical right-wing parties. The study indicates a need to further investigate the intersection of (national) policies and (local) politics.
期刊介绍:
Information Research, is an open access, international, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, dedicated to making accessible the results of research across a wide range of information-related disciplines. It is published by the University of Borås, Sweden, with the financial support of an NOP-HS Scientific Journal Grant. It is edited by Professor T.D. Wilson, and is hosted, and given technical support, by Lund University Libraries, Sweden.