Kulturpolitik i samverkan : Om lokal variation och regional enhet

Ända sedan jag började engagera mig i detkulturpolitiska forskningsfältet för snart20 år sedan är det relationen mellankulturpolitik på olika politiska nivåer – denlokala, regionala, statliga respektive internationella– som intresserat mig mest. Hur samspelarkulturpolitik på olika nivåer med varandra ochvar ligger spänningar och rentav konflikter?Vilken eller vilka nivåer har makten över detkulturpolitiska tolkningsföreträdet, det vill sägaatt bestämma vad som är de rätta kulturpolitiskaprioriteringarna och den rätta kulturpolitiskaorganisationen

Open Access Scholarly Publishing on the Competitive Market: University Management as Obstacle and Enabler

This article explores the relation between university management and open access scholarly publishing in Sweden. Open access is generally promoted in Swedish national research policy, referring to internationally adopted recommendations on free access to knowledge by researchers and citizens alike. In principle, the conditions for universities to not only promote but also actively contribute to open access by hosting open access scholarly journals could therefore be deemed adequate. In reality, however, many universities choose to adapt only to external systems of assessment and disregard internal demands from the research community. Since hosting open access scholarly journals is not favored by existing external systems of assessment, university management that does not also act on internal demands from the research community runs the risk of becoming an obstacle rather than an enabler of open access scholarly publishing

Det lokala möter världen. Kulturpolitiskt förändringsarbete i 1990-talets Göteborg

This thesis aims at producing knowledge about a cultural policy (re)construction process in the City of Göteborg, Sweden. Cultural policy is understood as public interventions in the cultural field, with the term public referring mainly to the democratic political-administrative organisation. The reconstruction process is studied in the context of the general challenges that cultural policy has come to face as an integral part of welfare state policies in late-modern Western societies; in particular, the thesis looks into the ways in which Göteborg as a local cultural policy agent responds to these challenges. In this context, two major components of policymaking are brought into focus: the organization and the visions of Göteborg s cultural policy. The thesis explores how the two issues are brought under scrutiny, debated, and acted on by political and administrative agents at different levels of government but primarily within the municipal organization of the city itself. The empirical part of the study analyses arguments put forth by the different agents involved in this process, interpreting cultural policy statements collected from 117 public documents but also through 6 interviews with politicians and administrators in charge of cultural affairs in the city. In addition to providing a detailed account of the diverse arguments advanced, the thesis also considers relevant statements found in theoretical, research-based texts, variously addressing themselves to what is identified as central elements of cultural policy. A neo-pragmatist and discourse-oriented research approach is utilized in the examination of the cultural policy statements and in the analysis of their internal relations. Three different discourses are identified as distinct tools used by political and administrative agents implicated in the (re)construction of cultural policy: the quality discourse, the welfare discourse, and the alliance discourse. The agents involved make simultaneous use of these discourses, which, respectively, focus on (1) professional artistic excellence, (2) broadening of the participation in cultural activities, and (3) sustainable development. The study concludes that the policy process in the City of Göteborg emerges primarily as a reproduction of existing discourses that characterize the cultural policy field more broadly. At the same time, however, this reproduction takes place as a creative assimilation adapting these discourses to local conditions

The Geography of Cultural Policy : Regional Cultural Policy in Sweden

This paper presents a currently running research project, which aims at exploring potential geographical and discursive shifts in regional cultural policy in Sweden. The backdrop against which these shifts are understood is that of globalization processes, understood as parallel processes of internationalization and decentralization in political-administrative organization. Two regional experiments, Region Skåne and Region Västra Götaland, carried out since the 1990’s, constitute the comprehensive case studies of the project. Within both regions, two municipalities and two cultural activities have also been selected for the project. By analyzing strategic documents and by interviewing key agents in the cultural policy field in the two regions and four municipalities, the construction of regional identity is explored. In this process of construction, the relations between strategy and implementation, centre and periphery and formal and informal agents are highlighted

Det lokala möter världen : Kulturpolitiskt förändringsarbete i 1990-talets Göteborg

This thesis aims at producing knowledge about a cultural policy (re)construction process in the City of Göteborg, Sweden. Cultural policy is understood as public interventions in the cultural field, with the term public referring mainly to the democratic political-administrative organisation. The reconstruction process is studied in the context of the general challenges that cultural policy has come to face as an integral part of welfare state policies in late-modern Western societies; in particular, the thesis looks into the ways in which Göteborg as a local cultural policy agent responds to these challenges. In this context, two major components of policymaking are brought into focus: the organization and the visions of Göteborg s cultural policy. The thesis explores how the two issues are brought under scrutiny, debated, and acted on by political and administrative agents at different levels of government but primarily within the municipal organization of the city itself. The empirical part of the study analyses arguments put forth by the different agents involved in this process, interpreting cultural policy statements collected from 117 public documents but also through 6 interviews with politicians and administrators in charge of cultural affairs in the city. In addition to providing a detailed account of the diverse arguments advanced, the thesis also considers relevant statements found in theoretical, research-based texts, variously addressing themselves to what is identified as central elements of cultural policy. A neo-pragmatist and discourse-oriented research approach is utilized in the examination of the cultural policy statements and in the analysis of their internal relations. Three different discourses are identified as distinct tools used by political and administrative agents implicated in the (re)construction of cultural policy: the quality discourse, the welfare discourse, and the alliance discourse. The agents involved make simultaneous use of these discourses, which, respectively, focus on (1) professional artistic excellence, (2) broadening of the participation in cultural activities, and (3) sustainable development. The study concludes that the policy process in the City of Göteborg emerges primarily as a reproduction of existing discourses that characterize the cultural policy field more broadly. At the same time, however, this reproduction takes place as a creative assimilation adapting these discourses to local conditions

The Geography of Cultural Policy : Regional Cultural Policy in Sweden

This paper presents a currently running research project, which aims at exploring potential geographical and discursive shifts in regional cultural policy in Sweden. The backdrop against which these shifts are understood is that of globalization processes, understood as parallel processes of internationalization and decentralization in political-administrative organization. Two regional experiments, Region Skåne and Region Västra Götaland, carried out since the 1990’s, constitute the comprehensive case studies of the project. Within both regions, two municipalities and two cultural activities have also been selected for the project. By analyzing strategic documents and by interviewing key agents in the cultural policy field in the two regions and four municipalities, the construction of regional identity is explored. In this process of construction, the relations between strategy and implementation, centre and periphery and formal and informal agents are highlighted