The Swedish Community School of Art – Municipal Responsibility and National Corncern? : A qualitative analysis of national and local cultural policy discussions and decisions in relation to the community school of art

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the conditions for the Swedish community school of art is affected by how it is organized and by political discussions and decisions on a national as well as on a local level. Additionally, how this affects children’s accessibility to the school. A qualitative content analysis of political documents was implemented through a mixture of Dorte Skot-Hansen’s model and Per Mangset’s definitions of cultural political rationalities, with the aim to both distinguish different rationalities used for giving the community school of art legitimacy, as well as discern possible tensions between economical, administrative and creative cultural political rationalities. The results show that there are various opinions about whether or not there should be a national strategy for support of the community school of art. Furthermore, that municipals have differences and similarities between their community schools of art. In conclusion, these different opinions and local variations in conditions affect the school’s accessibility to children