Myten om det mångkulturella samhället. En diskursanalys av mångfaldsrelaterade begrepp och etnicitet i svensk kulturpolitik

Abstract

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine the discourses of concepts related to diversity and ethnicity in Swedish cultural policy. It focuses on how the society is presented in different contexts and how people with a different ethnic origin than the majority, are represented in the cultural policy of the Swedish State. The study is restricted to concern immigrants. Six governmental cultural policy documents, reaching over a time period of eight years 1995-2003 are examined as follows: Which key terms are used in the presentations? Which contexts and discourses can be distinguished? Have the discourses changed over the time period examined, and if so, how? The theoretical starting point in the thesis is the discourse perspective of Laclau and Mouffe. By using some of their instruments to help construct discourses, I start off by interpreting the multicultural society as a myth. A conclusion made in this study is that the documents display problems with denominations of the society as well as the people in it. By giving these ambiguous concepts specific meaning in different discourses alternative interpretations are excluded, which in turn influences the way we think and act.