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

Abstract

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.