BOI och litteratursociologi, En undersökning av litteratursociologiska uppsatser skrivna inom Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap 2005-2008.

Abstract

This study is a text analysis of 30 master’s theses, written by students at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science in Borås 2005-2008, concerning the subject sociology of literature. The aim is to twofold; to show how the subject sociology of literature manifests itself within these LIS theses and to produce discourse arguments concerning sociology of literature as an LIS subject. The theorists I refer to in my study are Thomas. S Kuhn, Frickel & Gross and Richard Whitley, who devoted themselves to the theory of science. Their theories are used to explain how and why a subject, in this case sociology of literature, develops and why it is important to be able to justify and define limits vis-à-vis other academic subjects. Since LIS is an interdisciplinary based subject, it is interesting to try to find out what purpose and field of application the subject sociology of literature in specific has within the LIS field. This study has found that there are some common denominators in the analyzed theses concerning perspective, empirical material, theory and method. For example, a number of the authors used a gender perspective in their theses. If you choose to believe the authors of these theses, sociology of literature within Library and Information Science is necessary in order to remember the deeper meaning in literature.