Cultural sponsorship at public libraries : an ideology-analysis of cultural policy document

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to study various views of sponsorship in relation to public libraries as found within three cultural policy documents. The main objective is to discover which ideas are considered relevant in the partnership between the Swedish retail chain, Åhléns, and the children’s public library, “Room for Children” (Rum för Barn). In 2005, Åhléns provided SEK3.14 million in sponsorship to “Room for Children” at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. This funding enabled the library to realise its concept of a library particularly adapted for children. The theoretical starting point for this thesis is based on cultural policy researcher Dorte Skot Hansen’s model of the changes in cultural policy occurring since the 1960s. The model consists of three different ways of discussing cultural policy. The first is based on humanistic ideals, the second on sociological ideals and the third is based on market economics. In an ideological analysis, I examine the ideological view of cultural policy within three cultural policy documents at the international, national and local level: UNESCO’s Public Library Manifesto (1994), Sweden’s cultural policy (1996/97) and Stockholm City’s strategic public library policy document. Åhléns’ sponsorship of “Room for Children” is used as a concrete basis for the discussion. The results of this study show that UNESCO’s Public Library Manifesto completely lacked reference to ideas related to market economics, while the local document contained the most ideas related to market economics of the three documents. The collaboration between “Room for Children” and Åhléns is characterised by ideas of market economics, while at the same time the venture has retained its sociological and humanistic ideals.Uppsatsnivå: