Cultural centres from around 2020 : Knowledge, meetings and growth in Askersund, Värnamo, Skellefteå and Karlskrona

Introduction. The purpose is to discuss values, expressed in the architecture and planning documents of four recent cultural centres in Sweden, and how these values influence the public libraries. Method. The method is a case study using content analysis of documents from all four cities and empirical findings from observations in Askersund and Värnamo. Analysis. The theoretical perspectives are based on the theories of fields and doxa by Pierre Bourdieu and the theory of space by David Harvey. Results. From around the year 2000 cultural centres were built increasingly with the aim to support creativity and place branding. Twenty years later that trend has been strengthened and cultural centres are being built as architectural portraits of cities, supporting tourism, innovation and economic growth. Town squares are symbols for meetings, markets and democracy. The names and physical appearance of Sjöängen, Gummifabriken, Sara kulturhus and Karls Krona represent local history and the architects have also expressed values about sustainability and functional estetics. The public libraries seem to benefit from being located within these new cultural centres as regards to lending statistics and programmes for the public. The mission for democracy, the principle of free entry and the intrinsic value of literature, however, must be preserved in today´s amusement park like style of cultural centres. This is a two year master’s thesis in Library and Information Science