Perceptions of disturbing behaviours in Swedish public libraries 1968-1999 : The example of Biblioteksbladet

The aim of this thesis is to examine how disturbing behaviours in Swedish public libraries have been looked upon in the library journal Biblioteksbladet during the years 1968 and 1999. The empirical material consists of 37 articles published in Biblioteksbladet. The main questions posed in this study are: how have disturbing behaviours been discussed in the journal, what have been seen as disturbing, and what causes to the behaviour has been emphasised? Which discourses can be traced, and who have had the possibility to express their views? The theoretical and methodological framework is based on both Michel Foucault’s and Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theories. In addition to this Foucault’s theories of power as a form of social control is used. The analysis shows that three discourses have occurred during the period. During the 70’s a material discourse, focusing on materiel variables such as architecture and physicalform, had a hegemonic position. Contemporary with this, there also was a social discourse, focusing on social problems primarily among suburban adolescents as the origin of the problems. During the 80’s the discussion declined, and simultaneously a liberal discourse was formed. In the liberal discourse, disturbing behaviours were not seen as a problem, and during the 90’s the question of disturbing behaviours almost disappeared completely from the agenda