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Historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008

Innehåll (Contents) 2008:2

Uppsatser (Articles)

Varför inrätta kulturnämnd? Lokal kulturpolitik i två kommuner

Anne-Li Lindgren

Fulltext (pdf)

Summary

Why establish a local government committee of culture? Cultural policy in two municipalities.

Since the 1970s most Swedish municipalities have created committees of culture. The present article investigates negotiations over cultural policy and conditions of cultural life when local government committees of culture were established in the cities of Linköping and Norrköping. The committees were equipped with different powers in the two cities and the decision to establish a committee of culture took a few years in Linköping but close to fourteen years in Nor- rköping.

The establishment of cultural committees was part of the national cultural policy in Sweden and local governments responded differently to the issue. Vari- ations in the responsibilities given to cultural committees in different cities had consequences for the future. The local government in Linköping created a com- mittee with limited powers and thus helped build a national cultural policy from below. In Norrköping there was strong and lengthy opposition to the national policy. Thus the investigation shows that there existed both local acquiescence and strong opposition to the national cultural policy. The question of centraliza- tion versus decentralization was given different meaning depending on the actors’ position in the political system.

The study shows that in contrast to the national policy cultural institutions did not always gain from the local cultural policy. In the political rhetoric, the institu- tions were described as too traditional and as impediments to change. Local ac- tors who early on worked to establish committees of culture could later on assume new positions and carry through the issue. Compared to the earlier report the question became more politicised. The Social Democrats strove to establish committees of culture whereas the other parties registered their reservations. In Norrköping, the site of a drawn-out and ideologically charged confl ict, the ques- tion of the role of institutions in the city’s cultural life became polarized. Further- more, there was disagreement between the staff and the direction when the direc- tion fi nally agreed to become part of a committee of culture. In retrospect, there is reason to criticize the handling of local cultural policy because it drove apart local actors rather than bring them together.

Keywords

cultural policy, citizen participation, devolution, co-operation