This bachelor thesis explores the discussions and discourse in the media concerning the law proposal that makes Swedish public libraries able to temporarily ban patrons from entering the premises, if the patron causes disturbance or harasses library staff or other patrons.

To examine this, discourse analysis is used both as a theoretical and methodological framework. Theories from both Michael Foucault’s thoughts on discourse and power and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory is applied to study the empirical material, consisting of 36 articles both debate and editorial.

The analysis reveals three discourses, the conclusion drawn from the analysis is that there is no coherent view on the law proposal on banning patrons. And that the issue is complex when it comes to applying the ban in reality.