This essay takes its empirical starting point in the cultural and library policy debate that took place right before the governmental election in Sweden, September 2006. The concern of the essay is two-folded. At first, we want to show how the appropriation of certain ideological and political concepts, in times of election, tends to organize the multiplicity of rationalities and subjects into binary relations. Such binary relation is often in Swedish cultural political climate defined as social-conservative versus neoliberal or conservative. As for the social-conservative formation, we connect the uses of concepts to an immanent idea of a national subject and historical coherence; whereas for the political right we connect the use of concepts to a wider neo-liberal turn in the Swedish political language. Secondly, in a political-philosophical reflection, we will argue that the contemporary decline of cultural policy discourse on the level of governmentality is not at all adequate. Rather, we observe tendencies that points to a more complex, web like, cultural policy that have taken it’s turn into other institutional positions, from where it can continue following a somewhat social-conservative agenda. However, we are convinced that the cultural policy debate, if it wants to remain vital, needs to discuss it’s meta-political, conceptual and form related issues, rather than keep dwelling on factual matters.

Freedom of the printed word is a defining feature of the modern world. Yet censorship and the suppression of literature never cease, and remain topical issues even in the most liberal of democracies. Today just as in the past, advances in media technology are followed by new regulatory mechanisms. Similarly, any attempt to control cultural expression inevitably spurs fresh discussions about freedom of speech.

In Forbidden Literature scholars from a variety of disciplines address censorship’s past and present, whether in liberal democracies or totalitarian regimes. Through in-depth case studies they trace a historical continuum in which literature reveals its two-sided nature: it demands both regulation and protection. The contributors investigate the logic of literary repression, particularly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and analyse why it is thought essential to control literature. Moreover, the authors determine how literary practices are shaped and transformed by regulation and censorship.

Boken innehåller sex nyskrivna eller tidigare publicerade uppsatser som på ett grundläggande sätt introducerar historieskrivning, begrepp och teorier som är nödvändiga för studier av den moderna kulturpolitiken.

Historically, literature policy measures in Sweden have fluctuated between emphasising the production or distribution of literature. During the latest decades, there has been a new direction when reading promotion and the perceived lack of readers in Sweden has become the main object of discussion in the debate. In this short paper, I describe the current state of literature policy in Sweden, with a brief historical background. Thereafter some recent tendencies of literature politics are introduced, to highlight consensus as well as contradictions between different stakeholders. It is concluded that even though the Swedish book market is deregulated in Sweden, the readers are increasingly governed. The “turn to promotion” during the latest decade needs to be assessed to instigate a relevant and grounded discussion of the future of literature policy.  

Syftet med studien är att synliggöra villkor för författares skönlitterära arbete i den sena välfärdsstatengenom en analys av författarfunktionen utifrån centrala frågor som de skandinaviska författarförbunden drivit 2008– 2015. Materialet består av förbundens verksamhetsberättelser. Min analys visar att förbundens syn på skönlitterärt arbete bör förstås utifrån den traditionella, moderna författarfunktionen. Det skönlitterära arbetet betraktas som ett hantverk, varför förbundens primära ambition formuleras i termer av att säkerhetsställa författarnas ersättning och yttrandefrihet. Viktigt är dock även att säkerställa läsare – en idé som i sin tur kan knytas till den välfärdsbaserade kulturpolitiken och dess mål att sprida kvalitativ kultur till folket. Här kan vissa nationella skillnader observeras. De danska förbunden är kritiska till bibliotekens arbetssätt, medan man i Norge och Sverige föreställer sig ett läsfrämjande arbete baserat just på samarbeten med bibliotek och folkbildningsrörelser.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the conceptions of aesthetic quality used in Swedish literature policy through a study of the discourse of the state support to new, Swedish fiction 1975-2009. This support scheme is a quality-based retrospective grant, introduced in 1975, aiming to guarantee the quality and versatility of book publishing. It is explored as an expression of cultural policy in a welfare policy setting, where the autonomy of the arts is a central concept. The quality of the book is the foremost criterion for the award of support and quality assessment is carried out by a work group consisting of authors, critics, librarians and researchers. The empirical part of the study analyses arguments concerning state support forwarded in the debate from political documents, articles in newspapers and trade press, debate books and also in six interviews with former members of the workgroups from the 1970s and the 2000s. A discourse policy analysis is used to examine the discourse of the support, how it is legitimized and the conceptions of aesthetic quality embedded in the discourse. The results show that for stakeholders state support is highly legitimate. The support is discursively connected to welfare politics and democracy, even though it is aimed at artifacts, not citizens. It is legitimized as being a support to book production, not for mediating literature. There has been a shift in the conception of quality, from being identified in a negative sense to a positive sense. A professional concept of quality as a driving force is used by the workgroup. The shift towards explicating quality can be seen as a way of protecting the concept of quality in a time where it is perceived as being under threat. The use of quality as the foremost criterion can be seen as resistance against shifts in cultural policy that are perceived as adaptations to market values or politicization. The results render visible the political aspects of the concept of quality in state support.

Culture is a central concept for the Nordic radical right parties, but little research has been done on the cultural policy of the parties. This article is a comparative overview of the party programs of four Nordic radical right parties during the latest decade. It relates the cultural policies of the radical right to the predominantly welfare-based corporatist cultural policy of the Nordic countries. Through a discursive policy analysis two problem representations are found: That multiculturalism is seen as a threat against national culture and that public funding is seen as a threat against freedom. The parties share a common understanding of cultural policy, with minor differences. There is an underlying conflict in the discourse: While the parties argue that the political governance of art needs to be limited, they are, at the same time, deeply involved in how cultural expressions and cultural life should be defined.

Culture is a central concept for the Scandinavian radical right parties, but little research has been done on the cultural policy of these parties. This article is a comparative overview of the party programs of three Scandinavian radical right parties published during the latest decade. It relates the cultural policies of the radical right to the predominantly welfare-based corporatist cultural policy of the Scandinavian countries. Through a discursive policy analysis two problem representations have been identified: The view of multiculturalism as a threat to national culture and the view that public funding is a threat to freedom. The parties share a common understanding of cultural policy, with minor differences. There is an underlying conflict in the discourse: While the parties argue that the political governance of art needs to be limited, they are, at the same time, deeply involved in how cultural expressions and cultural life should be defined. By shedding light on the radical right cultural policy agenda it may be possible to politicize the cultural policy discourse overall and acknowledge the ideological dimension of cultural policy.

The paper studies what demands stakeholders put on Swedish literature policy during a (perceived) book market crisis. This is done by a discourse analysis of the debates on the crisis made in newspapers and specialized press during 1975-1989. The results show that there are two opposing positions in the discourse: those who want more and those who want less government intervention on the book market. For the first position the state aid to fiction is seen as a guarantee for a qualitative and diverse book market. The latter position however sees the state aid as a threat because it undermines the free market. A moral view on the publishing occupation is visible in where publishers who don’t take “responsibility” are seen as a cause of the book market crisis. Morality is used to protect literature from market values, but to focus on moral delegitimizes the autonomy of the art.

The aim of this paper is to trace the conceptual history of diversity in Swedish cultural policy. Earlier research on diversity in Swedish cultural policy has mainly been devoted to the period 1995-2009, which were mainly based on ethnic understandings of diversity. A longer perspective makes it possible to follow a cultural policy in transition. Cultural policy is conceptualised as a practice that reinforces certain values in a nation. Three overlapping understandings are found: Diversity as variation (from 1972), ethnic diversity (from 1995) and as an umbrella-concept (from 2007) including different social categories. The results reveal two problem areas embedded in the diversity discourse, one which concerns the auditing and evaluation of diversity and the other which concerns cultural struggle and the value making of cultural policy.

The aim of this chapter is to trace the conceptual history of diversity in Swedish cultural policy. Earlier research on diversity in cultural policy has mainly been devoted to ethnic understandings of the concept from 1995 and onwards. A longer perspective makes it possible to follow a cultural policy in transition. Cultural policy is conceptualised as a practice that reinforces certain values in a nation. The material consists of cultural policy documents published during the time period. Three overlapping understandings are found: diversity as variation (from 1972), ethnic diversity (from 1995) and an umbrella-concept (from 2007) including different social categories. The results reveal that the understanding of the concept has changed from being anti-commercialism to including private actors and 240 freedom of choice to achieve diversity. Another change has been a shift in focus from groups to individuals. Diversity may be seen as an outside goal, and a result of immigration policy and discrimination laws and not coming from inside the cultural field. However, it is mostly perceived as a positive concept, used to legitimate a cultural policy in liberal, heterogenic societies since the market cannot guarantee diversity by itself. A risk is that the concept will become too vague when it is used for many different aspects of cultural policy.

Purpose – The aim of the study is to create knowledge on how Google and Google search are discursively constructed as a political subject suitable or not suitable for governing in the debate regarding the Right to be Forgotten ruling (RTBF).

Design/Methodology/Approach – 28 texts are analysed using a Foucauldian discourse analysis focusing on political problematisations in the media and in blogs.

Findings – Google is conceptualised as a commercial company, a neutral facilitator of the world and as a judge of character. The discourse makes visible Google’s power over knowledge production. The individual being searched is constructed as a political object that is either guilty or innocent, invoking morality as a part of the policy. The ruling is framed as giving individuals power over companies, but the power still lies within Google’s technical framework.

Originality/value – The ruling opens up an empirical possibility to critically examine Google. The value of the study is the combination of focus on Google as a political subject and the individual being searched to understand how Google is constructed in the discourse.

Genusperspektiv har varit frånvarande i den kulturpolitiska forskningen, föreliggande paper vill ändra på detta genom att samla texter om svensk kulturpolitik och genus inom tre olika kulturområden: litteratur, teater och museum. Den teoretiska ramen tar sin utgångspunkt i en problematisering av den estetik som utvecklades av framför allt Immanuel Kant i slutet av 1700-talet. Kant utvecklade tanken att konst bör uppfattas som skild från samhället och bedömd på egna grunder med ett eget värde. FD Kristina Fjelkestam kritiserar Kants estetikdiskurs ur ett genusperspektiv, det hon vill visa är att estetiska begrepp, och värderingar om vad som är god eller kvalitativ konst, inte är oskyldiga eller apolitiska utan är med och formar politiken och vice versa. Syftet med papret är att genom en komparativ studie visa exempel på hur ett genusperspektiv har använts samt vad som är gemensamt och vad som skiljer sig åt i genusarbetet mellan de olika områdena relaterat till hur kvalitet diskuteras. I litteraturexemplet studeras recensioner av Maja Lundgrens Myggor och tigrar (2007) och Lars Noréns En dramatikers dagbok (2008). I exemplet om teater så redogörs bland annat för SOU 2006:42 Plats på scen och det sista exemplet om museum så utgår från Ds 2003:61 Genus på museer. Resultaten visar bland annat att konst som handlar om män upplevs som allmängiltig, medan konst som handlar om kvinnor upplevs som specifik och därför sämre. Det finns en klar bild inom kulturområdena om vad kvalitet och konst är eller bör vara som sedan krockar med så kallade ”perspektiv” som jämställdhet, på så sätt positioneras kvalitet och jämställdhet mot varandra. De skillnader mellan kulturområdena som funnits beror till viss del på utgångspositionerna för de texter som studerats, men det går att urskilja att kroppen (rätten till personlig integritet) är i fokus i teaterexemplet tillsammans med organisatoriska frågor. På museet är det forskning och vidareutbildning som prioriteras för att öka jämställdhet. Inom litteraturen, som inte är platsbunden som de övriga exemplen, så är det upplevelsen av texten som är i fokus, det vill säga att det upplevs som att män skriver mer kvalitativt och än kvinnor, även om de skriver på samma sätt. Avslutningsvis noteras att det finns ett intresse för frågor om genus och kulturpolitik, men det saknas ordentliga teoretiska forskningsarbeten.

Läsandet ska rädda män, barn och invandrare och kultivera människor till moderna, demokratiska medborgare. Aldrig har det satsats så mycket som nu – men under ytan bubblar motsättningarna. Forskaren Linnéa Lindsköld drar upp konfliktlinjerna inför toppmötet i Göteborg.

Den flerfaldigt prisbelönade Simon Hanselmanns kommer i mars med sitt andra seriealbum på svenska, ”Inkörsporten” (Bad gateway), utgivet på Lystring förlag. Han verkar i en tradition av alternativt serieskapande, där människans mörkare sidor utforskas på ett konstnärligt och humoristiskt vis, skriver kulturskribenten Linnéa Lindsköld

Denna komparativa studie av debatterna om förlaget En bok för alla 1992 och 2007 granskar förändring i svensk litteraturpolitik under de senaste 20 åren. Förlaget startades 1976 och fick statligt bidrag för att ge ut kvalitetslitteratur till lågt pris, vid två tillfällen hotades bidragen att dras in och debatter bröt ut. Med diskursanalytisk metod undersöks hur debattörerna formulerar sig om förlaget och hur litteraturpolitiken beskrivs. Resultatet visar att det rådde en hegemoni i debatten 1992, år 2007 är den uppluckrad och det råder en kamp om att få definiera nyckelbegrepp som läsfrämjande och kommersiell. År 2007 märks det en konflikt mellan värdeargument där kvalitativ skönlitteratur alltid bör stödjas och marknadsekonomiska värdeargument där marknaden ses som kapabel att uppfylla delar av litteraturpolitiken utan statens inblandning. Detta kan tolkas som att det pågår en teknokratisering av den svenska litteraturpolitiken.

Vem står på scen och vem sitter i publiken? Vem skapar och vem står modell? Är det en slump att majoriteten av alla teaterregissörer i Sverige är män samtidigt som majoriteten i teaterpubliken är kvinnor? Och vad beror det på att kvinnor läser fler böcker än män? Att kultursfären är könssegregerad, det vill säga att män och kvinnor dominerar inom olika områden, går lätt att urskilja genom statistisk över könsfördelningen i olika yrken. Svårare är att svara på frågan om varför det är så. En början till ett svar är att det i samhället finns olika förväntningar på vad män och kvinnor bör göra, hur de bör uppträda, vad de bör arbeta med och göra på sin fritid. Detta är inga uttalade regler utan normer och historiska och kulturella förväntningar som utvecklats under flera hundra år. Ojämställdhet mellan könen är knappast unik för kulturvärlden, överallt i samhället finns det stereotypa och traditionella syner på vad män och kvinnor förväntas vara och vilja göra. Samhället och konst/ kultur påverkar och påverkas av varandra. Därför är det intressant att se vad som tas upp och vad som inte tas upp i konsten, vad som blir populärt och vad som blir ett fiasko. För det handlar om makt, makten att bestämma vad som är bra eller dålig konst, makten att bestämma vem eller vad som ska framställas. Kultur beskrivs ofta som en fri och obunden kraft, men det är viktigt att ifrågasätta ett sådant påstående. En som gjort det är förre kulturministern Leif Pagrotsky som skrev: Som nybliven kulturminister blev jag förvånad över att scenkonstområdet låg så långt efter när det gäller jämställdhet och har en sådan övervikt av manliga chefer. Kulturen har för mig alltid varit en plats för nyskapande och föregångstänkande. (SOU 2006:42, s. 15)

Through the allocation of funding Swedish literature policy aims to guarantee quality and diversity by supporting broad and versatile book publishing. By using the WPR-approach, a methodology based on critical discourse analysis created by Carol Bacchi, it is possible to explore ways in which the “problems” that underlie the construction and legitimization of state support to new, Swedish fiction are represented. The analysis reveals that quality and “good books” are key concepts in the literature policy, always used but seldom defined. Fiction is treated as something that everyone should read, but there is a qualitative difference between “good” fiction and “trivial” fiction. Quality is considered to be a neutral concept even though it contains normative/traditional views, for example, on gender. Support is appreciated by both politicians and publishing companies and it is seen as apolitical even though it comes from the state and is based on the notion of quality.

This study aims to identify and analyse how aesthetic reading was problematised in Swedish educational policy 1940- 1962, in order to create a better understanding of the politics of reading in an era that has been of great importance for how reading is understood in contemporary Sweden. The empirical material consists of reports from three school commissions, laying the foundation for the new compulsory and comprehensive school that was introduced in 1962. The reports have been analysed using a discursive methodological framework, focussing on problematisations of aesthetic reading. The main problem that aesthetic reading was meant to solve, according to the analysis, was a lack of aesthetic taste. There is a shift in emphasis during the period from problematisations of what to read towards problematisations of how to read. Thus, the solution to the problem of aesthetic reading during the period transformed from a governing of taste to a governing of skills. Educational and cultural policy shares the problematisation of aesthetic upbringing, made possible by its roots in modernist ideas of general character formation and the ideals of free public education. We argue that research on the politics of reading in Sweden can be reinvigorated by exploring the governance of cultural practices emanating from policy fields other than explicit cultural policy

This paper analyses significant changes in the political rationality underpinning Sweden’s official reading policy between the 1940s and 1980s. Using official inquiry reports as empirical material and drawing on a discourse analytical method, we examine policy changes regarding ideal readers (what reading should result in) and administrative practices (what policy actions could be used) and the kinds of academic knowledge that was used to justify specific measures. It is found that official reading policy ceased to be limited to distributing literature and expanded to include active reading promotion. The replacement of sociological perspectives by cognitive viewpoints as constituting knowledge is also noted. It is concluded that changes in the political rationality had consequences for how the individual reader was construed, from a subject with the potential to change society to a subject who had to adjust to society. We argue that the cultivation of readers evident in reading policy constitutes a specific technique of governance not sufficiently considered in previous cultural policy research.

Sverige har en lång och unik tradition av såväl explicit som implicit styrning av läsning i hemmen. Under 1900-talet har läsning fungerat som ett politiskt verktyg för att försöka fostra svenska medborgare att bli moderna, bildade och demokratiska. Denna typ av styrning av läsning i hemmen har dock inte tidigare undersökts eller problematiserats. Under våren 2023 startar vi ett forskningsprojekt, finansierat av Riksbankens jubileumsfond, med syftet att studera hur läsning i hemmet har formats i det svenska välfärdssamhället.

I projektet kommer vi att analysera läsinstruktioner, det vill säga texter som ger instruktioner och råd för hur läsning i hemmen bäst ska gå till. En stor mängd sådana texter har publicerats av forskare, intellektuella, författare och kritiker, samt professionella grupper som t.ex. lärare och bibliotekarier. Det rör sig om vitt skilda texttyper såsom exempelvis tidskriftsartiklar, böcker, förord, annonser och broschyrer. I projektet analyseras läsinstruktioner från tre tidsperioder: välfärdssamhällets begynnelse ca 1930–1940-talen, det fullt utbyggda välfärdssamhället ca 1960–1970-talen, samt det förändrade välfärdssamhället ca 2000–2010-talen. Texterna kommer att analyseras med fokus på hur läsare i hemmen beskrivs, vilken typ av litteratur och genrer som beskrivs som bra eller mindre bra, vilken typ av vetenskaplig kunskap som underbygger argument, samt vilka konsekvenser formandet av ideal läsning i hemmet kan få för människors liv.

En utmaning för projektet är hur en rimlig materialinsamling ska genomföras. På symposiet kommer vi att presentera och diskutera en modell för hur materialet ska samlas in, inklusive vilka avgränsningar vi behöver göra.

This study contributes to a growing number of critical studies of reading that are seeking to understand how reading is constructed socially and politically. It addresses issues concerning why certain types of reading are deemed more appropriate than others in various contexts and historical eras. The aim of the study is to explore constructions of reading, reading promotion, and readers that can be identified in Swedish literature policy 2012-2013 in order to make explicit the implicit assumptions embedded in the politics of reading. This is achieved through a discourse analysis of the Swedish Government Commission report on Literature from 2012 and the subsequent Government Bill from 2013. The analysis focuses on the construction of the ‘problem’ that reading is supposed to solve, the subject-position of the reader, and the knowledge practices that underpin the construction of the ‘problem’. The analysis reveals that the main ‘problem’ is the changing reading habits of the Swedish population and the decline in the reading ability of Swedish children and youth. This is seen as a threat to several important societal values, such as children’s learning and development, democracy, “the culture of reading”, Sweden’s economic competitiveness, and the market for literature. Responsibility for the problem is placed on the school system, parents, and the use of computers and the Internet. The remedy is seen as the promotion of the right kind of literature. Furthermore, the analysis illustrates how the subject position of the appropriate reader is formed around the notion of the harmful non-reader. Similar dividing practices are constructed around youth/adult, pupil/teacher, child/parent, and son/father where the latter is expected to make the former a reader and thereby a desirable subject. The analysis also shows how two contradictory knowledge practices are joined together in the policy texts, where seemingly rational, objective, and empirical research is paired with humanistic Bildung values.

The following paper will present the key outcome of the research anthology project Forbidden Literature – Case Studies on Censorship, slated for publication in 2019. Through a number of case studies dealing with censorship’s past and present, in liberal democracies as well as in totalitarian regimes, the project reveals an historical continuum in which literature constantly appears as a phenomenon in need of regulation. Short reports of two case studies will be presented, exploring decisive aspects of the relationship between literature and society, the social and aesthetic function of literature and their transformations. The first case study deals with forms of literary analysis taking place in the courtroom, exemplified by an obscenity trial against a Swedish avant-garde comic magazine in 1989. The second study analyses cases in which Swedish city libraries have refused to acquire, or provide clients with, certain non-fiction works –highlighting an increasingly common conflict between public cultural policies and constitutional principles such as the freedom of speech. Together, the two studies show how the historical mode of visibility of literary texts is formed and transformed along with our understanding of what literature is and what it is able to do.

In this short paper we focus on the civilising mission of literature and libraries in Scandinavia. “The civilising mission” is generally acknowledged as one of the main underlying logics of cultural policies (Bennett 1995). In Scandinavia, this mission is connected to the tradition of bildung (bildning/dannelse) (Harding 2015; Hylland & Bjurström 2018), and public libraries and literature are essential tools for bildung. When libraries were established in the beginning of the 20th century in Scandinavia it was with the aim of cultivating citizens to be active participants in a democratic society. In the 1960s and 1970s several policy actions on literature were instigated in Denmark and Sweden with the aim of guaranteeing the production and distribution of quality literature, with the more or less implicit goal to civilise citizens and the very explicit goal of including literature production in the welfare state (Lindsköld 2013; Mai 2013).

Today, the welfare state has transformed in both countries, changing the grounds for legitimacy of literature and library policies.However, cultural policies in the Nordic countries have been described as stagnated (Frenander 2014) and sedimented (Henningsen 2015), rather than transformed. Even so, the rationale of the civilising mission seems to be used in different ways. Studies show how the transforming potential of the arts are highlighted in Norway compared to more instrumental cultural policies in countries such as Great Britain (Bjørnsen 2012). The Bildung tradition today is connected to cognitive and intellectual capacities (Røyseng 2021), as well as to cultural heritage and unmeasurable values (Lindsköld & Hedemark forthcoming).How the concept of the civilising mission and its related terms such as cultivation, fostering, enlightenment, education and transformation is used as a goal for cultural policy need to be systematically analysed in order to investigate where and how cultural policies are sedimented or transforming.

This short paper is part of a larger project where we aim to investigate how policy aims related to public libraries and literature have developed up until today in Sweden and Denmark. Our hypothesis is that the civilising mission is alive and well in Sweden, whereas it is no longer predominant as a goal for Danish literature and library policies. Such a comparison has not been undertaken before. The aim of this short paper is to develop an operationalisation of the concept of the civilising mission, in order to develop a framework for systematic analysis of the hypothesis stated above. This will be done through a literature review of research on cultural policy and public education

The paper explores problematisations of reading in current Swedish literature policy through a discourse analysis of the Swedish Government Commission report on Literature from 2012 and the following Government bill from 2013. The analysis focuses on problematisations of the reading citizen and the knowledge practices that have made these problematisations possible. A central problematisation is the declining reading literacy of children and youth, threatening children's learning and development; democracy; "the culture of reading"; Sweden's economic competitiveness; and the market for Swedish literature. This problematisation produce dividing practices around problematic non-readers and themore desirable readers. Other dividing practices can be identified around youth/adult, pupil/teacher, child/parent, and son/father where the latter should educate the former about the virtues of reading. Underpinning these problematisations are knowledge practices where instrumental policy actions, based on seemingly rational, objective, and empirical research is paired with humanistic building values.

I detta projekt har vi analyserat inspelade svensklektioner från slutet av 1960-talet med fokus på hur läsundervisningen organiserades. Resultaten visar att faktaorienterad informationsläsning gavs stort utrymme vid denna tid. Möjligheterna att försjunka i skönlitteratur var däremot få. Idag ses faktaorienterad läsning ofta som problematisk och som en ny företeelse som hänger samman med teknikutvecklingen. Vårt projekt visar att denna typ av läsning är en del av en längre tradition.

Introduction. This paper introduces an emerging area of research, critical studies of reading, that has been identified and developed by the authors. 

Approach. Seven features of critical studies of reading research are introduced and the paper argues for how this type of research can shed new light on historical and current reading practices and reading activities. Examples of studies with such features within library and information science, as well as neighbouring disciplines are presented.

Conclusions. Future directions for critical studies of reading research are outlined, highlighting the possibilities, as well as the challenges for this emerging area of research.