The aim of this study is to explore local cultural policy documents in the municipality of Gothenburg Sweden, and, more specifically, to investigate the concepts of cultural planning and instrumental cultural policy. Cultural planning is in this thesis seen as a result of an instrumental view of cultural policy. The theoretical framework consists of the theories of Danish cultural policy researcher Dorte Skot-Hansen. She describes cultural policy in urban areas as founded in motives such as economy, social issues, entertaining and enlightenment. A qualitative text analysis is performed in order to see if the purpose of the cultural policies is to focus on cultural planning as formulated in the document Kulturpolitisk strategi – version 1.0, adopted by the city council in 1998. The chosen city district committees are Centrum, Högsbo, Härlanda, Backa, Askim and Bergsjön. The result indicates that cultural planning in these districts only partly states the goals set by the city council. The city district committee of Bergsjön is an exception. This shows a lack of co-operation between the city district committees and the city council concerning cultural policy. The study shows that the major motive of cultural policy in the city district committees is, following the labels provided by Skot-Hansen, the social motive. In addition to the emphasis the social motive puts on democracy, integration and participation, the study points to the health issue as an essential motive in the cultural policies.