In this paper, I try to describe the main aspects of the international academic institutionalisation of cultural policy research since the 1990s. My focus is primarily Nordic and anglophone, without ignoring contributions from other countries/continents or linguistic/cultural regions. The introduction of – and increasing emphasis on – ‘peer review’ characterises this academic institutionalisation process, in general and in our field of research in particular. Since the 1990s, cultural policy scholars have developed several peer review-based research journals and conferences. Universities and research institutes are also recruiting more Ph.D. students, researchers and/or teachers in this field of research through peer review selection than before. In this paper, I focus in particular on the creation of academic research journals and international conferences, without concealing that I have myself been an active agent in this same international academic institutionalisation process. My approach is historical/descriptive rather than sociological/analytic.

Denne artikkelen beskriver digital kulturpolitikk som en langsom og ambivalent utvikling av et politikkområde. Den undersøker hvordan norsk kulturpolitikk gradvis har blitt påvirket av digitalisering. Artikkelen sporer denne utviklingen over flere tiår, gjennom en nærlesning av sentrale politiske dokumenter. Formålet er å kaste lys over når og hvordan det digitale ble en del av kulturpolitikken, og gjennom hvilke ideer og tiltak. Jeg argumenterer for at digital kulturpolitikk har utviklet seg gradvis og sedimentært, men at utviklingen hele tiden har vært preget av en ambivalent holdning til den digitale revolusjonen. Digital kulturpolitikk beskrives avslutningsvis som et felt preget av hyperkonvergens, der ideer, politiske verktøy, teknologi og politikkområder i økende grad vikles sammen. Dette er også en utfordring for den kulturpolitiske forskningen.

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.