The cultural sector has become an important part of the ‘new economy’ and has affected artistic practices as well as the road to becoming an artist. By discussing two female students’ paths to aesthetic education, the article sheds light on some of the sociopolitical and economic conditions that students in transition between elementary and upper secondary school in Sweden encounter when entering aesthetic education with musical aspirations. The results give insight into the ways in which young people reason when entering a precarious sector that demands a high amount of personal investment and planning. It also shows the ways in which social class still plays a pivotal role in the choice of and reflection on educational goals. Further, the article discusses how creative desires can transcend the economic instrumental expectations that surround the world in which the students live. Thus, it provides a contemporary understanding of how young people navigate a world of profitability.

In this essay I will argue that as peer-to-peer (p2p)-based file-sharing increasingly becomes the norm for media acquisition among the general Internet public, entities such as The Pirate Bay and associated quasi-institutional entities such as Piratbyrån, Zeropaid, TorrentFreak, etc. have begun to appear less as a reactive force (i.e. ‘breaking the rules’) and more as a proactive one (‘setting the rules’). In providing platforms for sharing and for voicing dissent towards the established entertainment industry, the increasing autonomy gained by these piratical actors becomes more akin to the concept of ‘positive liberty’ than to a purely ‘negative,’ reactive one.1 Rather than complain about the conservatism of established forms of distribution they simply create new, alternative ones. Entities such as The Pirate Bay can thus be said to have effectively had the ‘upper hand’ in the conflict over the future of copyright and digital distribution. They increasingly set the terms with regard to establishing not only technical protocols for distribution but also codes of behaviour and discursive norms. The entertainment industry is then forced to react to these terms. In this sense, the likes of The Pirate Bay become – in the language of French philosopher Michel de Certeau (1984) – strategic rather than tactical. With this, however, comes the added problem of becoming exposed by their opponents as visible perpetrators of particular acts. The strategic sovereignty of sites such as The Pirate Bay makes them appear to be the reason for the wider change in media distribution, not just an incidental side-effect of it.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to better understand the world-view of cultural consumers who download and share copyrighted content for free.

Design/methodology/approach – By utilizing a critical discourse analysis of the arguments given by file-sharers in online forums and in interviews, focusing on the arguments which arise for justifying certain everyday uses, and contrasting these with their material and structural conditions, a critical approach is sought, inquiring on the validity of certain tropes. Particularity was achieved by making a geographically delimited case study.

Findings – The case study helps to conceptualize online sociality, with wider application than this geographical setting only. As BitTorrent technology makes every downloader share his/her files while downloading, file-sharing is found to accommodate individual opportunism, and a world-view that puts the consumer at the centre of agency, in turn reinforcing the civic idea of cultural access and diversity as a human right.

Research limitations/implications – Previous findings have correlated heavy file-sharing with heavy consumption of culture. However, given the greater ability of previewing material and of acquiring more obscure content, how have the habits and consumption patterns changed among media consumers who routinely file-share? More detailed studies are needed, on how individual users come to question their own role, and the impact of their own actions – and what the level of awareness actually is (in different geographical/demographic settings) of the conditions for cultural production, distribution and consumption. A range of potential new research areas and scenarios is listed.

Practical implications – Given the common constituents seen in the world-views of file-sharers, this civic approach to intellectual property could prompt professional producers, distributors, rights holders and regulators to consider the actual visibility of potential impacts of file-sharing. The civic approach suggests that file-sharers can reconcile with individual authors or artists, as long as these are found to have precarious economic conditions, and not be affiliated with an industrial mode of reasoning. Cultural producers that are seen to adhere to a civic (amateur- or fan-like) mode of reasoning – rather than an industrial (professional) one – are met with more sympathy among consumers.

Originality/value – The paper is of interest for media sociology, cultural studies, and policymaking within the cultural industries.

If it is possible to speak of a coherent file-­sharing movement in Sweden, what are the principal societal factors shaping it? This paper contextualises the recent history of Swedish peer­-to-­peer­-based file­sharing as forming part of a wider shift in politics towards a late-modern collective ethic. Everyday file-­sharers operate as ‘occasional activists’, as pirate institutions not only speak for, but also run and build the networks. Such institutions ­ The Pirate Bay, Piratbyrån, and The Pirate Party ­ cannot be explained by invoking market logics, online communitarianism, or political motivation alone. The cyberliberties activism animating these hubs is connected to the larger framework of balancing utilitarianism, nationalism, individual autonomy and collectivism in Sweden. Further, the emergent Swedish file­-sharing justificatory regime hinges on a general view of what the internet is, what it is good for, and how it should look in the future, as the file-­sharer argumentation rests on the inevitability of unrestricted file exchange on the internet, while the industrialist concerns of the cultural industries emphasize instead how exchange should be regulated and sanctioned by accountable providers.

This article conceptually outlines P2P-based file-sharing as a totality, a mass utility, and a backdrop to everyday cultural life. It elaborates on a recent study of Swedish file-sharers to sketch some important constituents of what would constitute a "piracy culture." It shows that the actual file-sharer argumentation is not fully synonymous with established notions of "piracy" but rather reveals the complexity of the phenomenon and how the discourse invoking it relies on modes of justification that are not entirely commensurable. Moreover, the file-sharer rhetoric is contingent on a range of entities and infrastructures that condition actual usage. Noting the institutionalized, semi-anonymous, and depersonalized elements to file-sharing, I propose a different interpretation than regarding it as a "gift economy" like the tight-knit communities Mauss described in 1923. Instead, I propose a metaphor borrowed from Titmuss' example of blood donors that acknowledges the perceived "need" for culture and the associated "right" to access content that file-sharers are exercising.

En bok om fildelningens teknik, politik, juridik och moral. Hur ska vi förhålla oss till vår nya digitala verklighet?

Förstår vi kraften i Internet bäst genom en uppsättning av illasinnade repressiva förkortningar (Ipred, FRA, Acta) eller genom en förutsättningslös politisk diskussion kring vilket slags lagstiftning som ska gälla för den digitala domänen? De svenska riksdagspartiernas växlande syn på fildelning och upphovsrätt har under de senaste åren flankerats av nya, och mer radikala sätt att betrakta frågan.

Boken för ett resonemang om vår nya digitala verklighet. Ett antal skribenter nalkas ämnet från olika utgångspunkter och ger en bred bild av vad som är annorlunda i vår tid; efter Pirate Bay. Redaktörer är Jonas Andersson och Pelle Snickars.

The purpose of this chapter is to make some general conclusions from recently conducted fieldwork on one of the world’s most comprehen- sive, but also selective, communities for film swapping; I have chosen to omit the name of this community out of concern for its members. Specialist torrent sites like these are unregulated in that they are not sanctioned by the copyright industry – yet, internally, they remain highly regulated. The chapter provides an overview and a discussion of these sites, and the way these are integrated in a wider economy of film circulation, user agency, knowledge and affects. In theorizing my findings, I mainly draw on theories of culture and sociality outlined by Pierre Bourdieu. 

This book summarizes the role that The Pirate Bay has played during the last decade, but also connects the history of this infamous site with the emergence of legal services such as Spotify. The book also serves as an up-to-date summary of various strands of research on file sharing—particularly, user motivation and justification.

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It is apparent that file sharing on the Internet has become an emerging norm of media consumption—especially among young people. This book provides a critical perspective on this phenomenon, exploring issues related to file sharing, downloading, peer-to-peer networks, "piracy," and (not least) policy issues regarding these practices. Andersson Schwartz critically engages with the justificatory discourses of the actual file-sharers, taking Sweden as a geographic focus. By focusing on the example of Sweden—home to both The Pirate Bay and Spotify—he provides a unique insight into a mentality that drives both innovation and deviance and accommodates sharing in both its unadulterated and its compliant, business-friendly forms.

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Online file sharing does not only entail music files but movies, software, and e-books alike. The phenomenon has been an integral part of online life for more than a decade. From my own and other researchers' findings it is apparent that unregulated file sharing is an emergent norm—if not even a new condition to media consumption—especially among young people. In countries like the US, the UK, Sweden, and South Korea, access to high-speed broadband is commonplace; both file sharers who I have interviewed and those who speak out in online forums hold that file sharing is as natural an element online as trees would be in the forest. This original and thought-provoking book critically summarizes debates on this topic, on a level which is approachable to undergraduates, yet useful for postgraduates and senior scholars as well. The book is based on a novel approach that fuses close-range, micro observations of user behavior and reasoning with macro perspectives of political economy and infrastructural features of digitization. Through exploring the reflexive management of the self, found among media audiences, insights into more innovative modes of management in the media industries are elicited. Through merging an ontological inquiry (popularized by theorists such as Bruno Latour) with an economics of complexity and networks (popularized by theorists like Manuel Castells) new insights into both online sociality, media anthropology, and modes of accumulation can be sought. The continuity between Spotify and illegal file sharing is explored through a critical account that examines the discourses of both file sharers and industry stalwarts. Tendencies towards "information idealism" and "networked accumulation" are scrutinized; they are found to be endemic among actors striving to extract value from online, granular dissemination. In the first place, the book would suit undergraduates on courses in media and communications—especially undergrad courses in new media, and the sociology of the Internet. The book can be seen as a critical introduction, a historical overview, as well as a case study of file-sharing—explaining the infrastructures, the particular modes of media use involved; ultimately, sketching out a political economy of unregulated file-sharing, based on the current historical record, listing some observed economic repercussions, alongside potential future ones. A major secondary market would be postgraduate students, Ph.D. students, researchers, and lecturers. The great appeal with this book is that it would be of interest to several groups within academia. It would appeal both to scholars of my own subject, media and communications (especially, the history and sociology of new, digital media)—but it would appeal also to scholars of science and technology studies (STS), since the topic raises numerous interesting questions about the nature of technology, the complexity of agency and morality, while simultaneously offering a "case study," and thus some specificity in an otherwise broad, slippery subject.

This roundtable discussion draws together researchers with an interest of overcoming purely juridical treatment of piracy in their work. Christopher Kelty and Gabriella Coleman consider the aspects of cyberculture, which conflictually engage with intellectual property rights, through various communities of technology practice, including hackers. Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi’s work on fair use addresses the growing opportunities for creators in the United States to utilize the tradition in their creative fields. Jonas Andersson Schwarz and Patrick Burkart, co-editors of this special issue, have researched user motivations and political activism around copyright and software patent reforms, partially explaining the emergence of dozens of European Pirate Parties, beginning with the Swedish Pirates in 2006.

By employing a mix between qualitative and quantitative methods, we explored the ways in which file sharers themselves conceive of the future of “piracy.” A content analysis of a selection of open answers from the Research Bay study (a global file sharing survey conducted in collaboration with file-sharing site The Pirate Bay in April, 2011, with more than 75,000 respondents) revealed significant differences between active uploaders and the much larger group of respondents who regularly download files but never upload. Tropes of “community” were not particularly abundant in this corpus. The biggest singular tropes were those of unstoppability/technical resilience (“File-sharing won’t be stopped”); convenience/availability/supply; skepticism/hostility towards governmental intrusion; and—surprisingly—the trope that file sharing will eventually be integrated with the market. This latter trope was particularly common among the non-uploaders (representing the majority of Pirate Bay users) compared to the dedicated uploaders. The non-uploaders also appeared to be more disposed towards a generic belief in the progress, evolution, and a potential convergence/assimilation of technology.

Taking Sweden as a case study, the role of public service broadcasting (PSB) is explored, with a focus on issues of data retention and innovation that accompany web distribution. The issue of predicting audience preferences by means of data retention is investigated, and the related problem of organizational autonomy when interacting with commercial actors in the digital sphere. We hypothesize that previous tendencies towards paternalism might be equally supplemented by tendencies towards so-called “panspectric” surveillance and tracking, given a technological environment where such practices are increasingly common. We argue that the absence of advertising partially helps keep these broadcasters from panspectric temptation. Still, practices such as Facebook integration entail a panspectric element. We ask whether the potential increase in the efficacy of targeting audiences promised by panspectric practices might be offset by its negative impact on civic accountability. Is there a possibility for a “benign,” democratically accountable panspectrocism?

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the socio-cultural impacts that tourists and locals in Mallorca are experiencing. We want to study the locals’ and tourists' perceptions and impact they have on each other. Qualitative interviews have been conducted for this thesis, in which two different interview forms were used. One interview form was used to interview locals and another for tourists, and a total of 11 people were interviewed. The study is based on theories that includes socio-cultural impacts, cultural shock, Doxey's irridex model and codes of conduct.

The result of this study is that both locals and tourists had in general positive perceptions of the socio-cultural effects. The positive effects they experienced was cultural- and knowledge exchange, create networks with tourists from around the world and to have multicultural meetings. It was only locals who felt the negative socio-cultural effects of tourism, and these effects were that tourists litter the streets, drinks a lot of alcohol, creates high noise levels and that tourism affects the traditions and local language.

The digital representation of our past has long been an important tool in the interpretation of cultural heritage in museums. The recent rise in the use of Augmented Reality (AR) has seen various approaches to adding dynamic information to existent artefacts. The challenge is even greater when uncertainty further complexifies the represented history. This paper presents a critical analysis of an AR installation in the Sacra Infermeria museum in Valletta, Malta. After a description of the AR configuration of the installation, we present a thematic analysis carried out from a multidisciplinary focus group of 11 researchers in the field of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN), from three perspectives: the technological implementation of the AR experience, the historical accuracy, gamification and the influence of social media-centred design, and the representation of the complexity arising from the uncertainty of history. In the light of the results of the multidisciplinary focus group, we provide a list of recommendations and heuristics at the end of the article. 

This study examines the Swedish media portrayal of hip hop by analyzing articles from three of Sweden's country's largest newspapers, Aftonbladet, Expressen, and Svenska Dagbladet. The study explores how hip hop is presented in these newspapers and investigates the factors that may have been influenced. This is a quantitative study and is based on 200 hip hop related articles from the newspapers. The results from the study have been analyzed with reference to previous research on the subject, both from Sweden and internationally. The analysis is based on the theories intersectionality theory, framing, and the agenda-setting theory. These theories interact to a deeper understanding of how hip hop is portrayed and contextualized in Swedish media. The result of the study shows that power structures related to socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and gender have been influential in how hip hop culture has been addressed by the media over time, and which markers have contributed to shaping the portrayal and representation of hip hop throughout the years in the media.

The aim of this study is to perform a rhetorical analysis of how motherhood is used as a shared platform for rhetorical agency to discuss the deadly violence that occurs in the urban periphery. The object of study is the theater play Mammorna; a drama that is based on interviews with women of a low socio-economic status that lost their sons to violence. Using a close-reading method, this study seeks to investigate how motherhood is used to create rhetorical agency, as well as how the deadly violence in the urban periphery is articulated in the play. Furthermore, this bachelor thesis discusses the complex relation between the narrative created in Mammorna and the story of real-life people, to understand how the play effects the agency of women living in areas that are exposed to criminality and violence. The theory of this work is based on Campbell’s definition of agency as the capacity to act in a way that will be recognized or heeded by others, in addition to Entman’s framing analysis and Alcoff’s perspective on the problem with speaking for others. The conclusion made is that motherhood could be a useful platform to form a shared identity between women of different race and class to stand together against violence – no matter where it occurs. 

The purpose of this essay is to look at how museums design their activities as tourist destinations through the dissemination of history. In order to research this problem we have posed the following questions: How do museums act in order to animate and interpret history? What does the future hold for the museums? In order to find the answers to these questions we have made a deep-going analysis of the activities of four museums, Nordiska Museet, Etnografiska Museet, Historiska Museet and Naturhistoriska Museet. These museums have been analyzed by means of interviews, observations and the study of documents. Our theoretical perspective is informed by a hermeneutic perspective as well as Foucault´s definition of museums as institutions, and the concept of storytelling. Our conclusions are as follows: Museums have progressed from an Enlightenment ideal to a more post-modern approach, which means that they want to activate the visitors and make them reflect and form their own opinion by presenting different versions of the past that will stimulate imagination. Our belief is that this trend will continue and the museums will become even more oriented towards creative tourism at the same time as they will protect their position as vehicles and creators of knowledge and guardians of the Swedish cultural heritage. Unfortunately a growing centralization of the field is working in the direction of limiting the range of offers and restricting the museums´ potential to offer different versions of the past.