”Pengarna finns i systemet” : Digitalt bevarande i Sveriges nationella strategi för arbetet med digitalisering och elektroniskt bevarande av kulturarvet

Sammanfattning: The aim of this two year master thesis is to analyze how digital preservation is presented as a problem in the Swedish national strategy for the digitization and digital preservation of the Swedish cultural heritage. In order to study which assumptions about digital preservation exists within the strategy I apply the discourse oriented methodological tools presented by Carol Lee Bacchi, which focuses on discerning what problem or, rather, representation of a problem exists within a specific policy. This study is a post-structuralist discourse analysis. The main focus of the study is on what assumptions and prerequisites the dominating representation of the problem is based upon and how the representation has evolved. The main material of the study consists of public investigations conducted by the Swedish state, governmental propositions and replies as well as other public documents upon which Bacci's methodological tools are applied. Results show that digital preservation is primarily interpreted as a financial problem as the national strategy and its surrounding documents stress the need of cost-efficient solutions. The discourse of cost-efficiency is based upon instrumental political ideals, and results show that there is a specific kind of terminology within the documents which strengthens the dominance of this discourse. The consequence of the dominating representation of the problem as being of a financial kind marginalizes other vital aspects of digital preservation.