The Emergence And Decline of the Swedish Manga Industry : A Study on the conditions of a Micro Subsidiary in a Global Macro Publishing Context

Abstract: This case study, through ten interviews with a variety of people working with or around theSwedish manga publishing industry, attempts to catalog the rise, decline and lasting effects of theindustrial boom of Japanese manga literature published in Sweden between the years 2000 and2017. The study explores relationship between subsidiary and mother company, as well as to fill inthe blanks of the research field as it pertains specifically to Sweden’s manga scene. The study usesthe theory of the culture industry by Adorno and Horkheimer (1944), together with Herbert Gans(1974) distinction between high and low culture to study this field. Theoretically the study alsooperates on the basis of the conditions that the globalized world awards these two aspects (Lechnerand Boli, 2008).The paper concludes that a mix between industry related issues, such as an over-saturation of themarket and failure to adapt to the global flow of cultural commerce is to blame for the decline. Thistogether with aspects of a cultural nature, such as an underlying disdain for manga as both only for,while at the same time harmful for children proved to be enough to almost entirely kill off mangapublishing in the country over the years studied.