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The purpose of the paper is to produce new knowledge about the positions that public libraries both take and are given in the conflicts over politics and identity that play out in contemporary cultural and library policy debates. Using conflicts over drag story hour at public libraries as case, the study seeks to contribute to an emerging body of research that delves into the challenges that public libraries as promoters of democracy are confronting in the conflictual political landscape of today.

The paper presents an analysis of debates reported in news articles concerning Drag story hour events held at Swedish public libraries. Utilizing the analytical lenses of discourse theory and plural agonistics, the analysis serves to make visible the lines of conflicts drawn in these debates – particularly focusing on the intersection of different meanings ascribed to the notion of the reading child, and how fear is constructed and used as an othering devise in these conflicts.

Different imaginings of the reading child and the construction and imagination of fear and safety shapes the Drag story hour debates. The controversies can be understood as a challenge to the previous hegemony regarding the direction and goals of Swedish cultural and library policy and the pluralistic democratic society these policies are meant to promote.

The paper offers new insights into the consequences of the revival of radical right politics, populism and societal polarization, and the different responses from public libraries.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of deviant workplace behavior on digital transformation in the public sector. This contributes to the current literature on public sector digital transformation as well as to that of deviant workplace behavior in public sector contexts.

The authors conduct a qualitative case study of a digital transformation initiative in a Swedish municipality.

The authors identify three types of institutional drift related to digital transformation, i.e. decelerating digital transformation, maintaining infrastructural stability and accelerating digital transformation. The authors categorize mediators for said drift and theorize on the role of deviant workplace behavior as a strategic driver for digital transformation in public sector organizations.

With the study being a qualitative case study, it is limited in terms of generalizability and transferability. Through this study, the authors sensitize the notion of digital transformation and show how deviant behavior results in strategic polyphony. Future studies are informed through offering a new perspective to public sector digital transformation strategy.

Practice should view deviant workplace behavior as simultaneously constructive and destructive in lieu of planned digital transformation, as well as see its presence as a potential sign of subpar prerequisites for digital transformation in the public sector.

Through this study, deviant workplace behavior is highlighted as a source of strategic polyphony and hence an important aspect of public sector digital transformation strategy.

Through being the first paper, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to apply the theory of institutional drift to digital transformation settings as well as identifying the impact of deviant workplace behavior on digital transformation, the study offers novel insights.