You wouldn't steal a car : A critical discourse analysis of the debate surrounding shadow libraries and academic piracy

This thesis aims to explore the discourse surrounding shadow libraries and academic piracy within Swedish media between 2019 and 2025. By employing Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study examines how language and discursive practices reproduce or go against normative perceptions of illicit sharing of academic material, and the broader ideological struggles over intellectual property. Through the analysis of six selected texts, the thesis attemts to identify dominant narratives and discursive patterns that construct the legitimacy, ethics, and socio-political implications of shadow libraries such as Sci-Hub and Library Genesis. The texts are analyzed in relation to three conceptual regimes (property, commons, and sharing) to illustrate how different actors frame the tension between open access and proprietary academic publishing. The findings suggest that discursive practices reflect deeper conflicts within the academic publishing system and are shaped by the dynamics of cognitive capitalism, indicating a paradigmatic shift in how knowledge is produced, accessed, and controlled in the digital era.