: As a consequence of modernity sociologists highlight rapid changes as a major characteristic of the present society. Within Library and Information Science, Archival Science and Museum Studies scholars also emphasize changes as a major characteristic of libraries, archives and museums (LAM). The aim of this paper is to analyze the changing relations between society and the LAMs. The theoretical framework for the analysis is on one hand concepts as social fields and autonomy coined by the deceased French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. On the other hand a history of welfare management developed by the Danish political scientist Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen. The article shows that the relation between society and the LAMs is paradoxical. This means that the LAMS have experienced the growing focus on users and performance indicators such as number of visits or loans as a decrease in their autonomy at the same time as they have been able to pursue new ways of fulfilling their purpose as well as finding new problems to which they themselves can be a solution