Re-Mapping the Public

Newman, Janet

doi:10.1080/09502380701470916

Cited by 23 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A common representation positions the public library as benefiting the community as a whole, contributing to democracy and the development and maintenance of a 'free society' (Barniskis 2016) or 'the public' (Newman 2007). Hedemark, Hedman, & Sundin (2005) found that Swedish public library journals designate users as an overarching target group (e.g., the public, everybody), reflecting a politically correct idea of the public library as a forum for general education in a democratic society.…”

Section: Discourses Of Delinquency Shape Representations Of Young Adumentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do You Solve a Problem like the Whole User? The Construction of Worthy and Problematic Users in Online Discussions of the Public Library

McKenzie

2019

Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How do you solve a problem like the whole user? The construction of worthy and problematic users in online discussions of the public library In this article I use a discursive approach and the concept of the 'category entitlement' to analyse the ways that contributors to a public Internet discussion of the value of the public library make cases for different user characteristics and behaviour as 'worthy' or 'problematic', and use these characteristics to discuss and debate the kinds of individuals and the kinds of behaviour that properly belong to each category. Contributors to the discussion represented users in three categories: a fluid 'everyone', which included people represented as being disadvantaged and in legitimate need of the library's resources, expertise, and support; the user information , whose worthy variant takes advantage of the library's offerings to achieve success in economic, cultural, and civic domains and whose problematic variant fails to do so; and the visceral user who may meet bodily needs or engage in pleasurable non-purposive activities and who is deemed worthy or problematic based on their behaviour in the library space. Despite public libraries' growing emphasis on serving the whole user, these public comments prioritise users who exercise their mind to develop into worthy members of a community and who meet behavioural expectations consistent with quiet intellectual activity.

show abstract

Section: Discourses Of Delinquency Shape Representations Of Young Adumentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do You Solve a Problem like the Whole User? The Construction of Worthy and Problematic Users in Online Discussions of the Public Library

McKenzie

2019

Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This criticism was based on two main factors: First, these institutions provided limited times of access (in the case of schools); and second, they reinforced existing power structures within communities and were, therefore, not truly public realms open to all. Newman (2007) refuted this criticism, arguing that the public library can be considered one of the last truly public realms, and this has been an intrinsic value of libraries since the 19th century (Cubitt 2006;Quinn and McCallum 2011).…”

Section: *Digital Hub Located In a Librarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Public libraries provide access to information across diverse demographics and cultures (Russell and Jie Huang 2009). Newman (2007), in her account of British public libraries as public realms, states that the library 'promoted an image of free and open society' in its provision of 'access to common public culture' and 'opportunities for self education' (p. 892). Strover et al (2004) established that locations that had other social or entertainment value to attract people were the most successful CTCs, because people work best in a dynamic social environment with activity and life.…”

Section: *Digital Hub Located In a Librarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The establishment of digital hubs within public libraries acknowledges specific key characteristics of libraries that will become of increasing significance to local governments moving forward: they represent the public realm (Newman 2007); they are perceived as 'third places' or social places of community connection (Aabø and Audunson 2012;Buschman and Leckie 2007;Oldenburg 1989); they are a building block of local community (Chowdhury, Poulter and McMenemy 2006); they are perceived as places of lifelong learning (Bilandzic 2013;Jehlik 2004) and leisure (Hayes and Morris 2005); and they are, for many, a point of connection with knowledge through a wide variety of media (Jehlik 2004). The melding of social and work environments in the digital age could see the reinvention of working spaces.…”

Section: *Digital Hub Located In a Librarymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The local library across the digital and physical city: Opportunities for economic development

Houghton

Foth

Miller

2014

CJLG

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper considers the role of the public library as a community hub, engagement space, and entrepreneurial incubator in the context of the city, city governance, and local government planning. It considers this role from the perspective of library experts and their future visions for libraries in a networked knowledge economy. Public libraries (often operated by or on behalf of local governments) potentially play a pivotal role for local governments in positioning communities within the global digital network. Fourteen qualitative interviews with library experts informed the study which investigates how the relationship between digital technology and the physical library space can potentially support the community to develop innovative, collaborative environments for transitioning to a digital future. The study found that libraries can capitalise on their position as community hubs for two purposes: first, to build vibrant community networks and forge economic links across urban localities; and second, to cross the digital divide and act as places of innovation and lifelong learning. Libraries provide a specific combination of community and technology spaces and have significant tangible connection points in the digital age. The paper further discusses the potential benefits for libraries in using ICT networks and infrastructure, such as the National Broadband Network in Australia. These networks could facilitate greater use of library assets and community knowledge, which, in turn, could assist knowledge economies and regional prosperity.

show abstract

“…The new publics invoked in strategies of 'responsibilisation' are forged not only through technologies of governance, but by the resistance and alternative imaginings of service users (Newman 2007;Newman & Clarke 2009). The intention of this paper is to analyse the processes through which service users influence or amend the regulatory discourses that accompany public service reform and that appear, in their intersectionality, to dominate the direction of debate on the future of the welfare state (Crenshaw 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Putting our mark on things’: The identity work of user participation in public services

Bradley

2013

Critical Social Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

New relationships between service users and the welfare state have emerged as a result of governmental strategies of public service reform in which participation has appeared as the cure for a putative welfare dependency. A new public has been invoked in technologies of governance which have conflated responsible citizenship with participation in the marketplace and have aimed to change the behaviour of welfare service users accordingly. This paper investigates the ability of welfare service users to resist, or amend, the disciplinary intentions of these discourses, to constitute 'counter-publics', and to formulate their own visions of public services.Drawing on research with English social housing tenants engaged in participation with their quasi-public landlords, and applying a theoretical framework based on the work of feminist and queer theorist Judith Butler, the paper explores the behavioural effects of participation on tenants and evidences their use of consumerist and communitarian discourses to construct alternative perceptions of a 'public', and reimagine their relationship with public services.

show abstract

Re-Mapping the Public

Cited by 23 publications

References 15 publications

How Do You Solve a Problem like the Whole User? The Construction of Worthy and Problematic Users in Online Discussions of the Public Library

How Do You Solve a Problem like the Whole User? The Construction of Worthy and Problematic Users in Online Discussions of the Public Library

The local library across the digital and physical city: Opportunities for economic development

‘Putting our mark on things’: The identity work of user participation in public services

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About