Den digitale offentligheten i kultur- og bibliotekpolitikken

Echo chambers, fake news, filter bubbles and algorithms have been framed as great threats to our contemporary democracies and public spheres. In the Nordic countries, the state plays an active role in sustaining democracy and the public sphere through culture- and knowledge policies. The Norwegian Government have over the last years presented a white paper on overall cultural policy and a library strategy document. Both documents address the effects of digital technology on democracy, and how culture institutions in general and libraries in particular can help sustain our democracies in changing times. In this article, we study these and preceding documents on culture- and library policies. We analyze how they address digital technology and how they see culture- and library policies as providing solutions to digital threats to democracy and the public sphere. Furthermore, we study what notion of democracy and the public sphere are prevalent in Norwegian cultural policies. The results show that the Government view culture as a remedy against a fragmented public sphere, and that libraries play a key role as providers of digital guidance and teaching

How to Regulate (and Not Regulate) Social Media

"To understand how to regulate social media, you have to understand why you want to regulate it. I will say something about specific regulatory proposals in the last part of this essay. But I want to spend most of my time discussing the why as much as the how. Here is the central idea: Social media companies are key institutions in the 21st century digital public sphere. A public sphere doesn’t work properly without trusted and trustworthy institutions guided by professional and public-regarding norms. The goal of regulating social media is to create incentives for social media companies to be responsible and trustworthy institutions that will help foster a healthy and vibrant digital public sphere. What is the public sphere? For purposes of this essay, we can say that the public sphere is the space in which people express opinions and exchange views that judge what is going on in society. Put another way, the public sphere is a set of social practices and institutions in which ideas and opinions circulate. The public sphere is obviously crucial to democracy. But most people’s opinions aren’t about government policy. They are about sports, culture, fashion, gossip, commerce, and so on. A public sphere is more than just people sitting around talking. It is shaped and governed, and made functional or dysfunctional, rich or poor, by institutions. Most of the institutions that constitute the public sphere are private. They sit between the public and the government. There are lots of examples in the pre-digital world: print and broadcast media, book clubs, spaces for assembly and conversation, sports stadiums, theaters, schools, universities, churches, libraries, archives, museums, and so on. A digital public sphere is a public sphere that is dominated by digital media and digital technologies. Digital media become the key institutions that either maintain or undermine the health of the public sphere.

De Biblioteca Erudita a Biblioteca Popular? As práticas de Leitura Pública na Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto (1833‑1926)

Reading practices in Porto became public with the decree dated July 9 by order of Pedro IV establishing the creation of the Public Library Municipal do Porto (BPMP). The ideals of the French Revolution appealed strongly to the values of education and instruction. The monarch understood well the new liberal spirit, and the need to invest in intellectual development through the promotion of education and literacy, which would have libraries as its main partners. The 1844 decree turned primary teaching mandatory and the popular classes came to have access to education, which provided them access to libraries and books, no longer a monopoly of the ruling classes. Until then, the city of Porto only had libraries connected to religious institutions, which were expropriated. Their libraries were later incorporated as public property. There were also some private reading cabinets with restricted access, according to their subscription system. The working classes had to wait until 1884 to see the emergence of "Night Reading" service in the BPMP. The Public Libraries Act was published by a monarchic Government in 1870. Then comes the first Portuguese legislation, consistent with the need to extend reading habits and, therefore, the diffusion of knowledge, to the working classes. In fact, 47 years after the foundation of the Municipal Public Library of Porto, it was believed that there was a place for the promotion of reading beyond a scholar readership and beyond the walls of the once ecclesiastic building of St. Lazaro. Furthermore, books should no longer be under the purview of a private institution, and should move to the public sphere, while trying to embody the Liberal ideals, thus antagonizing the Old Regime practice. This practice collapsed in most European nations, to try to assist politically, with or without glory, the consolidation of the romantic utopia which would frame almost all of the 19th century in Portugal and which would extend until the first two decades of the 20th

Bibliotek för alla? En studie om tillgänglighet och delaktighet i folkbiblioteksplaner

The Swedish Library Act states that “Library activities shall be available to everyone” and other policy documents in Sweden promote the public library as a place making information and culture accessible to all. The Library Acts of Denmark, Finland and Norway include similar statements, as well as the core values of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. However, the concept of accessibility is seldom defined or discussed. During recent years, the concept of participation is widely used in the context of accessibility in cultural policies, including policies related to public libraries. Even so, this concept also lacks a clear meaning. Accessibility and participation are closely related to democracy; by making information accessible and by enabling participation libraries are considered as promoters of democracy. Thus, when the meaning of accessibility and participation changes, the understanding of democracy is affected. In this article, I explore the meaning of the concepts accessibility and participation in Swedish library policies. Eleven library policies are analyzed utilizing Arnsteins “ladder of participation” and Fraser’s critique of Habermas notion of the public sphere. The article also discusses how the notion of democracy is affected by the different meanings accessibility and participation hold in the respective policies

Self-improvement, community improvement : North Carolina Sorosis and the women's club movement in Wilmington, North Carolina, 1895-1950

The Progressive Era ushered in a new importance for women’s associations with an increase in municipal housekeeping that centered on education, health, social services and other civic concerns. Prior to the Progressive Era, women’s clubs across America focused on the self-improvement of their members through the study of art, literature, and other cultural pastimes. North Carolina Sorosis was part of the nationwide emergence of women’s clubs during the Progressive Era. Organized womanhood provided a safe location to break down traditional roles of women and expanded women’s influence in the public sphere. The women’s club movement established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to improve society. Clubs provided them with the vehicle to enter the public sphere and to transform, define, and shape public policy. North Carolina Sorosis contributed to Wilmington’s social and cultural infrastructure by creating parks, museums, libraries, and schools. For the women of Sorosis, the club provided an opportunity to become a powerful source of change in Wilmington. Members developed political skills by working with city officials even before women gained the right to vote. Sorosis members also acquired leadership experience and developed financial skills by sponsoring fund-raisers and by creating and maintaining museums, libraries and other civic institutions. These changes in women’s clubs during the Progressive Era were exemplified with the clubhouse boom. The last chapter of this thesis focuses on the North Carolina Sorosis Clubhouse. The Sorosis clubhouse, like so many clubhouses across America, was established through the hard work, talent, and efficacy of women willing to undertake financial, managerial, organizational, and bureaucratic responsibilities on levels unprecedented prior to the Progressive Era. The women of Sorosis and thousands of clubwomen across the nation demonstrated, to themselves and to their communities, women’s potential at these tasks. The clubhouse was recognized across the nation as an expression of pride and power for clubwomen. To build, design, and purchase clubhouses represented the effort of women’s clubs to combine civic responsibilities with more traditional social roles. Clubwomen believed the city could become homelike and as domestic housekeepers they attempted to blur the lines between public and private space. This act enabled them to cross these lines and enter into the city’s public spaces. The very success of the clubwomen contributed to a decline in the power and influence of the clubwoman. Sorosis was no longer the driving force of change in Wilmington after World War II. Much of the work Sorosis had accomplished including the founding of the first free public library, establishing Greenfield Lake Park, organizing a night school for Delgado Mill Workers, sponsoring milk stations and baby clinics was turned over to the city for upkeep. With the professionalization of libraries, museums, social work, and other public institutions, the clubwomen lost their control and influence on the social and cultural growth and direction of Wilmington. As a result, North Carolina Sorosis reverted to once again functioning as a social club for women. Nevertheless, the institutions that Sorosis created remain central to the social and cultural vibrancy of present-day Wilmington

Digital technology and governance in transition: The case of the British Library

Comment on the organizational consequences of the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) is pervaded by a powerful imagery of disaggregation and a tendency for ?virtual? forms of production to be seen as synonymous with the ?end? of bureaucracy. This paper questions the underlying assumptions of the ?virtual organization?, highlighting the historically enduring, diversified character of the bureaucratic form. The paper then presents case study findings on the web-based access to information resources now being provided by the British Library (BL). The case study evidence produces two main findings. First, radically decentralised virtual forms of service delivery are heavily dependent on new forms of capacity-building and information aggregation. Second, digital technology is embedded in an inherently contested and contradictory context of institutional change. Current developments in the management and control of digital rights are consistent with the commodification of the public sphere. However, the evidence also suggests that scholarly access to information resources is being significantly influenced by the ?information society? objectives of the BL and other institutional players within the network of UK research libraries

Introduction: migrating heritage - experiences of cultural networks and cultural dialogue in Europe

No abstract available

Capitalism, Information and Democracy

Debate as regards the relation between democracy and information has been dominated by the concept of public sphere, one that has presupposed over recent decades state subsidy of information and communication resources. In contrast, this article reviews criticisms presented by pro-market analyses of inadequacies of state involvement. It proceeds to examine and engage their argument that capitalism is capable of meeting the informational needs of people when left to its own devices, especially in an era of new media developments. Capitalism can even be presented as an information system that is, in key respects, inherently democratic. The essay continues to address a further pro-market view, which suggests that concern for information in democracies is misplaced. This position contends that capitalism is crucial for liberal democracy, but that an information infrastructure - especially one subsidized by the state - is not vital for democracy's effective functioning. The policy advice of this position is unambiguous: keep the state out of information and communications domains

Changes in the system of organization and financing of culture in Poland in the years 2001-2008

This article will show the major reforms and changes in public administration system in Poland according to changes in the sphere of culture in the years 2001-2009 and the final form of the culture finance system. The reason of this time horizon is, that before year 2001 the data have been incomplete according to the spatial regional reforms in the local administration systems. I will try to show the effects of changes, such as how new administration and local governments use culture as a part of economic capital of the regions and cities, I will show changes in public expenditures for culture and new possibilities and plans of financing this sphere in Poland.Artykuł ukazuje główne reformy i zmiany jakie zaszły w systemie administracji publicznej, a zwłaszcza w sferze kultury w latach 2001-2009 oraz ostateczny kształt organizacji i finansowania kultury w Polsce. Powodem przyjęcia takiego horyzontu czasowego jest fakt, że przed rokiem 2001 dane mogły być niekompletne z powodu reform systemu administracji lokalnej. W artykule tym podjęta została próba ukazania efektów przeprowadzonych reform, analiza wydatków publicznych na kulturę oraz przedstawione nowe perspektywy i możliwości finansowania tej sfery w Polsce