Social Justice Commons^™

Public Sphere Institutions Or Safe Spaces — Can Libraries Be Both?, Kira M. Del Mar

New Librarianship Symposia Series: Fall 2021

Public libraries have often been viewed as integral parts of the Habermasian public sphere and arenas for democratic dialogue. At the same time, they are also frequently declared safe spaces for marginalized groups, almost as a given. Situated in the specific context of Norwegian public libraries and with a focus on LGBTQIA+ users, I will examine tensions between these two theoretical approaches to the public library space.

Visibility across differences is a common thread running through the Nordic literature on libraries and the public sphere. Ragnar Audunson writes, for example, that libraries are low-intensive meeting places “with a potential of …