Local life and the public realm

Local life is impoverished without a healthy public realm, and vice versa. I argue that civil renewal may be meaningless without civic renewal. Civic institutions such as public libraries play a vital role in supporting and representing quality of life.

Key pieces of work

 

Common knowledge

An essay which I wrote in 2006 about the Havelock estate was published here by Proboscis in their Cultural snapshots series. The essay offers a snapshot of the physical conditions, low levels of social interaction, and civic absence that characterises the neighbourhood. It notes the sense of weakening community presence in the face of unresponsive environmental services and a looming drugs threat. It attempts to explain why participation in community initiatives is sometimes very difficult to establish or sustain, and it contrasts this reactive, fragmentary style of urban life with the contemporary image of lively urban consumption.

 

Public libraries and community cohesion

 

Secondly it argues that community cohesion is a legitimate central focus for library services. Where the public library can demonstrate a contribution to the quality of social relations in local communities it will recover its place as a recognised symbol of the public realm.

 Download the report here.

 

Additional material relating to public libraries

 

In 1998 I prepared a report for the British Library Research and Innovation Centre on 'community perceptions of the social benefits of public libraries. The report, which explained how libraries tend not to be associated with social roles, was called Open to interpretation.

 

I published an article about third places and public libraries in Public library journal, 18(2), 2003. A version is available here. 

 

A summary of a presentation about third places and public libraries, for the Third Place Forum in Queensland, June 2007, is available here.