Re-Mapping the Public

Abstract This paper traces the changing political/cultural formations of publicness in Britain, and how these intersect with emerging strategies for governing the social. It draws on three sets of discursive oppositions or elisions – those of public/community; community/bureaucracy; and public/social – to trace successive struggles over the fortunes of a public institution that, I argue, stands as an icon of the public sphere – the public library service. The account illuminates how notions of publics and publicness have been made and remade, expanded and residualized, by state professionals in Britain over the last 50 years as they struggled with the incursions of 'new' publics as well as seeking to mediate the impact of the Thatcher years and Blair governments. But rather than reading the decline of the public library service in Britain as just another example of neo-liberal governance, the paper argues for an approach that pays attention to the specificity of institutional histories and to the organizational and occupational forces that produce and mediate cultural change. Keywords: public sphereliberalismcommunitymulticulturalismpublic librariessocial investment stateprofessions Notes 1. In contrast one history of the early American library draws on accounts of the library leaders and offers a dynamic concept of agency in which librarians are viewed as 'Apostles of Culture' (Garrison 2003 Garrison, D. 2003. Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society 1987–1920, Ma, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. Google Scholar). 2. For example the official history of the British public library movement from 1914–2000 published by the British Library has very little to say about social change and is silent on questions of social diversity and multiculturalism (Black 2000 Black, A. 2000. The Public Library in Britain, 1914–2000, London: The British Library. Google Scholar). 3. These individuals were collectively and individually influential in the development of new services from the early 1970s onwards. Each subsequently became a leading figure in the public library movement and/or in public service reform (as academics; as senior managers in City and in other local authorities; and one as Chief Executive of the professional body). Following initial interviews, drafts of the paper were circulated for comment, and data refined through a series of discussions. 4. For example references to community pervade the iconic text Reinventing Government (Osborne and Gaebler 1992 Osborne, D. and Gaebler, T. 1992. Re-inventing Government, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Google Scholar) that was closely associated with the Clinton administration and that resonated in international debates about public sector reform and the need for a 'new public management' over subsequent decades. 5. These discourses have continued to pervade policy texts, from the McColvin Report of 1942 that positioned the public library as part of post-war reconstruction to Framework for the Future published under the Blair government (DCMS 2003 Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) ( 2003 ) Framework for the Future: Libraries, Learning and Information in the Next Decade , London , The Stationery Office . Google Scholar). 6. Indeed the McColvin Report of 1942 had positioned public libraries as part of post-war reconstruction and a national Public Libraries Act of 1964 secured the role of the public library in national, as opposed to local, policy. 7. 'Books kept off the public shelves' comprised those considered to be potentially offensive, including, in the 1960s, Radcliffe Halls' Well of Loneliness, Marie Stopes Married Love and handbooks on sexology by Havelock Ellis and others. 8. One of my respondents produced a series of publications designed to support language teaching through picture books selected on criteria of their suitability for the 'multi-racial' classroom (Elkin 1976 Elkin , J . ( 1976 ) Books for the Multi-racial Classroom , 2nd edn , London , Youth Libraries Group of the Libraries Association . ( First edition published 1971 ). Google Scholar, 1985a Elkin , J . ( 1985a ) Multi-racial Books for the Classroom , 4th edn , London , Youth Libraries Group of the Libraries Association . ( Third edition published 1980 ). Google Scholar, 1985b Elkin, J. 1985b. The Books for Keeps Guide to Children's Books for a Multi-cultural Society, 8–12, London: Books for Keeps. Google Scholar, 1986 Elkin, J. 1986. The Books for Keeps Guide to Children's Books for a Multi-cultural Society, 0–7, London: Books for Keeps. Google Scholar). They sold in huge quantities to schools and to other library authorities over more than a 25 year period, and were profoundly influential in shaping notions of cultural diversity in publishing, schooling and the public library service as a whole. 9. This was partly influenced by contact with the British Council's approach to celebrating diversity. 10. Section 11 of the 1966 Local Government Act. 11. There are analogies here with developments in public broadcasting in the period, notably the production of minority programmes for specific communities. 12. President of the National Viewer's and Listener's Association, a conservative, moralist pressure group concerned with public culture. 13. 'Jenny lives with Eric and Martin', by S. Bosche and A. Hansen, Gay Men's Press, 1982. 14. Many library schools closed and the public library options of curricula in those that remained were abandoned in this period. 15. For example local authority chief executives were not required to report on the performance of libraries in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment process through which local authorities were accorded star ratings.