A Political Theory of Public Library Development

Michael Majewski Widdersheim

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Library Science and Administration Library Science and Information Information Science and Libraries

Abstract

Abstract Public library development is explained differently by various theories, but existing theories are problematic. A new theory is needed to explain public library development, one that foregrounds political processes. To produce this new theory, a historical case study was conducted of a regional public library system in the United States from 1924 to 2016. Multiple data sources and mixed methods were used to identify the causes of library development in nine periods of the case. Findings indicate that public libraries develop in a cyclical way. Within each decision cycle, high responsiveness is a necessary condition for a change in development. A responsive library system adapts to and acts upon discursively-legitimated issues. High responsiveness, together with either high civil support, high legitimacy or low resistance, are causal configurations sufficient for change. This theory is significant because it is testable, it uses a new research framework and new methods, and it provides new insight into public library development.

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References

2005Why Most Published Research Findings Are False 2006Political Communication in Media Society: Does Democracy Still Enjoy an Epistemic Dimension? The Impact of Normative Theory on Empirical Research 2002Four models of the public sphere in modern democracies 2005Causation 1980Rectorial Address, Strasbourg, 1894 1995New Methodologies in Library History: a Manifesto for the ‘New’ Library History 2016Conceptual modelling of the public sphere in public libraries 2018Historical case study: A research strategy for diachronic analysis

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