Date: March 2012 Creator: Ignatow, Gabe; Webb, Sarah M.; Poulin,
Michelle; Parajuli, Ramesh; Fleming, Peter; Batra, Shika et al
Description: This article explores the role of social capital.
Investments in public libraries in developing countries have
been made based on the idea that libraries contribute to
societal democratization. Yet scholarly understanding of the
relationships between public libraries and democratization is
sharply limited. In this article the authors review historical
studies of national public library systems that cast doubt on
widely held assumptions that a positive relationship necessarily
pertains between the establishment of public libraries and
democracy. Based on this historical review and on sociological
theories of social capital (e.g. Bourdieu 1986), the authors
develop a theoretical framework intended to facilitate
systematic investigation of the contributions public libraries
may make to democracy. Using comparative historical and
ethnographic methods, the authors analyze the