The Politics of Public Library History

Authors

  • A. S. Popowich

Keywords:

politics, Public Libraries

Abstract

Recent trends in library history have seen the injection of social and philosophical theory into a purportedly "value neutral" field of study. The library historian Alistair Black has found much of value in the histories and "archeologies" of Michel Foucault. Given that the work of Foucault and Jurgen Habermas provide the two main alternatives of current philosophical discourse, investigating the applicability of Habermas' work to the field of library theory yields some interesting results. While superficially esoteric, this work has great relevance to understanding information in the society we live in, especially the growth of the Internet and Web 2.0.

References

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