Learning to Belong: Ordinary Pedagogies of Civic Belonging in a Multicultural Public Library

ABSTRACT

Public libraries are quintessential civic and education institutions which have undergone significant transformation. In the context of digital knowledge platforms and the neoliberalisation of public space, libraries are increasingly framed as knowledge portals, community hubs, refuges, and rare examples of universally accessible public spaces. If public libraries are transforming as educational, public and civic spaces, what does this mean for the way libraries work as everyday pedagogical spaces? This paper explores this question by considering how citizen-subjects might be ‘curated’ through the everyday materialities and spatial ordering of a community library in an ethno-culturally diverse neighbourhood in suburban Sydney. Drawing on interviews with users and staff in the library, I examine how material, spatial and interactional codes shape habits and constitute a pedagogical assemblage oriented around civic instruction, particularly for recently arrived migrants. I suggest that the library as conditional, semi-public space and spatial-material assemblage includes subtle forms of citizenship training, including training in openness to forms of ‘commonplace diversity’. I argue that examining community libraries in this way can offer insights into the everyday pedagogies of social spaces and the way people practice civic belonging.

KEYWORDS:

• Public libraries
• belonging
• multicultural cities
• Australia
• pedagogy
• civic space

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Rebecca Williamson received her PhD in sociology from the University of Sydney in 2016, and has a Masters in Social Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington. Her doctoral research focused on migration, public space, urban diversity and multicultural belonging. She currently works as a research officer at the School of Sociology and the Research School of Population Health at the Australian National University. Her published work has focused on methodology in migration studies, public space and urban diversity, and institutional and spatial accommodations of breastfeeding and parenting practices.

Notes

1 After the completion of my fieldwork the library underwent a substantial renovation and was renamed ‘Campsie Library and Knowledge Centre’.

2 At the time of research, SEIFA Index figures ranked Campsie-Clemton Park the fifth most socio-economically disadvantaged out of the 16 small areas in the City of Canterbury LGA, and the City of Canterbury itself is one of the most disadvantaged local government areas in New South Wales (132nd out of 153 local government areas) (Profile ID & Canterbury City Council, 2012).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Sydney [grant number Postdoctoral scholarship].