Infrastructuring the policymaking, funding and positioning of libraries: unpacking tensions in public library policies in three European cities

Abstract

Public libraries are increasingly acknowledged as important social infrastructures that can stimulate a sense of community, social cohesion and mental wellbeing. This paper investigates how (inter)national, provincial and local policies conceptualise and fund libraries as social infrastructures in three European cities. Drawing on 32 semi-structured interviews with library management and associations, politicians and civil servants, policy document analysis and collaborative zine-making workshops, the authors describe the multi-level policy landscapes of the public libraries of Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Malmö (Sweden) and Vienna (Austria). Focusing on the themes of policymaking, funding and the discursive positioning of libraries revealed three related institutional tensions, which we systematised into three spectrums: between top-down and bottom-up, short-term and long-term, and universal and group-specific. Our findings illustrate how libraries are constantly in the making and have to negotiate and legitimise their meanings and actions, whilst entangled in library policies and political landscapes on multiple geographical scales.