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Community Libraries in England: Empowering Volunteers and a catalyst for change

Lookup NU author(s): Deborah Forbes

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of a conference proceedings (inc. abstract) that has been published in its final definitive form by European Academy of Management , 2019.

For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.


Abstract

This paper explores the balance between austerity localism (a reaction to public budget cuts) and progressive localism (a challenge to neo-liberalist hegemony) in the transfer of libraries to volunteer management. It is based on interviews in libraries in a northern city. Libraries in the U.K. are vulnerable to budget cuts as the extent of statutory provision is ambiguous and transfer to volunteer management may be the only viable alternative to closure. Volunteers felt compelled to act to save their libraries from closure, but in doing so were developing new services and ways of providing them. This showed a nuanced balance between a reaction to austerity and an approach which could be regarded as ‘progressive’. The paper contributes to the meaning and use of the concept of ‘progressive localism’, and understanding the synergy between this and ‘austerity localism’ within the asset transfer of library services.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Forbes D, Nicholls G, Findlay-King L

Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

Publication status: Published

Conference Name: EURAM (European Academy of Management)

Year of Conference: 2019

Online publication date: 12/06/2019

Acceptance date: 20/03/2019

Date deposited: 06/08/2019

Publisher: European Academy of Management

URL: http://www.euram-online.org/annual-conference-2019/venue/about-iscte-iul.html


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