Addressing Digital Diversity in an Advanced Information Society: Ethics of care in a Swedish library context
2019 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
The purpose of the paper is to use the concept of ethics of care in order to explore and reconceptualize the entangled relations that come into play when employees (librarians and others) in a Swedish public librariy context work to support citizens with digital problems. Application of ethics of care lens is interesting in this context from at least two perspectives. It can be used as a theoretical lens to analyze the librarians’ care practices in their mission for digital inclusion and addressing digital diversity needs. By uncovering the entanglements of relations between the librarians, the services, the visitors of the library, and the digital technologies, it opens for a contribution to the reconceptualization of digital citizenship (Mossberger et al, 2008) in relation to digital divide and participation, as well as access to services and opportunities. A care ethics lens is also valuable in terms of uncovering tensions and value conflicts that arise from normatively conflicting principles that govern public administrations in practice, such ex. New Public Management (Giritli Nygren, 2009; Rose, Persson, & Heeager, 2015), or service manufacturing logics governed by business rationale (Cordella, Paletti, Chun, Adam, & Noveck, 2018; Gustafsson & Wihlborg, 2019).
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019.
Keywords [en]
Library, ethics, care, digital diversity, divide, literacy
National Category
Public Administration Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-162391OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-162391DiVA, id: diva2:1374283
Conference
The European Group For Public Administration. Public Administration Across Borders, Northern Irland, Belfast, Sep 09 - Sep 13, 2019
2019-11-292019-11-292025-02-21Bibliographically approved