Programme full

Friday 17 April 2015 at 15:15 - 16:45
PAPER SESSION 8
Cities, Mobilities, Place and Space
M532, GEORGE MOORE BUILDING
The Social Value of Independent Bookshops: Small and Slow is Beautiful
O’Brien, G.
(University of Southampton)
Since the 2007 OECD declaration that the measuring of progress in all countries beyond examinations of GDP per
capita would need a shared view of what well-being actually is, various measures have been introduced. Thus, the
ONS implemented the 'Measuring National Well-Being Programme', with 'good connections' with spouses, partners,
friends and family as one of a number of key indicators of what matters to people (ONS, 2011); the New Economics
Foundation's (NEF) dynamic model of well-being included a more generic being 'connected to others' as essential
(NEF, 2013); and Oxfam Scotland included local facilities, community spirit and culture/hobbies in their measure for
the progress of prosperity (Oxfam, 2013). Yet, despite the continuing loss of local facilities such as post-offices,
libraries and retailers such as independent bookshops, little has been said about the contribution any commercial
high-street retailers make to well-being, other than a highlighting of the gap in evidence for their social value
(Parliament, 2014).
Using ethnography at a single independent bookshop and statistical analysis of the diversity of UK independent
bookshops, this paper argues that independent bookshops deliver social value to local communities through a
physical connectivity that is: present within their spaces and commodities; participatory in the sharing of ideas; and
particular in their diversity. Further, it is argued that contrary to free-market beliefs in high-volume fast selling of books,
this connectivity is reliant on a kind of retail that is small and slow.
Museums, Communities and Participation
Dicks, B.C.
(Cardiff University)
Today's museum is fully enlisted in the 'participation game': funders and policy-makers require it to reach out to local
communities and form active, collaborative partnerships with them. This responds to a long-standing perception that
local communities are relegated to a merely passive role in most museums, welcomed if at all only as consumers of its
'products'. The rhetoric is ambitious: local skills are to be enhanced through volunteering, training and
apprenticeships, etc. which means throwing open the museum's doors to local residents who would not normally visit.
However, such relationships can be fraught in practice, raising a number of questions for sociologists. First of all, there
are questions over what 'participation' means, and concerns that funding streams intended for active community
involvement may be diverted into mere 'consultation' or, worse, the expropriation of local voluntary labour. Secondly,
community members may find themselves co-opted into well-meaning but over-hopeful agendas, where they are
expected straightforwardly to 'benefit' from volunteering and participation activities, often in a therapeutic or
educational sense, or at least to become 'included'. Often, there are even expectations of poverty being 'tackled'.
Thirdly, the museum's aims, working practices and raison-d'etre as an organisation may be in conflict with its own
participation aspirations. This paper explores these claims and tensions by reporting on a field-study of a museum
where community participation is currently high on the agenda.
Interpretations on Tranquil Spaces
Hewlett, D.
(University Of Winchester)
287 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University