Gesellschaftliche Räume: Die Konstituierung des Bibliotheksraums durch Aktivität.

The paper shows how Hanna Arendt's concept of the public sphere can help us to find a new approach to the space of the library. Since the Arendtian concept is limited by her strong affection for the ancient Greek Polis and her aversion to mass-society, the article proposes a broadening. The strong distinction between private and public is superseded by the more open and dynamic idea of societal space. Societal space is being constituted through the manifoldness of activities taking place in it. Plurality and individual freedom are the conditions for this process. Different to the classical definition of the public space Arendt and Habermas referred to, societal space is defined through actions like labour, communication and study taking place at the same time. So it seems obvious, that libraries actually are societal spaces. But is it possible to transfer this concept from theory into practice? And what could be the strategies to make libraries open spaces in this sense? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]