{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]],"date-time":"2026-03-19T08:38:43Z","timestamp":1773909523240,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":66,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,9,23]],"date-time":"2019-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1569196800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JD"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,9,23]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to analyze and re-direct recent schematic and empirical scholarship on Habermas\u2019 theory of the public sphere in library and information science (LIS).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This paper conducts a critical analysis of the relevant literature in light of Habermas\u2019 origination and use\/purpose of the public sphere concept.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The authors examined here produced a schematic operationalization of the public sphere that thinned the concept, but in turn, that schematization has produced insight into the civil society functions and communications of libraries, both within and without. For this work to be meaningful, the considerations and contexts of democratic society must be reinserted.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Further explorations of the relationship between the public sphere and civil society as they are manifested around and in libraries is called for. Additionally, Weigand\u2019s approach to producing data\/evidence on the public sphere and libraries should be furthered.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Understanding the role and function of libraries in democratic societies is essential for libraries to play a productive democratic role in those societies and thus, in guiding them.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Social implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This paper helps to situate the bewildering circumstances of libraries who face both popular support and broad political-social questioning of their role and place.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This paper arguably interjects a more sophisticated and nuanced theoretical picture of the public sphere than prior precis presented in the LIS literature have undertaken. It also engages a unique set of empirical-theoretical students from another perspective in order to deepen and shift that research discourse.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/jd-06-2019-0115","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,9]],"date-time":"2019-10-09T09:22:35Z","timestamp":1570612955000},"page":"769-783","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["The public sphere without democracy: some recent work in LIS"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"76","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0882-4373","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"John","family":"Buschman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2020042910394398100_ref001","unstructured":"Apter, D.E. (1996), \u201cComparative politics: old and new\u201d, in Goodin, R.E. and Klingemann, H.-D. 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