Organisational practices and social inclusion: Inclusionary place-making in the library

Abstract

Social psychology has long been concerned with social exclusion. Much of this interest has focused on people's negative intergroup attitudes and how these may be changed through individual-level interventions. In this paper we explore a different level of intervention – one that targets the routine organisational practices that communicate who is welcome and able to draw on the organisation's services. Specifically, we investigate how a public-facing organisation—a library service—engaged in a process of self-reflection on its routine social practices with the aim of making people experiencing various forms of exclusion (e.g., job seekers, benefit claimants, ethnic minorities) more welcome. Our data arise from interviews (N = 19) with staff concerning their attempts to transform the practices that constitute the library as a distinctive public place. Throughout, we explore how they reflected on their everyday organisational practices, how these may unintentionally exclude, and how they could be modified to facilitate social inclusion. Moreover, we pay particular attention to our participants' understanding of the challenges involved in changing organisational culture and creating a social space in which diversity is accepted.