What kind of societal value do information practices focused on local knowledge bring to urban communities? Social cohesion and emancipation of marginalized epistemic cultures

Abstract

This research examines the societal value of information practices centered on Local Knowledge (LK) within urban communities, focusing on a project conducted in a district of Madrid (Spain) in collaboration with a primary school and older residents. The project involved various activities, such as interviews, film forums featuring documentaries on local history, photography sessions of significant local sites, social media publication of photos and stories, and exhibitions. Employing a case study approach, the methodology incorporated triangulated data to capture diverse participant perspectives, with grounded theory serving as the primary analytical framework. Data was collected during 2 years (2021–2023) and included interviews, focus groups, observations, video recordings, and social media data. Results show that LK information practices brought about intangible assets and social cohesion by integrating different perspectives into a multivocal narrative of place. The project community emerged as an information system strongly tied to place and scaffolded by different information practices. Noise and silence were identified as community information-related phenomena that disrupted communication and compromised the construction of the multivocal narrative. While noise and silence led to an authoritative conception of knowledge based on the exclusion and marginalization of alternative narratives, other practices allowing the exchange of living knowledge, such as storytelling, listening, publishing on social media, and naming places, led to living and empathetic knowledge. Finally, the research shows the potential of libraries to address current issues in local urban communities, by embracing diverse knowledge forms.