Living library as a third place: an encounter of generations in times of uncertainty

Abstract

This paper addresses an ongoing experience with the Rede Beija-flor de Pequenas Bibliotecas Vivas de Santo André, a civil society organization, in the field of the right to literature, as a human right for all. Santo André, SP, Brazil is a rich but unequal city, marked by its past working-class identity, though, nowadays, it no longer knows what its identity is. The actors include college professors, young students in training to become primary school teachers, and residents of vulnerable territories. Experience points to possibilities of a relationship between different historical and age generations within a cofigurative cultural order, thus, a temporary one. Everything is open and undefined. The place, living library, is not home, work, or school. It is a third place, where people encounter themselves and others, a place of complete freedom. Thus far, this experience indicates new ways to act, considering the dyad “intelligent citizens” to “participatory cities” in times of uncertainty.