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The purpose of this study is to describe the full picture of how public libraries contribute to overcoming social division through their resources, programming and services.

A systematic literature review and analysis was conducted. Literature was collected from LISA and LISTA, two primary databases of library and information science literature. Through individual analyses and discussion among researchers, data from 47 documents were analyzed and classified into three categories: “digital”, “economic” and “demographic” divisions. Examples from the literature were used to illustrate how public libraries impact social division in each of these categories.

The three categories reveal that public libraries contribute to overcoming social division by reducing inequality and promoting interaction among citizens. This is done by addressing digital, economic and demographic divisions within society.

This study is the first to summarize in a comprehensive way how public libraries contribute to reducing social division. By classifying how public libraries address this important social issue, this study contributes to the literature about how social division can be overcome.

The purpose of this second part of this special issue is to contribute to a better understanding of the nature of Soviet society. It is not possible to analyse such a society in all its complexities within the space of one study. There are, however, some economic relations which determine society's major features. We believe that commodity‐production relations in the Soviet Union are of this type.

Special attention will be given in this part to the process of decline, which is to be seen as antipodal to development, and which nowadays is all too often neglected. By “decline” we mean here the decline of a whole society. But this definition is not yet sufficient to provide us with a very clear understanding. The statement that a whole society is in decline remains void of real meaning until we possess some concrete conception of what a “whole society” and the process of “decline” are. Since the meanings of both these terms are problematical, further explanation and closer precision are called for.

The article attempts to advance a definition of proletarianism which will allow the reader to grasp the precise nature of the process with particular reference to the economic and technical aspects. Proletarianisation is identified with a loss of the work of supervision and management, congruents of the work experience of the new middle class. This is followed by a critique of some current notions of proletarianisation as evidenced in the study of clerical labour. Finally, the article discusses proletarianisation in experiential terms.

This chapter examines the connections between race and class divisions and examines how they shape racial inequities in the distribution of resources, power and privilege. Throughout history, racial identity has been a key factor in determining a person's position in modern capitalist societies. As such, issues of race and class have preoccupied sociologists and other scholars with diverse ideological orientations. This is highlighted in debates around the nexus of race and class in the production of racial structures, laws and institutions that legitimate and perpetuate the normalisation and centrality of whiteness. This chapter summarises some of the historical and ongoing debates, providing a synthesis of how race and class divisions continue to shape contemporary intergroup relations and social policy. It delves into racial capitalism and how race intersects with other social identities to determine socio-economic hierarchy in many western countries.

The purpose of this paper is to discern the legacies of social divisions, notably protracted social conflict on team members’ relations, collaborative interactions and ways of coping with such work-life reality.

This study constitutes a pilot phase of a research on nationally and ethnically diverse nurses’ teams operating in medical centers. It used qualitative methodology: a semi-structured individual interviews with 12 nurses.

The findings underscore the challenge of engaging diversity in mixed work teams operating in the shadow of protracted conflict. The results indicated inter-group biases, implicit discrimination and tensions due to the salience of social categorization and the faultline phenomenon. These tensions mount in crisis situations, such as violent incidents associated with the national conflict. The major coping pattern was directing the disagreements to a hidden sphere. The findings showed paucity of organizational level efforts to engage diversity and social divisions-related issues. In spite of the complexities associated with diverse workplaces, the nurses revealed high capability of maintaining cooperative interactions and effectively performing their healthcare tasks.

The current study represents a pilot phase of a larger research project. Subsequent stages will extend the sample size and use additional research instruments for data collection.

Human resources managers need to address the organizational issues related to diversity and social divisions, including policy and training activities.

Engaging “otherness” remains a considerable challenge in diverse work setting, especially when team work constitutes the main work pattern. It should be faced by work organizations and social institutions.

The study involves an innovative element as it attempts to elucidate the ramifications of diversity and inter-group tensions in “real-life” circumstances; namely, work setting in the context of a divided society. Most of the previous research examined such phenomena in the laboratory and/or on ad hoc groups.

The class concepts of economic classes, social classes and political forces all have an important role to play in advancing the theoretical understanding necessary for achieving progress in the socialist project. The “new class analysis” is a series of attempts made since the 1960s by a number of Marxist writers to orient the political forces of socialists by providing analyses of the changing class structure of the advanced capitalist formations. Many of these contributions have been flawed. An account of class is made which shows the naivety of these views. It is put forward that it is necessary to make use of the three class concepts and that there is no a priori necessary association between the membership of these variously conceptualised groups — they can cut across one another in various ways. Each of the concepts is outlined. In contrast to stock Marxist conceptions, this approach may be more fruitful.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how occupational division impacts on social capital and access to resources that may have a bearing on the growth potential and success of a new venture.

This study compares the social capital profiles of early‐stage entrepreneurs in England with distinct occupational classifications – i.e. entrepreneurs who were completing training on the Science and Enterprise Challenge (SEC) initiative and pursuing professional and higher technician businesses, and entrepreneurs who were completing training on the New Entrepreneurship Scholarship (NES) initiative and who were residing in deprived areas, unemployed or underemployed and pursuing non‐professional businesses. The European Socio‐economic Classification (ESeC) was adopted to classify occupation. The entrepreneurs completed aided name generator questionnaires and in‐depth interviews.

The findings demonstrate that professional and higher technician entrepreneurs have higher levels of bridging and diverse resources when compared to non‐professional entrepreneurs residing in deprived areas. The non‐professional entrepreneurs also seem over‐reliant on too much bonding.

Policy makers strive to understand who has the most productive social capital when launching a business and who does not. The findings may help provide an initial awareness that across the board entrepreneurial policies are inappropriate, as the building of social capital seems contextual.

The high bridging social capital of professional and higher technician entrepreneurs could enable “getting ahead” and could be entrepreneurial/innovative “facilitating social capital”. The non‐professional entrepreneurs residing in deprived areas' over‐reliance on bonding social capital could be a liability and entrepreneurial/innovative “inhibiting social capital”.