Stofan | Is comfort necessarily conflict-free?

We met with our new focus group for the second year of Stofan | A Public Living Room to reflect and discuss comfort and conflict resolution in private and public spaces.

Is comfort necessarily conflict-free? Can a place of discomfort be a starting point for new discussions? 

We started the think tank with an open discussion about comfort and conflict and how we negotiate our comfort and someone else's discomfort it might cause. How do we navigate those issues of comfort? What is neutral about the library as a space? If conflict arises, should the library take a stand? Can librarians take sides? We continued with an exercise, sharing something that recently offended us and analyzing our reactions in those moments and what sort of support we wish we would have had from our surroundings. We wondered if the library should be offering training and free education in conflict resolution for its users and staff.

We are often faced with institutions and systems that do not respond to our needs. This causes discomfort and it is important that there are meaningful interactions within these spaces where we are not left alone in our discomfort. Every person needs to be heard and libraries can help provide this. Every institution needs a platform that we can use to interact and influence it directly.

Our Stofan happenings will be continuing once a month until May included and we will post events with exact dates and locations in time. We are looking forward to see how each participant will translate those ideas of comfort from different standpoints into the space!

Further information:
Martyna Karolina Daniel, Intercultural specialist
martyna.karolina.daniel@reykjavik.is