Approaching Reading Clubs from a historical and sociological perspective

What is it about?

In this paper, after referring to the phenomenon of Reading Clubs in various space and time intervals, we focus on its special aspects, such as the semi-public reading practice, which form the basis for the social and socialising functions performed by Reading Clubs.Later in our paper, we follow the development of such Clubs for students, children or adults in Greece and also look into the ways in which they evolve during the recession. It seems that, at least in Greece, Reading Clubs are a developing institution as the number of their members is increasing and their variety of themes is broadening. They are both an expression of the mechanisms of the civil society and also a form of self-organisation within that civil society.

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