Libraries, democracy, information literacy, and citizenship. An agonistic reading of central library and information studies’ concepts

Pages1010-1033
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JD-12-2016-0152
Published date11 September 2017
Date11 September 2017
AuthorJohanna Rivano Eckerdal
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Libraries, democracy, information
literacy, and citizenship
An agonistic reading of central library
and information studiesconcepts
Johanna Rivano Eckerdal
Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advocate and contribute to a more nuanced and discerning
argument when ascribing a democratic role to libraries and activities related to information literacy.
Design/methodology/approach The connections between democracy and libraries as well as between
citizenship and information literacy are analysed by using Mouffes agonistic pluralism. One example is
provided by a recent legislative change (the new Swedish Library Act) and the documents preceding it.
A second, more detailed example concerns how information literacy may be conceptualised when related
to young womens sexual and reproductive health. Crucial in both examples are the suggestions of routes to
travel that support equality and inclusion for all.
Findings Within an agonistic approach, democracy concerns equality and interest in making efforts to
include the less privileged. The inclusion of a democratic aim, directed towards everyone, for libraries in
the new Library Act can be argued to emphasise the political role of libraries. A liberal and a radical
understanding of information literacy is elaborated, the latter is advocated. Information literacy is also
analysed in a non-essentialist manner, as a description of a learning activity, therefore always value-laden.
Originality/value The agonistic reading of two central concepts in library and information studies,
namely, libraries and information literacy is fruitful and shows how the discipline may contribute to
strengthen democracy in society both within institutions as libraries and in other settings.
Keywords Libraries, Politics, Democracy, Information literacy, Critical, Citizenship, Information studies,
Agonistic pluralism, Radical
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The notion that tax-funded libraries are important prerequisites of a democratic society is
firmly rooted in western culture. This relationship between democracy and libraries is
included in the professional values of librarianship (Smith, 2013, p. 22) and an important
tenet in many national and international policy documents (e.g. International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, 1994, 2002; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization, and International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 2005;
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 2011). It is also a
fundamental reason why many students and active librarians choose librarianship as a
profession. The argument sustaining this notion can be sketched as follows. Tax-funded
libraries provide services, activities and media of various kinds, which together contribute
to equip citizens with resources that enable them to engage in society in an informed
manner, thereby contributing to democracy. Librarians in their turn are dedicated to
shaping the collections and activities that are offered in and through the library, in ways
that are most beneficial for the community; many information literacy programmes are
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 5, 2017
pp. 1010-1033
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-12-2016-0152
Received 15 December 2016
Revised 30 March 2017
Accepted 9 April 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
The authorthanks the anonymous reviewersfor their insightful commentsand the authors colleaguesin
the research group Information Practices:Communication, Culture and Society for valuable discussions
that helped to improve this paper. The author is also grateful to the Faculties of Humanities and
Theology at Lund University for granting a sabbatical that made it possible to write this paper.
1010
JD
73,5
designed with the aim of strengthening the information literacy within the community to
ensure that people master the abilities required for learning and engaging as students,
employees and citizens. However, the connection between tax-funded libraries and
democracy drawn in this argument often goes unquestioned and so does the related
relationship between information literacy and citizenship. A recent exception is
Lauren Smiths (2013, 2016) research on the political information experiences of young
people. It is argued here that in order to understand and promote a democratic role for
libraries, it is necessary to critically examine whether these connections exist and if so, how
they are constituted.
The democratic role of libraries becomes even more important in todays politically
turbulent times (cf. Smith, 2016). The outcomes of many recent political elections have
resulted in extreme right populist parties gaining majority or holding the balance of power:
Jobbik in Hungary, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość in Poland and Front National in France are just a
few examples. The 2014 general election in Sweden led to a parliamentary difficult situation
as the Swedish extreme right party Sverigedemokraterna expanded its influence at national,
regional and local levels. Since the other political parties rejected the idea of forming a
government supported by or including Sverigedemokraterna, majority rule was not possible
neither in the parliament nor in many municipalities. Instead, the social democratic party,
Socialdemokraterna, formed a weak minority government (Orange, 2014). Nevertheless,
there was a change of direction for political parties both to the left and to the right,
indicating that Sverigedemokraterna had influenced the political agenda. At the local council
in Ludvika one of the representatives of Sverigedemokraterna also holds a leading position
within Nordiska motståndsrörelsen, a neo-Nazi movement (Habul, 2014). This can be argued
to constitute an example of how a representative within a democratic institution holds a
deeply anti-democratic worldview. At the end of the 2016 presidential campaign in the USA,
the Republican candidate Donald Trump made ambiguous announcements as to whether he
would or not accept the elections result (Healy and Martin, 2016), exemplifying how
the rules of the democratic institutions might not be unquestionably accepted by some of
their representatives.
John Buschman (2007) noted the widespread absence of discussion and theorising about
democracy within library and information studies. John Budd (2015) provides a recent
exception in a broad overview of what he calls informational structures (p. 4), which
includes but is not limited to libraries, nowadays in the USA, with the premise that
capitalism, democracy and the public good are inextricably connected at this time in US
history(p. 2). James Elmborg (2006), who engages specifically in advancing critical
information literacy, remarks that: [m]uch of the conflict inherent in information literacy as
a critical project can be traced to contested definitions of democracy’” (p. 196). The aim of
this paper is to advocate and contribute to a more nuanced and discerning argument when
ascribing a democratic role to tax-funded libraries and activities related to the concept of
informationliteracy. It does so by presenting ananalysis of two Swedish examples,using the
theory of agonistics, or agonistic pluralism, developed by Chantal Mouffe (2005a, b, 2013).
The first example, emanating from the cultural political field, is provided by a recent
legislative change and the documents preceding it. The second example focusses on how
information literacy may be conceptualised when related to an empirical study concerning
young womens sexual and reproductive health. Crucialin both examples are the suggestions
of routes to travel that support equality and inclusion for all.
This paper is organised in the following manner: first, the theory of agonistic pluralism,
specifically the analytical concepts pertinent to the analysis here are introduced. Next, the
two examples are presented before moving on to the discussion in which relevant features
relating to democracy and citizenship, present in each example, are scrutinised. A starting
point for this paper is that democracy is understood differently depending on the theoretical
1011
An agonistic
reading of
central LIS
concepts

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