Ryan P. Randall Indiana University LIS Education and New Conceptions Of Democracy

MLS Requirements at IU Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴

Christine Pawley, “Hegemony’s Handmaid?” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ “Hegemony’s Handmaid? The Library and Information Studies Curriculum from a Class Perspective.” The Library Quarterly 68.2 (1998): Web.

 Hegemony  Class  Pluralism  Managerialism Christine Pawley, “Hegemony’s Handmaid?” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴

 Hegemony  Class  Pluralism  Managerialism Christine Pawley, “Hegemony’s Handmaid?” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ From Antonio Gramsci: “…a powerful group achieves hegemony when it gains control over a range of values and norms, to the extent that these are so embedded in society that they receive unquestioned acceptance” (127)

 Hegemony  Class  Pluralism  Managerialism Christine Pawley, “Hegemony’s Handmaid?” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ Defines via E.P. Thompson: “…how people actively make sense of their experiences, values, and traditions and how groups of people struggle to create and maintain a sense of identity,” which “…entails the notion of historical relationship” (126)

 Hegemony  Class  Pluralism  Managerialism Christine Pawley, “Hegemony’s Handmaid?” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ Takes the individual as unit of analysis. Key concepts are the individual, behavior, conflict of interests, participation, and consensus. Reinforces market, individual access, exchange of ideas.

 Hegemony  Class  Pluralism  Managerialism Christine Pawley, “Hegemony’s Handmaid?” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ Takes the organization as its level of analysis. Key concepts are bureaucracy, elite, rationality, formal vs informal, and simple vs complex. Instead of market-based competition, gives power to elites, scientific study, and rationality.

Mark C. E. Peterson, “Grassroots and Habermas in West Bend: Some Reflections” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ “Grassroots and Habermas in West Bend: Some Reflections.” Library Trends 64.2 (2014): Web.

 Public sphere  Enlightenment values vs Consumer values  Authority by rational discourse vs by customer satisfaction Mark C. E. Peterson, “Grassroots and Habermas in West Bend: Some Reflections” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ Jürgen Habermas’s theories, via John Buschman Authority in the public sphere depends on modes related to historically dominant socio-economic groups. Appeals to authority are therefore historically dependent. Peterson laments the change from authority via Enlightenment rationality to current consumer satisfaction model

Chantal Mouffe, “Agonistic Democracy” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically. (2013) The Democratic Paradox. (2000) The Return of the Political. (1993) Dimensions of Radical Democracy: Pluralism, Citizenship, Community. (1992)

 Agonistic pluralism  Conflictual consensus  Pluralist democracy Chantal Mouffe, “Agonistic Democracy” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴

 Agonistic pluralism  Conflictual consensus  Pluralist democracy Chantal Mouffe, “Agonistic Democracy” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ “Conflict in liberal democratic societies cannot and should not be eradicated, since the specificity of pluralist democracy is precisely the recognition and the legitimation of conflict.” “To put it in another way, what is important is that conflict does not take the form of an ‘antagonism’ (struggle between enemies) but the form of an ‘agonism’ (struggle between adversaries).”

 Agonistic pluralism  Conflictual consensus  Pluralist democracy Chantal Mouffe, “Agonistic Democracy” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ “The prime task of democratic politics is not to eliminate passions or to relegate them to the private sphere in order to establish a rational consensus in the public sphere. Rather, it is to ‘sublimate’ those passions by mobilizing them towards democratic designs, by creating collective forms of identification around democratic objectives.”

 Agonistic pluralism  Conflictual consensus  Pluralist democracy Chantal Mouffe, “Agonistic Democracy” Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ “In a pluralist democracy, disagreements about how to interpret the shared ethico-political principles are not only legitimate but also necessary. ”

 Hegemony  Pluralism  Managerialism  Conflictual consensus  Agonism aka Pluralist democracy Conclusion: LIS Terms for Democracy Ryan P. Randall ∴ 2015 Symposium on LIS Education ∴ With these concepts, hopefully we can better address the distinct challenges faced by library and information workers. Thanks!