Scholarly Review #3: HEGEMONY'S HANDMAID? THE LIBRARY AND INFORMATION STUDIES CURRICULUM FROM A CLASS PERSPECTIVE by Christine Pawley
This very interesting article probes whether or not LIS has a part to play in class hegemony and whether or not this hegemony is learned by the curriculum of LIS schools. One of my favorite quotes of the whole article is actually the description of "hegemony", which by its name, sounded very ominous, but I wasn't sure of its definition or how it related to class. Pawley writes, "According to 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." (p. 127.) I like this quote so much also because it ties into the concept of this article that those in the LIS profession may not be aware that they are subscribing to the hegemony because it is so "embedded" in them.
Ms. Pawley points out the "middle class" as a hegemony, because everyone seems to be "middle class", and there is no emphasis on the upper or lower classes publicly, although these classes obviously exist. Many librarians would consider themselves "middle class" and the author makes a point about how many librarians don't even realize how their own class does affects their actions. I found this fascinating because a part of solving a problem is being aware of the problem; if the librarians are assuming that everyone else is middle class such as they, or if they just are content in their class and do not examine what it means, that could lead to class bias, or simply not an understanding or a desire to understand other classes.
Pawley also points out the lack of social awareness in LIS education. As I had mentioned in a different scholarly review, and I will touch briefly now, I feel even more validated in my thoughts that the LIS programs need more multicultural/ multi-class course offerings because the reality is that these librarians being educated are going to be out serving the public someday. Even if it's not in a public library post, there are still services to offer and people to help in academia and special libraries. Taking a multicultural course can help prepare students for real-life, or/and at least, make them more culturally aware. I feel truer in this position after reading a second article this semester that agrees with how I feel.
A really surprising part of the article was the section about the corporate world. I was amazed to learn that the Williamson Report of 1923 was basically ran by the Carnegie Corporation. While I appreciate the fact that the Carnegie Corporation donated money and efforts to help supporting libraries, the fact that the Corporation set up all the details for Williamson's investigation sounds funny to me. If the corporation was really altrusic and really interested in what libraries really needed, I believe they would have let Williamson set his own parameters for his research and see where the research actually took him, instead of setting his boundaries. Interestingly enough, Wayne State University has a mention in this article as taking money from Kellogg Foundation. I guess corporations and library schools seem like strange bedfellows, and the link should probably not exist.
Overall, I have found this article to be extremely insightful. Not only did it provide me with a few shockers about LIS ties with a middle-class hegemony, but I found the writing itself to be brisk and readable. This article is certainly a must-read for anyone interested in class issues and LIS as a profession.
References:
Pawley, C. (1998). Hegemony's handmaid? The library and information science
curriculum from a class perspective. The Library Quarterly, 68(2) 123-144.
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