Critical Theory for Library and Information Science

Exploring the Social from Across the Disciplines

Gloria J. Leckie, Lisa M. Given, John E. Buschman, Gloria J. Leckie, Lisa M. Given, John E. Buschman

• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781591589402
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This text provides an overview of major critical theorists from across disciplines—including the humanities, social sciences, and education—that discusses the importance of these critical perspectives for the advancement of LIS research and scholarship. The practical application of library and information science is based upon 75 years of critical theory and thought. Therefore, it is essential for students and faculty in LIS to be familiar with the work of a wide range of critical theorists. The aim of Critical Theory for Library and Information Science: Exploring the Social from Across the Disciplines is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the critical theorists important to the LIS audience, and to give insights into how such theory can be incorporated into actual LIS research and practice. This book consists of chapters on individual critical theorists ranging from Aglietta to Habermas to Spivak, written by an international group of library and information science scholars. Each chapter provides an overview of the theoretical stance and contributions of the theorist, as well as relevant critical commentary. This book will be particularly valuable as a reference text of core readings for those pursuing doctoral or masters level degrees in LIS.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Introduction: The Necessity for Theoretically Informed Critique in Library and Information Science (LIS)
• 1. Michel Aglietta and Regulation Theory
• 2. Roland Barthes: On Semiology and Taxonomy
• 3. Roy Bhaskar's Critical Realism
• 4. Social Capital, Symbolic Violence, and Fields of Cultural Production: Pierre Bourdieu and Library and Information Science
• 5. Beyond a Signpost for Resistance: The Promise of Michel de Certeau's Practices of Everyday Life for LIS Scholarship
• 6. Michel Foucault: Discourse, Power/Knowledge, and the Battle for Truth
• 7. Deconstructing the Library with Jacques Derrida: Creating Space for the "Other" in Bibliographic Description and Classification
• 8. Transformative Library Pedagogy and Community-Based Libraries: A Freirean Perspective
• 9. Psychoanalysis as Critique in the Works of Freud, Lacan, and Deleuze and Guattari
• 10. Anthony Giddens' Influence on Library and Information Science
• 11. The Public Library as a Space for Democratic Empowerment: Henry Giroux, Radical Democracy, and Border Pedagogy
• 12. Hegemony, Historic Blocs, and Capitalism: Antonio Gramsci in Library and Information Science
• 13. The Social as Fundamental and a Source of the Critical: Jürgen Habermas
• 14. Martin Heidegger's Critique of Informational Modernity
• 15. Bruno Latour: Documenting Human and Nonhuman Associations
• 16. Jean Lave's Practice Theory
• 17. Henri Lefebvre and Spatial Dialectics
• 18. Herbert Marcuse: Liberation, Utopia, and Revolution
• 19. Chantal Mouffe's Theory of Agonistic Pluralism and Its Relevance for Library and Information Science Research
• 20. Antonio Negri on Information, Empire, and Commonwealth
• 21. Ferdinand de Saussure: Duality
• 22. Investigating the Textually Mediated Work of Institutions: Dorothy E. Smith's Sociology for People
• 23. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: Deconstructionist, Marxist, Feminist, Postcolonialist
• Index
• About the Editors and Contributors