Commodification of the information profession : a critique of higher education under neoliberalism
Lawson, Stuart and Sanders, Kevin and Smith, Lauren (2015) Commodification of the information profession : a critique of higher education under neoliberalism. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 3 (1). eP1182. (https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1182)
Preview |
Text.
Filename: Lawson_etal_JLSC2015_critique_of_higher_education_under_neoliberalism.pdf
Final Published Version License: Download (224kB)| Preview |
Abstract
The structures that govern society’s understanding of information have been reorganised under a neoliberal worldview to allow information to appear and function as a commodity. This has implications for the professional ethics of library and information labour, and the need for critical reflexivity in library and information praxes is not being met. A lack of theoretical understanding of these issues means that the political interests governing decision-making are going unchallenged, for example the UK government’s specific framing of open access to research. We argue that building stronger, community oriented praxes of critical depth can serve as a resilient challenge to the neoliberal politics of the current higher education system in the UK and beyond. Critical information literacy offers a proactive, reflexive and hopeful strategy to challenge hegemonic assumptions about information as a commodity.
ORCID iDs
Lawson, Stuart, Sanders, Kevin and Smith, Lauren ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4467-2234;-
-
Item type: Article ID code: 54157 Dates: DateEvent2015Published9 August 2014AcceptedSubjects: Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Library Science. Information Science
Education > Theory and practice of education > Higher EducationDepartment: Faculty of Science > Computer and Information Sciences Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 04 Sep 2015 08:58 Last modified: 04 Dec 2024 01:16 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/54157