Everyday activism: challenging neoliberalism for radical library workers in English higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is twofold: to examine the political position of academic librarianship in the context of recent changes in English Higher Education and to explore existing and emergent moments of radical educational possibility. Firstly, we argue for critical attention being paid to the university library – a site often perceived as self-evident, neutral, predictable – and highlight ways in which the work of the library has been affected by processes of neoliberalisation. Secondly, we investigate Radical Librarians Collective (RLC), an open, horizontalist organisation of library workers and supporters, as a potential site through which to counter these developments and foster radical alternatives. RLC’s successes are primarily within its aims to provide solidarity, space for discussion, and mutual aid nationally between like-minded library workers, and its support for everyday workplace practices of resistance. We conclude with suggestions for the collective’s development which focus on structure and local action.