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26.10.03
Just read an article which continues
on from some ideas I've recently posted, regarding libraries
and political correctness. I understand and agree with
the sentiment that some people feel excluded, and this
can be understood in terms of UK class structures. But
as someone who dislikes constraining political correctness-speak
and the glib set of responses to which you are supposed
to conform, I can see lots of intellectual flaws in the
article. It sounds OK - let's get more ethnic and working
class folk into libraries - but the details do not make
sense. It's a case of narrow minded political thinking,
whereby all aspects of life are cut up and placed into
neat categroeis with a wider social agenda. I don't think
life is like that, society is like that, or libraries
are like that in the sense that their methods and policies
are all about class and politics.
This is interesting for me because
I know a bit about libraries based on years of personal
use, so I have something to say about it when this is
linked to class politics, which is what writer John Pateman
does. My position is this: I recognise some of the problems
in this area, but think the library/politics/class conflation
needs redressing, because libraries are essentially cultural
ie concerned with reading and literature, so they are
inevitably linked with old traditions and institutions.
I accept that, but think the kind of questions we should
be asking are more cultural than class-political. To be
honest, I suppose I am defending the kind of experiences
I have had and the values therein, and this is the critical
point: politicos will say "aha! exactly! and just
look at those value - reeking of middle classness!"
My reply to that predictable outcry is: stop attacking
me and let's unfold this just a little bit more and see
what we are actually talking about.
The
article begins by defining what class is, using the
ideas of Karl Marx. Marx had some good things to say,
but other people have said no he got it wrong in certain
ways. His theories are debateable, not gospel. I actually
think there's much there of value, but I don't like seeing
him used without any reflection or equivocation. Pateman
labours the point that despite various claims to the contrary
not least of which is New Labour rhetoric, class is still
a dominating fact of UK life. I agree with this completely,
but rather than just accepting that and moving onto a
predictable next step - OK so how can we get more working
class folk into libraries because there really is a working
class community who feel excluded - I suggest that this
needs examining. That in fact, as Pateman points out,
class is not directly or necessarily linked with wealth
and income, that it also concerns attitudes and values,
and that 1) this is two-way and 2) that this itself needs
challenging. Class is still there, still rampant, say
XX% of the population. Maybe so. And maybe what New Labour
(for example) are trying to do is break down those tired
old class war ideas. In other words, insisting that there
still is a working class is dangerously close to a set
of attitudes that perpetuates the very thing everyone
is trying to redress: in relation to libraries, the fact
that some people feel excluded. Exactly what
prevents working class people from entering those doors,
and is it those feelings that need considering rather
than a stereotyped political response?
Pateman says
| This seems to suggest
that everyone has a "place in society" and
it is my view that this place is largely determined
by the class system. As Muddiman (1999) has said :
"The key determinants of social exclusion, most
studies show, are structural : that is, most excluded
people are poor, and they are working class".
The key determinants of public library use and non
use are also poverty and class. The "Breadline
Britain" surveys reported by Bramley (1996) looked
at the use of and attitudes to a range of public services
by poor and disadvantaged people. Through use of multivariate
analysis, these surveys identified social class as
the most important single determinant of public library
use, respondents in Bramley's highest social class
grouping being 1.4 times as likely to use libraries
compared with those in the lowest |
I agree with this, but not with the
inferences he makes. If class is the determining factor,
then challenging the class attitudes is highly desirable,
rather than affirming and reinforcing them which is what
Pateman does, dismissing any notion that Britain has moved
on from that tired old nonsense. If some people haven't
- and this necessarily applies in both working class and
middle class attitudes, then that is a problem which needs
changing as much as a problem that needs to be acknowledged.
It's a subtle point, but crucial. Pateman cites different
kinds of study and research to support his argument; if
I had the time or inclination I could do the same thing
to demonstrate how much social mobility has grown in the
UK, ie that the old stratification of the fifties, for
example, to a large extent no longer applies. If working
class people feel uncomfortable with libraries what exactly
is it they are uncomfortable with? In fact Pateman provides
examples to substantiate my own views, as follows. He
quotes:
| As Muddiman (1999)
has said "working class non users of public libraries...point
to the institutional culture of the public library
as a barrier to use...for many, public libraries continue
to be associated with a white, middle class, academic
culture which alienates many disadvantaged people".
Durrani (1999) has made a similar point in relation
to library services for Black and working class people
: "In LIS it is the white, middle class that
holds the stick which is used to marginalise Black
and working class people and their information, education
and cultural services. It is in this relation of power
that Black librarians and communities have lost out.
Until there is genuine equality in this power relationship,
there will not be a relevant library service for Black
people". The same could be said of working class
people. |
What is wrong with white, middle class
academia? Nothing, actually. Conventional middle class
values typically value education, and thus books and reading.
Which is what libraries are for - not exclusively, these
days, but primarily. If this becomes a power relationship
that is indeed politically contentious, but I believe
that where libraries are concerned - places where you
read and borrow books – it is not appropriate to
apply political analysis as a policy making strategy.
A few years ago I trained to teach English and did it
a little of it in adult education. What I liked about
the latter was how it attracts people who want to be there,
and that it attracts people from all and every kind of
background. But that didn’t and doesn’t mean
the curriculum I was offering was open to debate; it wasn’t,
either by me or my students. Perhaps it should be, but
that is an entirely different set of questions, in the
same way that challenging library book stock decisions
is a different set of questions. Pateman continues:
| A starting point in
building relevant library services for working class
people is to ask them what they want. There has been
very little research into the library needs of working
class people. Most public library research, including
the Public Library Users Survey (PLUS) focuses on
library users, who tend to be predominantly middle
class. However, the work which has been carried out
with working class communities is very revealing.
ASLIB (1995) found that "non users predominantly
suspect that public library users are mainly middle
class and that the library has an unchanging image".
Cultural barriers associated with the institution
are particularly powerful for age groups like teenagers.
Linley and Usherwood (1998) report the following comments
from a young person in a detached youth project :
"Its a bit scary really...it always seems to
be quiet and you feel terrible if you make a noise.
There are lots of rules and regulations and quite
honestly it turns me off |
Pateman is suggesting that the expectation
of being quiet is a class related problem; I find that
ridiculous. If it is a middle class value then I will
say yes, and it’s a very good one. Similarly with
“rules and regulations”: I have never had
a problem with this myself, when what it presumably refers
to is a very basic code of conduct. I would want to know
of that young person, what rules do you object to? Libraries
are not extensions of the social service and if quiet
reading is allied to the middle class community, and working
class people don’t like it, they don’t have
to! But that’s what libraries are primarily for.
More:
| In focus groups commissioned
by York City Council (MCG, 1996) non users particularly
associate such barriers with problems with library
staff. Informants report that "staff are welcoming
to people they know really well, but I could walk
in and was completely ignored" and that staff
were "unsympathetic to children and a bit dismissive
if it's not a very high class subject". |
This is not useful information; over
the years I’ve known pleasant and supportive staff,
and many who weren’t. I have also felt “ignored”;
that’s city life, not politics.
| In similar groups
commissioned by the London Borough of Merton (MVA,
1998) some working class non users highlight the still
powerful association of the library with books, silence
and reading as a source of alienation : "it's
the word aint it, like library - its known as being
a place where people just sit reading books doing
nothing. Its the word aint it" |
Well, yes, you’re absolutely
right! Books + Silence (actually ‘quiet’ is
more accurate) + Reading = Library. If that is a source
of alienation, the problem is not in the way libraries
operate as Pateman suggests, it is in the set of attitudes
in question and challenging those attitudes is the answer,
not treating them as a political complaint.
| As the Merton report
itself suggests, the very word "library"
thus acts as a deterrent to many non users and as
a symbol of a traditional, middle class alien culture.
Other informants, however, immediately see through
the tactic of a change of name : "I think your
flogging a dead horse here, because people in this
room don’t really use a library and I don’t
think whatever you call it you’re not gonna
get us through the door. Its because we don’t
read and the fact that we don’t go really".
As Muddiman (1999) has commented, "for these
non users the gap between their own culture and that
of the library is unbridegeable". The challenge
for LIS workers is to bridge that gap, and this is
what I would like to consider in the final part of
my paper. |
Bridging the gap is a two-way situation
if we accept that a) libraries are quiet places for reading
and b) some people don’t like that. As the respondent
above says, ”we don’t really go”. Ultimately
that is a choice, not a political problem.
| Public library staff
are part of the problem rather than the solution.
With the exception of some notable individuals and
authorities, the service is managed and operated by
middle class people who share their middle class values
with middle class library users |
I would like Pateman to define what
working class values are, not just attack middle class
values in this predictable manner. If working class values
are incompatible with or do not include quiet reading
etc. then the conclusions are obvious: either you question
those values, or accept that some people are not interested
in library life and that’s just the way it is in
complicated society. Libraries are not political ventures,
they are concerned with reading for education and fun,
and that does not appeal to everyone. Pateman concludes
with a list of recommendations which includes terms like
long-term strategies for tackling social
exclusion
targeting priority need
advocacy and innovation
monitoring and evaluation
..... and this is where I no longer
wish to read his document closely. This kind of jargon
is commonly practiced, but in relation to libraries and
my arguments outlined above, it clearly skates over the
surface of quite subtle and complicated subjects, notably
the question of middle class values and working class
values, and what exactly they are. However there
are one or two interesting remarks towards the end:
| Communities would
then be better placed to play an active role in setting
the agenda and pressing for the wider policy changes
required, if partnerships are to meet social needs
as defined from the bottom up, rather than responding
to the requirements of market led agendas determined
from the top down" (Mayo, 1997). |
The bottom up idea is interesting, but
as a democratising and equality-making ethos it could
and would apply to all public institutions. And where
libraries are concerned, ultimately what, exactly, are
we talking about? Reading books! Some people like it,
some people don't. Class war politics is not a universal
intellectual template, and ultimately it doesn't account
for this literary fact of personal taste, however much
you identify class attitudes, because the latter are not
fixed or compulsory.
| Partnerships should
focus on : process as well as social exclusion ; sharing
of power and policy ; diversity across sectors with
a commitment to social exclusion ; non-tokenistic
involvement of people experiencing exclusion ; speaking
out against social injustice, together and separately.
|
....here is where I have to say I really
don’t understand what he is talking about; that
in fact, this comes close to just managerial verbiage.
It seems quite simple to me: libraries are for quiet reading,
if that interests you, you can go there. If it doesn’t,
don’t. I don’t doubt you sometimes encounter
interpersonal prejudice etc. but we live in complex social
times and utopian rhetoric quickly becomes quite shallow
if you fail to open up the skipped over but critical themes:
in this case, where these concern working class and middle
class values.
| Partnership that is
an open, honest, targeted, outcome related process
can and does make a distinctive contribution to combatting
poverty and social exclusion (Thornton, 1996) |
Well I’m sure it does, but what
does the serious question about tackling poverty have
to do with libraries?
We live in rhetorical, political times
and I quite frequently object to this at Recumbent Gaze.
This class-war library polemic is a good example, and
a specific subject I can challenge based on personal expererience.
The full document is here
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