Prisons as Sites of
                        Power/Resistance

Arford, Tammi

doi:10.4135/9781473957947.n12

Cited by 26 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…More competent and aware librarians face many tensions as they attempt to balance the restrictions placed by carceral institutions against the materials their patrons most desire, often while operating in relative professional isolation and with meager budgets (Conrad, 2017). They must navigate the power structure of the institution (Arford, 2016). When librarians in prisons do advocate for patron access and push against censorship, they are beholden to the staff who oversee prison operations and must often compromise their professional ethics in order to continue to provide library services.…”

Section: Prison Libraries As Affirming Censorship and Behavioral Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systemic Oppression and the Contested Ground of Information Access for Incarcerated People

Austin

Charenko

Dillon³

et al. 2020

Open Information Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Library and information science (LIS), as a whole, has not prioritized the information access of people inside of jails and prisons as a central tenet of library practice At the moment, there is growing attention given to states’ attempts to curtail book access for people inside of jails and prisons. Groups that provide free books to incarcerated people -- such as the numerous Books to Prisoners programs across the United States -- have been central to the discussions around access to information and resistance to censorship. These groups have drawn particular attention to the ways that Black, Indigenous, and people of color, as well as LGBTQ people, in prison experience ongoing oppression during incarceration because of limited access to materials relevant to their experiences. By identifying the types of information that are banned or limited, the difficulties people who are incarcerated face in seeking to access information, and the impact that access to information has in the lives of people who are incarcerated, this article explains prison censorship as a form of state-sponsored oppression, which is largely being combated by Books to Prisoners rather than LIS. The article ends by explaining LIS’ lack of attention to information access for people who are incarcerated.

show abstract

Section: Prison Libraries As Affirming Censorship and Behavioral Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systemic Oppression and the Contested Ground of Information Access for Incarcerated People

Austin

Charenko

Dillon³

et al. 2020

Open Information Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Provision and the Carceral State 14 white supremacy and serves the function of the prison as a tool of racialized capitalist accumulation and dehumanization.A few researchers do address that carceral systems lead to cumulative dehumanization through racial capitalist violence. Higgins, writing for the Public Library Association, firmly positions library services to people in jails and prisons within a larger frame of how incarceration functions in the United States (2017), providing readers with practical information that is set within a recognition of racialized policing practices and mass incarceration Arford (2016). discusses the role of librarians in prisons as always situated within power and resistance, noting the role of prisons as a project of dehumanization -Given that the prison is arguably the most abhorred of all social institutions, containing the most dispossessed and excluded members of society, it is essential that we examine the ways in which individuals in this group affect and are affected by the decisions made by those in positions of authority and document the uses/abuses of power and the countless acts of resistance that occur not only as sensational events reported by the media, but perhaps more importantly, those that happen as part of mundane, everyday life.(p.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Information Provision and the Carceral State: Race and Reference beyond the Idea of the “Underserved”

Austin

Villa-Nicholas

2019

The Reference Librarian

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article addresses an approach to library services for people who are incarcerated that meets the situated information needs and desires of people within jails and prisons. By creating a flow of information between LIS students and individuals who are incarcerated through a Reference by Mail program, resources available to incarcerated people are increased while students engage in a humanizing and self-reflexive project, with the understanding that the regulation of information within jails and prisons has lasting effects for the life chances of incarcerated people.

show abstract

A Cartography of Resistance

Grint

2024

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Resistance is universal, but why does it occur, and fail or succeed? Resistance is often regarded as a problem to be overcome because it is regarded as short-sighted or self-interested, but this book suggests that resistance is not necessarily right or wrong, it just is. From resistance to the Roman Empire to resistance to slavery, the Nazis, racism, the state, capitalism, patriarchy, and imperialism, this book ranges across time and place to explain the success or failure of resistance. While many contemporary approaches focus on leadership as the explanatory variable, this book expands the approach to include management and command of resistance movements—and of their opponents. Many of the case studies explore the failures, as well as the successes, of resistance, and the book suggests that even the failures reveal a fundamental truth about the human condition: just because the situation looks bleak for those suffering from oppression does not mean they surrendered meekly. Rather, many seemed to adopt the same attitude that led Sisyphus to keep rolling the boulder up the hill: they were determined not to let their situation define or defeat them.

show abstract

Prisons as Sites of Power/Resistance

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Systemic Oppression and the Contested Ground of Information Access for Incarcerated People

Systemic Oppression and the Contested Ground of Information Access for Incarcerated People

Information Provision and the Carceral State: Race and Reference beyond the Idea of the “Underserved”

A Cartography of Resistance

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About