Outsiders‐within‐Library and Information Science: Reprioritizing the marginalized in critical sociocultural work

Abstract

While there are calls for new paradigms within the profession, there are also existing subgenres that fit this bill if they would be fully acknowledged. This essay argues that underrepresented and otherwise marginalized scholars have already produced significant work within social, cultural, and community‐oriented paradigms; social justice and advocacy; and, diversity, equity, and inclusion. This work has not been sufficiently valued or promoted. Furthermore, the surrounding structural conditions have resulted in the dismissal, violently reviewed and rejected, and erased work of underrepresented scholars, and the stigmatization and delegitimization of their work. These scholars are “outsiders‐within‐LIS.” By identifying the outsiders‐within‐LIS through the frame of standpoint theories, the authors are suggesting that a new paradigm does not need to be created; rather, an existing paradigm needs to be recognized and reprioritized. This reprioritized paradigm of critical sociocultural work has and will continue to creatively enrich and expand the field and decolonize LIS curricula.

Advancing information practices theoretical discourses centered on marginality, community, and embodiment: Learning from the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities

“…We contend that such calls often reify underlying power dynamics that advance specific privileged positions and theoretical discourses (Cooke & Kitzie, 2021). For instance, many of the weaknesses widely identified in Chatman's theory-building result from her work being inspired by dominant theoretical discourses espoused by White male anthropologists and sociologists (Mehra & Gray, 2020) and parts of her work, such as the labels "information poverty" and "information poor" being coopted as trendy reifications of deficit discourses without engagement with her theoretical propositions and premises (Cooke & Kitzie, 2021). As a field, part of our focus on theory building must reflect our positionalities and how they shape the underlying assumptions sensitizing our theorizing and research.…”

“…Coupled with participants' overarching identities as LGBTQIA+ people in the American South, our research brings to light diverse experiences of those underrepresented in information practices research. Continuing to build from research that centers and recognizes marginalized perspectives have great potential to contribute to theoretical and conceptual understandings within the field (Cooke & Kitzie, 2021) and information practices research more specifically.…”

“…Several critical sociocultural works have advanced information practices theoretical discourses by adopting concepts from these above orientations. Such works center the perspectives and experiences of those confronting marginalization; incorporate the social, communal, and structural contexts informing their experiences; and seek to transform conditions producing their marginalization (see Cooke & Kitzie, 2021). Chatman's (1991Chatman's ( , 1996Chatman's ( , 1999Burnett et al, 2001;Pendleton & Chatman, 1998) constellation of middle-range theories prove formative to this discussion.…”

Expanding Our Conceptions of Embodied and Affective Information Interactions with Queer Theory

“…Neglect of embodiment and affect are indicative of core limitations that have been pointed out across our discipline, including its long‐standing cognitive focus (Savolainen, 2007) and tendency to binarize people and information systems or technologies (Floegel & Costello, 2021; Lloyd & Olsson, 2019). Moreover, embodiment and affect tend to be rendered most clear in non‐normative contexts (Ahmed, 2004, 2006, 2013), meaning that trends in information science including marginalizing work from scholars of color (Cooke & Kitzie, 2021), white‐ism (Mehra & Grey, 2020), and cis/heteronormativity (Floegel & Costello, 2019; Wagner & Crowley, 2020) all feed into under‐theorization of embodiment and affect. This panel argues that information science would do well to consider how bodies and feelings—and in particular, marginalized bodies and feelings—factor into information interactions if the discipline is serious about embracing epistemics and scholarship beyond white, Western, and cis/heteronormative standpoints.…”

Conceptualizing Relevance of Information as a Social Justice Issue: An Interactive Panel Discussion

“…What is often missing from the conversation, however, is a discussion of who determines relevancy and how the “you know” of individuals from marginalized populations is undervalued by and within society and institutions (Cooke and Kitzie, 2021; Gibson and Martin, 2019; Threats and Bond, 2021). This requires information science researchers to move beyond the system to user paradigm in order to understand how information and technology is understood as relevant across the complex lives of the humans who use them (Cibangu, 2015; Tang et al, 2021).…”