Prelims
ISBN: 978-1-80382-380-5, eISBN: 978-1-80382-379-9
ISSN: 0065-2830
Publication date: 1 March 2023
Citation
Sikes, S. (2023), "Prelims", Toward New Possibilities for Library and Information Science: The Use of Social Media in the 2018 West Virginia Teachers' Strike (Advances in Librarianship, Vol. 51), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. i-xi. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0065-283020230000051009
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023 Scott Sikes
Half Title Page
TOWARD NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
Series Page
ADVANCES IN LIBRARIANSHIP
Advances in Librarianship Editor
Bharat Mehra, The University of Alabama, Series Editor
Advances in Librarianship Editorial Board
Denise E. Agosto, Drexel University
Wade Bishop, University of Tennessee Knoxville
John Buschman, Seton Hall University
Michelle Caswell, University of California Los Angeles
Ursula Gorham, University of Maryland
Sandra Hughes-Hassell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
R. David Lankes, University of South Carolina
Don Latham, Florida State University
Jerome Offord, Lincoln University of Missouri
Ricardo L. Punzalan, University of Maryland
Brian Wentz, Shippensburg University
Lynn Westbrook, University of Texas
Title Page
ADVANCES IN LIBRARIANSHIP - VOLUME 51
TOWARD NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE: THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE 2018 WEST VIRGINIA TEACHERS' STRIKE
BY
SCOTT SIKES
Emory & Henry College, USA
United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China
Copyright Page
Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK
First edition 2023
Copyright © 2023 Scott Sikes.
Published under exclusive license by Emerald Publishing Limited.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-80382-380-5 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-80382-379-9 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-80382-381-2 (Epub)
ISSN: 0065-2830 (Series)
Contents
Series Editor's Introduction | xi |
About the Author | xi |
Acknowledgments | xiii |
Introduction | 1 |
Issues of Social Justice in LIS Scholarship and Education | 3 |
Research and the Appalachian Region | 4 |
Aims and Objectives | 6 |
Chapter One: Mystery and Wonder | 9 |
Higher Education and the Marketplace | 11 |
The Contradictions of My Own Position | 13 |
The Pursuit of Knowledge | 15 |
The Question of Academic Disciplines and the LIS Perspective | 17 |
Dialectical Thinking, Critical Inquiry, and Transcendance | 20 |
A Reflective Journey | 23 |
Chapter Two: The Strike and Issues of Social Media | 27 |
Understanding Collective Action | 30 |
The Decline of Institutions and the Rise of Social Media | 32 |
Appalachian Identity and Resistance | 35 |
Theoretical Implications for the Field of LIS | 37 |
Critical Theory and LIS | 37 |
Collective Action and LIS | 38 |
Collective Identity and LIS | 39 |
Chapter Three: Theoretical and Epistemological Frameworks | 41 |
Collective Action and Social Movements | 41 |
Overcoming the Problem of Self-Interest | 42 |
Rationalism, Modernity, and Its Discontents | 44 |
False Dichotomies | 46 |
Meaning in Contradiction: Dialectical Thinking and the Critical Perspective | 48 |
Technology and Social Movements | 50 |
Techno-Centrism and the Modern World | 50 |
Social Media and Contemporary Social Movements | 52 |
Implications for Collective Action | 53 |
Social Media and the Promise of Democracy | 54 |
A Critical Perspective of Social Media and Protest | 55 |
Collective Identity, Place, and Refusal | 58 |
Collective Identity and Social Movements | 58 |
Social Media and Identity | 59 |
Place-Based Identity | 60 |
Imagined Appalachia and Refusal/Resistance | 62 |
Chapter Four: The Puzzle of Academic Research | 65 |
Slaying the Positivist Father | 66 |
A Critical Perspective and the Methodological Conundrum | 67 |
Immanent Transcendence | 68 |
Sociopolitical Positionality | 70 |
Building the Bricolage | 72 |
Using Qualitative and Interpretivist Methods for Critical Inquiry | 73 |
The Spirit of Ethnography | 74 |
Methods of Research | 77 |
Sampling and Procedures | 78 |
Data Analysis | 79 |
Unruly Doubts and Tumultuous Realities | 81 |
Chapter Five: Telling the Story | 85 |
The Importance of Storytelling | 85 |
Assembling the Story | 87 |
Telling the Story | 89 |
Part I: Beginnings | 89 |
Part II: Talking About the Union Can Be Complicated | 90 |
Part III: Caught in the Middle | 91 |
Part IV: It's the Insurance | 92 |
Part V: On Strike | 93 |
Part VI: A Page Went Up on Facebook | 93 |
Part VII: All the Information They Had | 95 |
Part VIII: Where Are You Going to Be? | 96 |
Part IX: 15 Things Could Happen in 10 Minutes | 97 |
Part X: #55Strong | 99 |
Part XI: The Bigger Picture | 102 |
Part XII: It Was About the Kids | 103 |
Processing the Story | 105 |
The Role of Social Media in the Strike | 105 |
The Impact of Social Media on the Strike | 107 |
A Sense of Collective Identity | 109 |
Chapter Six: Beyond Rationalism | 111 |
Social Media and the Strike | 113 |
The Strike as a Successful Failure | 114 |
The Importance of Collective Identity | 116 |
The Transcendent Moment | 118 |
Chapter Seven: A Reflective Journey | 121 |
Research in the Midst of a Global Pandemic | 122 |
A Particular Form of Torture | 124 |
Toward New Possibilities | 126 |
Embracing Our Humanity | 126 |
Embracing Creativity | 127 |
Embracing Connection | 129 |
References | 133 |
Index | 147 |
Series Editor's Introduction
I am delighted to take this opportunity and introduce myself as the new Series Editor of Advances in Librarianship since January 2021. In this capacity, I plan to extend the series' impact via integrating a critical perspective that spotlights social justice and inclusive praxis from the shadows to become an emerging canon at the very core of who we are and what we value as legit in Library and Information Science (LIS) scholarship and practice. This strategic vision requires destabilizing of entrenched hegemonies within our privileged ranks and external communities to alleviate intersecting political, economic, social, and cultural anxieties, and power imbalances we witness today. As we move toward the quarter-century mark, we also need to effectively document such paradigmatic shifts in LIS, serving as a foundation of inspiration upon which, together in our multiple identities and diversities, we can proudly contribute to the building of a meaningful society toward a brighter future for our children to inherit.
New stimulating models reimagining (or extending) the roles for cultural memory institutions (e.g., libraries, museums, archives, schools, etc.) and the field of information are much required to develop symbolic and real infrastructures for moving us forward. We also need to better tell our stories of information activism and community mobilization in the face of overwhelming challenges to human existence, from forces of neoliberal corporatization, political ransacking, media irresponsibility, climate change, environmental degradation, pandemic dis/misinformation, etc. What do the contemporary threats of human extinction and cultural decay mean for LIS professionals, be it scholars, researchers, educators, practitioners, students, and others embedded in a variety of information settings? Not only does it require actions in the “doing” of resistance via information to decenter dysfunctional powerbrokers and their oppressions and entitled privileges. However, disseminating a forward-thinking agenda and narrative beyond our internally focused bastardized institutional bastions is equally important, as we adopt an active stance to promote fairness, justice, equity/equality, change agency, empowerment, community building, and community development.
Advances in Librarianship holds a special place in the hands, hearts, and minds of readers as a key platform to support creative ideas and practices that change and better articulate the vital contributions of libraries and the impact of information on diverse multicultural communities in a global network information society. Moving forward, my aim for the series is to engage our diverse professional communities in critical discourse that enable real transformations to occur. It is important to propel progress in shifting entrenched positionalities in LIS, while making visible content related to the “margins.” Decentering canons and practices toward equity of representation, inclusivity, and progressive change will naturally occur. Intersecting social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals in recent times demand an urgent response from the LIS professions in this regard.
I am truly honored and privileged to build on the legacy of Paul T. Jaeger, who served as Series Editor of Advances in Librarianship since 2013. His research helped to mobilize LIS in addressing concerns surrounding equity, diversity, and inclusion more substantially beyond past lip service, also shaping the focus of the book series. I plan to operationalize new directions for single- or multi-authored book-length explorations and edited collections by shifting focus on understudied spaces, invisible populations from the margins, and knowledge domains that have been under-researched or under-published in what we consider as high impactful venues in LIS and beyond. Examples might involve a reflective journey that established, or newly emerging LIS scholars, researchers, practitioners, and students critically reflect, assess, evaluate, and propose solutions or actions to change entrenched practices and systemic imbalanced inequities in different library and information-related settings. It might also involve decolonizing LIS publication industries in their biased Euro/Anglo-centricities with inclusion of content from geographical diversities around the world.
I am reaching out to our multiple audiences for their support toward these goals in spreading the word for proposals to new volumes in the series. Let us find our “collective voice” in the LIS professions to make us all uncomfortable as we continue to “push the buttons,” thereby, becoming stronger in our quest to further social justice and develop our humanity, human dignity, respect, and potential to the fullest.
Bharat Mehra
EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice and Professor
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Alabama
About the Author
Scott Sikes received his Ph.D. in Communication and Information from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He is the Director of the Appalachian Center for Civic Life at Emory & Henry College in southwestern Virginia and is an Assistant Professor and the Chair of the Interdisciplinary Program in Civic Innovation.
Acknowledgments
This work would not have been possible without the assistance and support of multiple people. At the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Suzie Allard, Carolyn Hank, and Tamar Shirinian were invaluable teachers and guides as I conducted the research that led to this book.
As a mentor and colleague, Bharat Mehra has shaped my understanding of the field of library and information science, has served as a model for work that is focused on issues of social justice, and has helped me become a stronger scholar and writer.
I can claim no better friend than Tal Stanley who, over the course of an ongoing conversation that has lasted many years now, has helped me in innumerable ways clarify my thinking and my writing.
I am utterly grateful for the love and support of my spouse, Felicia Lowman-Sikes, who helps me find the right direction by asking hard questions and by listening with patience and affection as I puzzle my way through the vexing issues in my mind. She and our daughter, Madeline, are my biggest sources of strength and encouragement.
Most importantly, I am thankful to every West Virginia teacher who took the time to talk with me for this project. They were willing and enthusiastic contributors, never hesitating to share or to answer my questions. The heart of this story belongs to them.
- Prelims
- Introduction
- Chapter One: Mystery and Wonder
- Chapter Two: The Strike and Issues of Social Media
- Chapter Three: Theoretical and Epistemological Frameworks
- Chapter Four: The Puzzle of Academic Research
- Chapter Five: Telling the Story
- Chapter Six: Beyond Rationalism
- Chapter Seven: A Reflective Journey
- References
- Index