A template for investigating changes in academic libraries and librarianship?

My thoughts keep circling back to neoliberalism and its impact on librarianship (and professional identity) so I thought I’d better do more investigation. It seems a likely framework or template, this economic imperative, for investigating the drivers of change within librarianship.

So, what is neoliberalism? I’m no expert. The few authors I’ve read speak of it in terms of its negative impacts on politics and culture, as an economic imperative where “the market drives major social and political decisions” (Susan George qtd. by Giroux 1), “an ideology that subordinates the art of democratic politics to the rapacious laws of a market economy,” where they speak of “the sovereignty of the market” (Giroux 10) and “an economic theory…a powerful public pedagogy and cultural politics” (Giroux 12) versus an affiliative and dialogic mode (Duggan 80).

This one-dimensional imperative seems to grow iteratively among those who want more money, those with the power (politicians) to impact policy and thus culture to get them more money, and with culture itself. For example the American Dream was absorbed to serve neoliberalisms ends, as a claim of potentiality at the same time neoliberalists protect against its achievement. Neoliberalism relies upon strategies and policies that distribute wealth upwards so inequality becomes economically desirable and politically and culturally necessary. Where is the prosperity, success and upward social mobility according to ability or achievement when opportunities are economically, socially and culturally restricted by an economic imperative to move money upwards? If life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights then neoliberalism is anathema to the US Declaration of Independence.

Expressed rhetorically, how easy is it to become successful with a lack of education or even educational institutions [studies have shown success is dependent on your ability to access information] available for your edification, a lack of health or ability to improve health,  and even access to or lack of networks [there is a reason people want to go to the “top” universities - where those with the economic connections go - in order to plug into that economic/social network], among other things? It is also interesting to see where democracy, as expressed by equity of access to health care in America, has been reduced to an issue of taxation at an individual level (by the way, “single issue politics” and the “sleight of hand” approach to masking issues is a common strategy of neoliberalism).

One can certainly see how an imperative that monetizes every aspect of life, including life itself, would create conflict within/between societies and within different member groups of a society that stress non-economic values such as freedom of access to information, the right to clean water and food or the broader concept of social justice. One can also see where this would conflict with ALA’s core values of librarianship (http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/statementspols/corevaluesstatement/corevalues ), especially democracy, intellectual freedom, the public good and social responsibility.