Theorizing Libraries as Conflictual Spaces - between Agonism and Assemblages?

Description

At this session of the reading group, we would like to present two theoretical approaches to understanding the role and potential of public libraries in society. These are notions of agonistic pluralism and radical democracy developed by Chantal Mouffe and post-humanist epistemologies developed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari; more specifically their concept of assemblage (agencement in French). We start from two selected texts, one discussing public libraries as assemblages, and the other proposing a theoretical framework that combines plural agonism with assemblage and leads to the proposal to conceptualize the library not as a noun but as a verb. We seek to discuss these theoretical perspectives as fruitful for analyzing and identifying the political roles libraries occupy in transforming democratic societies. In this theoretically-geared session, we will also raise questions about ontologies of libraries as nouns, and librarizing as a verb.

Period	2023 Jan 19
Event title	Library Reading Group: Digital Reading Group organised by Rianne Van Melik, Radboud University, Nijmegen
Event type	Other
Degree of Recognition	International