Decentering Whiteness in the Academic Library: Investigating the Impact of Institutional Whiteness on Organizational Culture through a Case Study of a Grassroots Anti-Racist Community of Practice in an Academic Library

Abstract

This article reports on a small-scale research project conducted in the summer of 2021. It explores the impact of a grass-roots Anti-Racist Community of Practice on organizational culture and how much it influenced the decision-making practices of the library’s Senior Management Team. Discussed are issues of structural and institutional racism, privilege, power tensions, the impact of whiteness, and the problem of a policy-led approach to increasing diversity. A case study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with eleven participants who were either part of the Anti-Racist Community of Practice, the Senior Management Team, or both. The results of the research show that the Anti-Racist Community of Practice has significantly influenced organizational culture and has shifted the decision-making processes of the Senior Management Team in the library. However, changes in decision-making have not yet manifested in anti-racist practice becoming embedded at the senior level of the library.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The concept of hegemony comes from the Greek word hēgemonía, meaning leadership and rule, or in short, systems and cultures of power and authority. To understand the importance of this concept in the LIS field, see Douglas Raber’s chapter “Hegemony, Historic Blocs, and Capitalism: Antonio Gramsci in Library and Information Science” in Leckie, Given and Buschman (2010).

2 I have focussed on retention here as this goes to demonstrating some of the ramifications of the policy approach and the impact of whiteness remaining unexamined as outlined within the literature review. This is not to ignore the need for a critical review of diversity recruitment practices in LIS, however the research that I am reporting on here focussed on the experiences of people of colour already in the workforce, and as such I focussed on retention rather than recruitment for the literature review.