Slides for a talk presented at the Critical Approaches to Librarianship Conference (CALC), 5 May 2021.

1. Working Class Academics in
the Library
Working Class Academics panel
Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference
5 May 2021
Original content in these slides licensed CC BY-NC 4.0
@AcademicsClass
workingclass-academics.co.uk 2nd
international conference 13-14 July 2021

2. Introduction to the panel
Jo Forster
Andrew Preater
Kay Sidebottom
Shona Smith
Hina Suleman
Lisa Taylor

3. Outline
Introduction – Andrew Preater
The Library as a Space of Solidarity – Shona
Smith
Social Divide: Digital & Data Poverty – Dr Jo
Forster
Panel discussion, Q&A

4. What is in the library, who is in the
library?
Andrew Preater
Yosso, T.J. (2005). ‘Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth’, Race
Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91. doi:10.1080/1361332052000341006
Goulding, A. (2008). ‘Libraries and cultural capital’, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 40(4), 235–237.
doi:10.1177/0961000608096713
Reay, D. (2001) ‘Finding or losing yourself?: working-class relationships to education’, Journal of Education Policy,
16(4), 333-346. doi:10.1080/02680930110054335

5. The Library as a Space of Solidarity:
on Social Class, Race, Gender and
Disability
Shona Smith

16. Social Divide: Digital & Data Poverty
Dr Jo Forster

17. SOCIAL
DIVIDE:
DIGITAL &
DATA
POVERTY
DR JO FORSTER(PHD)
EMAIL:JO.FORSTER@ED-ALUMNI.NET

18. OVERVIEW
• Historical positioning of the working class
• De-industrialisation/austerity/pandemic
• Working class education
• A Social Divide: Digital and Data Poverty

19. THE HISTORICAL POSITIONING OF THE WORKING
CLASS
• Historically the positioning of the working class and representing them as having little
value through the prism of middle class values has “pathologized” the working class as
different thus “lacking respect” (Skeggs 1997).
• Class not only informs subjectivity, it is central to us all …to make class invisible is to
abdicate responsibility (through privilege) from the effects it produces.
• To think that class does not matter is only a prerogative of those unaffected by the
deprivations and exclusions it produces (Skeggs 1997).
• Class raises issues of the relative worth of individuals, and about differences between
how people are “valued economically, and how they are valued ethically’’ Sayer (2002,
p.2)

20. • Class matters as it is how individuals of different social classes, with different levels of
capital, behave towards each other in the ‘social field’ that can create “unequal
possibilities for flourishing and suffering’’ (Sayer, 2005a, p.218).
• Class matters in one being able to participate in practices and such relationships and
gain their internal goods (development of skills and educational achievement) if one so
wishes is crucial for well-being, though access to them differs radically across the key
social divisions of gender, class and ‘race’ and across other divisions too e.g. disability
(Sayer 2005b, p.955).
• Being working class today still remains a means of differentiation which is produced by
the middle classes. According to Skeggs(1997): ‘The middle classes have always
reproduced hierarchies and evaluations to regulate, devalue and de-legitimate the
working class.’
• This position is supported by Reay(1998) who contends that: ‘The working class rarely
choose the discourses within which they position themselves. They are produced by
the more powerful in society.’
CLASS MATTERS

21. DE-INDUSTRIALISATION/AUSTERITY/ PANDEMIC
• De-industrialisation: is the systematic reduction in industrial capacity in formerly industrially developed areas that
results in the loss of jobs in traditional industries such as coalmining and iron and steel and manufacturing. According to
Bluestone and Harrison (1982, p.6) “it is a widespread, systematic disinvestment in the nation’s productive capacity”.
• Austerity: The Conservative-led Coalition government’s ‘austerity’ programme from 2012, was one of the most radically
regressive and destructive economic experiments the UK has ever seen. It brought savage cuts to public expenditure
and sweeping reform of the welfare state which scarred individuals, families and communities and disproportionately
affected the most vulnerable in society. It was the poorest in society dependent on welfare and public services that were
the hardest hit by austerity (O’Hara, 2014).
• Pandemic: The COVID-19 pandemic is a global contagion of unprecedented proportions and health, economic, and
social consequences. As with many health problems, its impact is uneven hitting hardest those in poor health and on low
income who are living in deprived areas in overcrowded conditions. This includes ethnic minority working class people
as well as the white working classes( Prah Ruger 2020).

22. EFFECTS OF PANDEMIC ON STUDENTS
• COVID-19 is affecting practically every area of life, including individuals’ and communities’
abilities to work, shop, travel, visit pubs and restaurants, attend places of worship, vote,
exercise their civil and political rights as well as pupils and students’ ability to be educated,
to learn, and to develop—a critical set of capabilities and dimensions of human flourishing.
• The latter has fell disproportionately on pupils and students from lower socioeconomic
backgrounds during the COVID-19 crisis who have not had the conducive learning spaces
or devices and internet access within their homes to study. These cascading effects provide
evidence that our ability to be healthy is essential for and central to our ability to flourish
(Prah Ruger 2004a, 2004b)

23. A WORKING CLASS EDUCATION
• Historically, the main purpose of educating the working class was for the economic
prosperity of the country.
• The comprehensive system seen as a meritocratic system where success depended upon
ability rather than social class. It was expected to bring hope to working class children who
had in the past been segregated from their middle class counterparts at aged 11 by the
11+ examination into the secondary modern system.
• The comprehensive contemporary education system “retains powerful remnants of the
past” as we still have a middle class system in which working class education is made to
serve middle-class interests. Schools continue to prepare the working class for low paid
work rather than academic success (Reay 2006).

24. CONTINUED
• Education of working class children under the auspices of raising levels of
achievement through testing and assessment has caused psychological “hidden
injuries” through fear of failure and loss of confidence and “fixing of failure in the
working classes” (Reay 2006).
• The schooling of the working classes was always to be subordinate and inferior to that
of the bourgeoisie: a palliative designed to contain and pacify rather than to educate
and liberate (Smith cited in Reay 2006).
• Today, working class young people seek to reclaim their respectability through a
university education which was lost to previous generations through a poor working
class education and de-industrialization.

25. When a student lacks access to one of the following:
an appropriate device; good connectivity; reliable back-up when things go wrong; relevant
software; a trained teacher; access to printers and digital resources considered important
for learning.
www.officeforstudents.org.uk
DEFINITION OF DIGITAL AND DATA POVERTY

26. A SOCIAL DIVIDE: DIGITAL AND DATA AND POVERTY
COVID-19 has exacerbated social, economic and health inequalities – related, but not limited to social-
class, race and disability.
A university education for working class students must be understood within the context of social
inequalities, social injustice and inequity.
Pandemic closed schools, colleges, universities, community adult education, voluntary sector and
libraries.
Working class students and adult learners had to find a conducive learning environment outside the
walls of the campus and many who come from working class families on low income have no or limited
access to IT equipment, devices or connectivity to participate in online learning due to financial poverty
and closure of community venues.
Some have a device but not connectivity as data costs money and food is priority not connectivity.

27. CONTINUED
CV19 has imploded inwards onto universities and adult education providers producing an
additional inequality that of digital and data poverty and for some exclusion from education.
This problem lies outside of universities as it has been brought about through structural
inequalities and social injustice and inequity.
Its solution lies in public policy for working class communities and families in providing
policies that provide student grants, a hardship fund, a living wage, secure employment
supported by childcare provision, decent housing, income distribution, a welfare state with a
safety net and not a strict welfare state and investment in an ICT/internet infrastructure .
Universities as academic communities have continued to educate their own students by
moving to online learning. The belief that working class students can access online learning
through digital technologies and connectivity to engage in learning, disregards social and
economic inequalities of which digital poverty plays a part in excluding students.

28. The view of Jisc, Universities UK, GuildHE and Ucisa, who have written to the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin
Williamson MP, calling for an urgent rethink because:
• Risk in creating a ‘lost generation’of young people who are missing out on their education.
• This causes learners distress, harms their wellbeing and creates inequalities, in particular for disadvantaged students.
• It is critical that the 1.8 million university students who are having to learn remotely have equal access to data and
devices.
• Half of higher education students are digitally disadvantaged
• Many families are at risk of slipping into poverty and cannot afford the data costs required for online study
• Digital and data poverty is the main issue that prevents effective delivery of online learning
• Demand for hardship funding from universities has doubled
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/government-action-called-for-to-lift-he-students-out-of-digital-poverty-18-jan-2021
GOVERNMENT ACTION CALLED FOR TO LIFT H.E. STUDENTS OUT OF DIGITAL
POVERTY
(JAN 21)

29. Tett (2020, 2), points out in pandemic times, we need, more than ever, to look for
‘“resources of hope” (Williams 1989) that enable us to engage in struggle and action
together’.

30. SOCIO-ECONOMIC HEALTH INEQUALITIES IN RED
TOWN IN PRE-PANDEMIC TIMES 2017
• 62,555 people or 31% of the population of in Red Town live in the 20% most deprived areas in
England.
• More than one in four children (26.7%) live in poverty
• 202,000 population in Red Town there were 14,000 people of working age claiming an out of work
benefit;
• 29,000 people of working age are not in work;
• 9,600 are economically inactive due to long term sickness;
• 2,500 food bank parcels were issued increasing to 7,800 in 2019
• 11.2% of the population were in fuel poverty.

31. INEQUALITIES CONTINUED
• 3,325 people either homeless, living with substance misuse or involved in crime. Homelessness is not
inevitable and is rarely a housing issue alone.
• Red Town and wider suburbs exhibit higher levels of estimated common mental health disorders and
high levels of anti-depressants prescribing when compared to regional and national figures. Those
aged 16 + as 78,321 (20.5%) being prescribed for a common mental health disorder.
• Inequalities associated with socio-economic difference based on class have not disappeared (Skeggs
2009) and these inequalities have been further exacerbated by 2021 due to austerity and pandemic.

32. References
Alabi, J. (2015) ‘Racial microaggressions in academic libraries: results of a survey of minority and non-minority librarians’, The
Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(1), 47-53. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2014.10.008
Andrews, K. and Palmer, L.A. (2016) Blackness in Britain. London: Routledge
Biko, S. (1981). ‘Black Consciousness and the quest for a true humanity’, Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 11(1), 133-142.
Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4fk5d8x3 (Accessed: 3 May 2021)
Bluestone, B. and Harrison, B. (1982) The de-industrialization of America. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Cram, J. (1993) ‘Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa’, The Australian Library Journal, 42(1), 13-20. doi:
10.1080/00049670.1993.10755621
The Free Black University (2020) ‘Welcome to The Free Black University’. Available at: https://www.freeblackuni.com/ (Accessed:
3 May 2021)
Goulding, A. (2008). ‘Libraries and cultural capital’, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 40(4), 235–237. doi:
10.1177/0961000608096713
Hill Collins, P. (2000) Black feminist thought. 2nd edn. New York, NY: Routledge
hooks, b. (2015). Feminism is for everybody. New York, NY: Routledge
Jisc (2021) Government action called for to lift HE students out of digital poverty. Available at:
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/government-action-called-for-to-lift-he-students-out-of-digital-poverty-18-jan-2021 (Accessed 3 May
2021)
Mignolo, W.D. (2011) The darker side of western modernity. Durham, NC: Duke University

33. References
O’Hara, M. (2014) Austerity bites. Bristol: Polity.
Prah Ruger, J. (2020) ‘Positive public health ethics: toward flourishing and resilient communities and individuals’, American Journal
of Bioethics, 20(7), 44-54. doi:10.1080/15265161.2020.1764145
Prah Ruger, J. (2004a) ‘Ethics of the social determinants of health’, Lancet 364(9439), 1092-1097. doi:
10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17067-0
Prah Ruger, J. (2004b) ‘Health and social justice’, Lancet 364(9439), 1075-1080. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17064-5
Reay, D. (2001) ‘Finding or losing yourself?: working-class relationships to education’, Journal of Education Policy, 16(4), 333-346.
doi:10.1080/02680930110054335
Reay, D. (2006) ‘The zombie stalking English schools: social class and educational inequality’, British Journal of Educational
Studies, 54(3), 288-307. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8527.2006.00351.x
Sayer, A. (2005a) The moral significance of class. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Sayer, A. (2005b) ‘“What are you worth?”: why class is an embarrassing subject’, Sociological Research Online, 7(3), 1-20. doi:
10.5153/sro.738
Skeggs, B. (1997) Formations of class and gender. London: Sage.
Tett, L., (2020) ‘A response to Vol. 11, supplementary issue, 2020’, Concept, 11(2), 1–3. Available at:
http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/article/view/4459/6043 (Accessed: 27 April 2021)
Yosso, T.J. (2005) ‘Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth’, Race Ethnicity and
Education, 8(1), 69-91. doi:10.1080/1361332052000341006