David McMenemy explores the intersection of political philosophy and professional ethics in library and information advocacy, detailing three main theories of social justice: maximizing welfare, protecting individual freedom, and promoting virtue. He emphasizes the importance of engaging with these philosophies to navigate current debates, such as the role of public libraries, and suggests that advocacy should reflect and respond to emerging political philosophies. The presentation highlights the need for libraries to adapt to changing societal values while maintaining essential services that support equality and community engagement.

1. Synthesising political philosophy &
professional ethics for effective
advocacy
David McMenemy
Computer and Information Sciences
University of Strathclyde
Glasgow

2. • Personal background/context
• Overview of 3 main theories of justice that inform
political philosophy/ethics and their importance
• Examples of how political philosophy and
professional ethics have interacted in library and
information work
• How can we advocate with an eye on the
emerging trends?
• What might the future hold?
Overview

3. • [The] ideas of economists and political
philosophers, both when they are right and when
they are wrong, are more powerful than is
commonly understood…Practical men, who
believe themselves to be quite exempt from any
intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of
some defunct economist.
– J.M. Keynes, 1936.
A thought to begin….

4. • Have authored papers/book on ethics for library
and information professionals
• For past 3 years been studying MA in political
philosophy to enhance ethics knowledge
• Keynes’ words have rung true since minute one
• The language of public policy is the language of
political philosophy
• Our advocacy needs to speak this language
Personal background/context

5. • Professionals delivering public services interpret
policy from political philosophy filtered through
many agents
– Think tanks (Demos, ResPublica, etc)
– Central government
– Local government
– Media
– Professional associations
• By the time we see it, the philosophy may not be
overt
The reality…

6. • In the UK, the people who run central
government, think-tanks and media
predominantly come from a political class
educated in PPE (and variations)
• In such courses, social justice is painted largely
in colours that highlight the prevailing wind of the
time
• Crucially, they also educate the graduates in
both defunct principles of social justice and
potentially emerging principles
The macro and micro challenges

7. • Social justice relates to the theories of how we
allocate social goods
• There are essentially 3 ways of thinking about
social justice. Each has variations, but in
summary:
1. Maximising welfare/utility. e.g. Utilitarianism
2. Protecting individual freedom. e.g. Rights based
theories
3. Promoting virtue. e.g. Communitarian movement
Theories of social justice

8. • Public libraries (and other services) grew out of a
historical period where utilitarianism was the
over-arching political philosophy
• Utilitarianism as a philosophy advocated
maximising happiness for the greatest number
• Post World War II the emerging emphasis on
rights saw utilitarianism wane in influence
• Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971) largely spelt
end of the principle in Anglo-American philosophy
1. Maximising welfare

9. • Inspired by the theories of Immanuel Kant
• Rights philosophers believed utilitarianism did
not respect individual rights in 2 areas:
1. It did not respect the separateness of persons
2. The individual should be able to select their own
version of the good life
• Approaches from both left and right spectrums
were available, though a famous iteration of
rights-based theories could be seen in
Thatcherism
2. Protecting individual freedom

10. • Battle between negative rights and positive rights
colour the debate
• Negative rights are non-interference rights. The
right to be left alone, for the state not to interfere
in your affairs, etc.
– e.g. libertarianism
• Positive rights, often called welfare rights, are the
expectations a citizen can have of the state, e.g.
provision of health, education, libraries, etc.
– e.g. Rawlsian egalitarianism
– (President Bartlett in West Wing was one)
Types of right

11. • In 2013 best-selling author of the Horrible
Histories series, Terry Deary, suggested that
public libraries deprive authors, publishers and
booksellers of income and,
• That the concept of the free public library was
one that belonged in a bygone age
– “Books aren't public property, and writers aren't Enid
Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant
little hobby.”
A philosophical debate in LIS?

12. • “Because it's been 150 years, we've got this idea
that we've got an entitlement to read books for
free, at the expense of authors, publishers and
council tax payers. This is not the Victorian age,
when we wanted to allow the impoverished
access to literature. We pay for compulsory
schooling to do that….”
More Dearygate!

13. • Deary was being selfish, and that society
benefitted from his books being loaned
• Even calls on social media to boycott his books!
• My favourite social media reaction was:
• “So Terry Deary..is on Masterchef. Hope his tart has a
soggy bottom.”
The professional reaction…

14. • The state is trampling on authors’ and publishers’
and booksellers’ rights to provide a service based
on a now defunct philosophy
• My property is being used to benefit others at my
expense
• This is wrong!
• This is a negative rights-based argument and
valid. Advocating against needs to be equally so.
What Deary was really arguing?

15. Philosophical stances on
public libraries?
Pro public libraries Against public libraries
Utilitarian view
Provision of free public libraries benefits
the majority at the expense of the
minority. Benefit can be interpreted in a
range of ways, intrinsic, social,
economic, etc.
Rights-based theory
The author and publisher of a work
have the negative right to not have
their financial interests damaged
through lending of their materials
Rights-based theory
Citizens have the positive right to a
state-funded library service to enable
them to succeed in life.
Rights-based theory:
The taxpayer has the negative right not
have their taxes spent on a public
service they may not use that therefore
does not benefit their interests

16. • For every philosophical argument in public policy
there is usually a valid philosophical alternative
• We need to be less passive and debate and
present these alternatives where necessary
• This involves engaging with the theories on a
deep level
Put simply…

17. • Identify the positive right citizens have to
information and knowledge
• e.g. John Rawls proposes two principles of
justice:
– 1. Equal basic liberty principle
– 2a. Difference principle 2b. Equal opportunity principle
• Access to information, literacy, numeracy, &
libraries, all could be argued as social goods
required by individual citizens
Could Deary have been
countered?

18. • The emerging political philosophy now being put
into policy is based on our third category of social
justice, the promotion of virtue
• This is a fundamental change from a rights
approach as it rallies against individualism
• In policy terms both the Big Society and Blue
Labour movements have elements of virtue
based approaches to social justice
3. Promotion of virtue

19. • Based on an Aristotelian conception of justice
• Most prevalent in modern philosophy in the
communitarian movement
• This group of philosophers emerged in the 80s
and 90s as critics of individualism
• For communitarians, individualism ignored the
societal elements of being a person. i.e. links to
a common culture, history, etc.
Promoting virtue

20. • Tradition and history embodied in communities
provides the purposes for which we should aim
and a common ground for ethics and morality
• We do not create our own sense of right, it is
informed by our links to community and past
• Phillip Blond, Red Tory
– “Virtue is the means by which people fulfil the socially
recognised goals that they are attempting to reach”
– “Virtue also implies a political context for ethics, as it
imagines an objectively desirable future.”
Some communitarian concepts

21. • Just some recent examples from the general
election
• “A country where a good life is there for
everyone willing to work for it.” - David Cameron
• “Optimistic Ed Miliband says: I’ll put working
people first”
• On proposing 3 days annual leave for people
who volunteer, “the clearest demonstration of the
Big Society in action” - David Cameron
The politics of virtue

22. The UK communitarian turn

23. • In all 3 titles we see the argument that both
adherence to state solutions and individualism
have failed
• The community needs to be centre stage
• Volunteering and charity are both virtuous and
enhance a community wellbeing
• New models of service delivery need to emerge
that do not just impose either state or
individualistic solutions
The philosophies espoused

24. • In Red Tory, Phillip Blond argues that:
– “Before the BBC was betrayed by John Birt and his ilk,
there were giants like John Reith who…did not believe
in choice but in ‘equal access to things that are great’”
• A likely emerging aspect of virtue will be quality,
related to purpose.
• In virtue ethics the purpose of something is vital
to be able to allocate it as a social good
• We need to know the purpose of our libraries
Challenges from virtue

25. • Old models of delivery may become outdated,
but new models may weaken quality
– e.g. weak volunteer models, poorly resourced
community-run services
• We may find recent focus on a commercial
model clashes with a communitarian one
– e.g. populist collections vs “worthy” stock
• The language of virtue can be stigmatising
– “hard-working people”, “the good life” etc
The challenges summarised

26. Remember the PKSB core is…

27. • Chartering, Revalidating or going for Fellowship?
• Try to incorporate philosophical elements in your
professional reflection
• Highly recommend Michael Sandel’s Justice:
what’s the right thing to do? for background
– His lectures are at www.justiceharvard.org
• Chapter on political philosophy from my
forthcoming book and some exercises will be
being placed on CILIP VLE for use (late 2015)
What can we do?

28. • Advocacy is not just a facet of marketing, it’s far
more important than that!
• “Public support for or recommendation of
a particular cause or policy” (OED definition)
• That doesn’t have to mean causes or policy has
to be imposed on us.
• We need to shape the uncertain future too
Remember what advocacy is….

29. • Our advocacy needs to be directly responsive to
actual political philosophy of the day
• We also need to be aware of emerging trends
• Advocacy is not necessarily doing what funders
want, having courage and knowledge to make
them aware of valid alternatives also important
• Politics of community and virtue opens up
possibilities for our profession if we can define
clearly what we do
In conclusion

30. Thank you!
Questions?
d.mcmenemy@strath.ac.uk
@d_mcmenemy (Twitter)