Radical Information Literacy

Introduction

This is a work of social, political and educational theory that critically explores, and then contests, the field of information literacy (IL), by attending to its relationship with power and authority, and how these shape the generation of knowledge. The central argument of the book is that, since its emergence in the 1970s, IL has constructed and then institutionalised itself around a monologic approach that stands in a fundamental tension with the dialogic nature of learning, knowledge-formation, and the use of language (Linell 2009). This argument is based on a more expansive view of IL than is typical, one that addresses issues of dialogue, discourse, power, and authority over information exchange, and that has, as its field ...