Contentious Publics: A Qualitative Study on the Movement to Defund Public Libraries in Southern Louisiana

• In Event: 20861 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 13: Right-wing and Conservative Movements

Abstract

This graduate thesis analyzes the social processes that underpin the movement to defund public libraries in southern Louisiana and what this reveals about broader trends of power accumulation, resource allocation, and education policy in the United States. While anti-woke culture wars are largely rooted in the American political system, a brief look at the local organizations working to defund public libraries in Louisiana reveals a complex tapestry of both religious and anti-tax groups advocating against public services and public institutions generally. Through archival research, social media analysis, and a series of semi-structured interviews with local anti-tax organizers and library administrators/supporters, this project documents how the manufacturing of moral panics around public educational institutions creates environments of doubt and crisis that contribute to the broader project of neoliberal reform and the privatization of public services.

Author

• Ciel Quebedeaux, University of New Orleans