Project Management, Neoliberalism, and Academic Libraries

 This is the 8th chapter in Critical Management Studies and Librarianship Critical Perspectives on Library Management Education and Practice published by Litwin Books.

Neoliberal policies imposed by governments on universities have contributed to instability in libraries, along with other factors such as immense changes in the role of libraries and librarians over the past few decades. Project Management practices in libraries introduce processes and tools that reinforce a neoliberal framework and agenda. This contributes to a cycle of instability, precarious employment, and insecure funding in libraries: the self-reinforcing project-funding cycle. While the discipline of Project Management purports to offer some holistic tools for flexible and democratic decision-making, its hierarchical, Taylorist roots are embedded in its ideologies, and contemporary theories are often not put into practice.