Immaterial, Emotional, Undervalued

Interrogating the Subjugation of Trans and Gender Diverse Labour in Libraries

Authors

  • Magnus Berg University of Toronto, Mississauga

Keywords:

trans labour, autonomist Marxism, social reproduction, library labour, emotional labour, immaterial labour, gender diverse labour, administrative violence

Abstract

While there is some existing scholarship on serving trans/gender diverse patrons in libraries, the labour of trans/gender diverse library workers has received little examination. Until the publication of Trans and Gender Diverse Voices in Libraries, the experiences of workers had gone virtually unexamined. This article critically interrogates the ways that libraries fail and inflict administrative violence against trans/gender diverse workers; the implied requirements for trans/gender diverse workers to assimilate and perform additional emotional labour; the ways that the neoliberal library practices social reproduction; and the impact that these factors have on the trans/gender diverse library worker.

Author Biography

  • Magnus Berg, University of Toronto, Mississauga

    Magnus Berg (they/he) is the Digital Scholarship Librarian at the University of Toronto, Mississauga where they support digital scholarship, media collections, digitization, and digital preservation alongside serving as the liaison for Philosophy. They hold an MA in Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University and a Master of Library and Information Science from Western University.

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Published

2025-10-20

Issue

Vol. 11 (2025)

Section

Research Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Magnus Berg

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