Abstract

This article looks at issues of power in the relationships between the organizers of three city-wide book reading projects on the one hand, and their communities, funders, and partners on the other. We contend that a discourse of “organizational le- gitimacy” emerges from an analysis of discussions with the organizers of the reading programs. Or- ganizational legitimacy here demonstrates that the power effects are self-regulated, as well as externally introduced, and that it has both strategic and ideological implications. Our identi cation and subsequent analysis of this speci c discourse was achieved through the application of a critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 1993) designed to locate power and privilege in the production and reproduction of discursive language. We expand this analysis to employ a Foucauldian understanding of power in our analy- sis of the management strategies of libraries and partner organizations in book reading projects. Emerging from the discursive language highlighted in our analysis is a discourse of legitimacy re ec- tive of a broader social discourse of capitalism. This discourse highlighted participation, democratic process, and funding concerns for individ- ual participants as they tried to explain, describe, rationalize or question the “legitimacy” of their organization or initiative. This approach problematizes legitimacy as a discourse and allows for connections between the broader social discourse and the enactment of discourse at the local level.