Seeking knowledge in a social world: Epistemological pathways

✍ Scribed by Eric M. Meyers; Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson; Olof Sundin; Kris Unsworth

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 68 KB
• Volume: 44
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.1450440135

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Epistemology – the study of knowledge and knowing – is of central concern to information science (Budd, 2001; Dick, 2002; Hjørland, 2002). Jesse Shera, who coined the term social epistemology with Margaret Egan, suggested that information science is intimately connected to the “production, flow, integration and consumption of all forms of communicated thought throughout the entire social fabric” (1970: 86). Aiding people in the acquisition of knowledge thus becomes the sine qua non of information services and technologies (Fallis, 2006). As social computing and advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs) change the way we seek and use information personally and professionally, it becomes critical that information scientists understand how social processes influence knowledge acquisition. This panel explores empirically and theoretically how people seek and construct knowledge in a social world.