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ERIC Number: EJ1060518
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Mar
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1368-1613
EISSN: N/A
Information Sharing in the Field of Design Research
Pilerot, Ola
Information Research: An International Electronic Journal, v20 n1 Mar 2015
Introduction: This paper reports on an extensive research project which aimed at exploring information sharing activities in a scholarly context. The paper presents and synthesises findings from a literature review and three qualitative case studies. The empirical setting is a geographically distributed Nordic network of design scholars. Method: The project is characterised by an explorative approach encompassing semi-structured interviews, document studies, and ethnographically oriented participatory observations. Apart from addressing the empirical question of how, where, when, and why the researchers in the network share information, the paper elucidates the reciprocal relationship between information sharing and the wider practice of design research. Analysis: The research questions are addressed through close reading and interrelated analysis of four previous studies. Results: When scholarly information sharing takes place organizational structures are sometimes complemented, or substituted, by flexible communities of practice such as those in the investigated network. Information sharing appears as a means to reach collective understanding, also regarding issues that stretches beyond the immediate information practices, for instance about how to act as a design scholar. Conclusions: This research clarifies and provides examples of how information sharing is embedded in and intertwined with a range of other activities, such as writing, reading and information seeking. It also presents information sharing as a contributor to the enactment of a discipline. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of ISIC, the Information Behaviour Conference" (Leeds, England, Sep 2-5, 2014), Part 2, Paper isic26.]
Thomas D. Wilson. 9 Broomfield Road, Broomhill, Sheffield, S10 2SE, UK. Web site: http://informationr.net/ir
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A