Knowledge creation and the concept of a human being: A phenomenological approach

“Bouncing ideas” as a complex information practice: information seeking, sharing, creation, and cooperation

Purpose

“Bouncing ideas” is a phrase used colloquially to illustrate a way of advancing ideas in the workplace. While described by some as a key part of their information work, it has remained largely unexplored in the information science literature. As a metaphor used to depict information work, it describes a process of working on ideas in conjunction with others. This paper examines how early career academics use the term when describing their academic work.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reports on one of the findings from a larger, in-depth study that examined the information behaviour of early career academics undergoing career transitions, which was carried out using constructivist grounded theory (CGT). CGT provides both a framework for the systematic collection (that included multiple interviews and check-ins with 20 early career academics) and analysis of the data (that consisted of multiple rounds of iterative, inductive coding).

Findings

The findings identify the component parts of bouncing ideas, which include three component in-formation activities – information seeking, information sharing and information creation – and are undertaken as cooperative information work (joint work for a shared purpose, but the benefits of the work may not be equal between participants).

Originality/value

Bouncing ideas is proposed as a complex information practice, defined as engaging in a temporary cooperative effort that involves social information exchange in order to gain help and/or support for an intellectual endeavour to create new information. The work identifies that more research into bouncing ideas is needed to more fully explore the distinct component behaviours that take place whilst bouncing ideas and the social conditions that foster this collaborative exchange.

Genres and situational appropriation of information

Purpose

Information science research has begun to broaden its traditional focus on information seeking to cover other modes of acquiring information. The purpose of this paper is to move forward on this trajectory and to present a framework for explicating how in addition to being sought, existing information are made useful and taken into use.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual enquiry draws on an empirical vignette based on an observation study of an archaeological teaching excavation. The conceptual perspective builds on Andersen’s genre approach and Huvila’s notion of situational appropriation.

Findings

This paper suggests that information becomes appropriable, and appropriated (i.e. taken into use), when informational and social genres intertwine with each other. This happens in a continuous process of (re)appropriation of information where existing information scaffolds new information and the on-going process of appropriation.

Originality/value

The approach is proposed as a potentially powerful conceptualisation for explicating information interactions when existing information is taken into use rather than sought that have received little attention in traditional models and theories of human information behaviour.

Exploring sensings in practice: affect and knowledge sharing

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of knowledge sharing and what is experienced as being shared as knowledge sharing unfolds. In particular, the paper explores affect as a key aspect of knowledge sharing in an organisational context.

Design/methodology/approach

A practice theoretical approach is applied to the study combined with a phenomenological research methodology that focusses on the “lived experience” of participants.

Findings

Knowledge-sharing practice was found to encompass cognitive, social, bodily and affective dimensions. Affect was found to be a significant component of the practice as revealed by participant emotion and the use of conversational humour.

Research limitations/implications

In light of the findings, the researcher recommends a focus on participant sensings in practice theoretical research, in combination with sayings, doings and relatings.

Originality/value

The approach to the study is significant in that, in contrast to previous practice-based research in information studies, it applied a methodology adapted from phenomenology. This combination of approaches opened the investigation to the multi-dimensional experiential nature of knowledge-sharing practice highlighting the significant role of affect in knowledge sharing.

Knowledge creation and play – a phenomenological approach

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiential nature of knowledge creating interaction and to introduce a framework to explore it theoretically coherently with hermeneutic phenomenology and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concept of play.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper presents a literature-based conceptual analysis of the concept of play. Gadamerian conception is related with the descriptions of knowledge creating interaction in the research of knowledge management and with the uses of the concept of play in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). Theoretical analysis is applied in this study to structure the argumentation.

Findings

– This study illustrates how the preconceptions of experiences and different modes of being in interaction are implicitly present in the research of knowledge creation (KC) in the descriptions of interaction and human factors enhancing KC. A framework for examining KC in organizational circumstances is developed based on the hermeneutic phenomenology and Gadamer’s concept of play, which provide a basis for understanding KC as being together in interaction.

Research limitations/implications

– This theoretical study develops a framework for examining the process of KC also empirically. In this study the examination of hermeneutic phenomenology is limited to the conceptions of play, authenticity and everydayness; phenomenology offers means for further explication of human being and experience.

Originality/value

– This study provides a new view on KC based on hermeneutic phenomenology and play, and contributes to the examination of interactive knowledge processes in the field of LIS.

Knowing and actional information in web based weight maintenance services

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the role of information and knowledge in the context of health behaviour change.

Design/methodology/approach

– As internet use in Finland is among the highest in Europe, two Finnish web-based weight management services were analysed regarding their weight maintenance information by using a theoretical approach constructed for the purpose. The approach combines the elements of web-based weight maintenance information and the typologies of knowing and actional information. The approach was tested by examining the services deductively with theory-based content analysis.

Findings

– The approach indicated differences between the profiles of the two analysed information environments, which focus on factual and tailored information and their relation to pragmatic, provisional and contested knowing and the initiation, maintenance and recovery of actional information. Both services support weight maintenance; the other slightly more due to its rich social features.

Research limitations/implications

– The examination was focused on the free content of two Finnish weight management services. Further research should include the role of socially interactive information and further testing of the approach with more services.

Practical implications

– The proposed approach sheds light on the relationship between the types of weight maintenance information and the dimensions of the typologies of knowing and actional information. The approach has the potential to be applied when designing the information environment of new web-based weight management services.

Social implications

– The approach has potential to be applied when designing the information content of new web-based weight management services to support health behaviour change. The approach could be elaborated further by focusing on enabling social support required in long-term weight maintenance.

Originality/value

– The study adopted a novel approach to studying typologies of knowing and actional information, thus providing new viewpoints in both information behaviour and organisational knowledge. The study enables further research on weight maintenance information use by proposing a theoretical background.