Purpose

This study addresses how algorithmic recommendations and their affordances shape everyday information practices among young people.

Design/methodology/approach

Thematic interviews were conducted with 20 Finnish young people aged 15–16 years. The material was analysed using qualitative content analysis, with a focus on everyday information practices involving online platforms.

Findings

The key finding of the study is that the current affordances of algorithmic recommendations enable users to engage in more passive practices instead of active search and evaluation practices. Two major themes emerged from the analysis: enabling not searching, inviting high trust, which highlights the how the affordances of algorithmic recommendations enable the delegation of search to a recommender system and, at the same time, invite trust in the system, and constraining finding, discouraging diversity, which focuses on the constraining degree of affordances and breakdowns associated with algorithmic recommendations.

Originality/value

This study contributes new knowledge regarding the ways in which algorithmic recommendations shape the information practices in young people's everyday lives specifically addressing the constraining nature of affordances.

Academic journals, archives, and repositories are seeing an increasing number of questionable research papers clearly produced using generative AI. They are often created with widely available, general-purpose AI applications, most likely ChatGPT, and mimic scientific writing. Google Scholar easily locates and lists these questionable papers alongside reputable, quality-controlled research. Our analysis of a selection of questionable GPT-fabricated scientific papers found in Google Scholar shows that many are about applied, often controversial topics susceptible to disinformation: the environment, health, and computing. The resulting enhanced potential for malicious manipulation of society’s evidence base, particularly in politically divisive domains, is a growing concern.

DN DEBATT 23/6.

Källkritik är en hörnsten i vår demokratiska överenskommelse. När kriser som pandemin och krig uppstår uppmanas vi alla att kritiskt granska information. Men källkritik är ingen magisk kraft. Och när lögnen som politisk strategi blir alltmer normaliserad öppnar vi för andra, externa hot, skriver professorerna Jutta Haider och Olof Sundin.

The article examines the relationship between commercial search engines, using Google Search as an example, and various forms of ignorance related to climate change. It draws on concepts from the field of agnotology to explore how environmental ignorances, and specifically related to the climate crisis, are shaped at the intersection of the logics of Google Search, everyday life and civil society/politics. Ignorance refers to a multi-facetted understanding of the culturally contingent ways in which something may not be known. Two research questions are addressed: How are environmental ignorances, and in particular related to the climate crisis, shaped at the intersection of the logics of Google Search, everyday life and civil society/politics? In what ways can we conceptualise Google's role as configured into the creation of ignorances? The argument is made through four vignettes, each of which explores and illustrates how Google Search is configured into a different kind of socially produced ignorance: (1) Ignorance through information avoidance: climate anxiety; (2) Ignorance through selective choice: gaming search terms; (3) Ignorance by design: algorithmically embodied emissions; (4) Ignorance through query suggestions: directing people to data voids. The article shows that while Google Search and its underlying algorithmic and commercial logic pre-figure these ignorances, they are also co-created and co-maintained by content producers, users and other human and non-human actors, as Google Search has become integral of social practices and ideas about them. The conclusion draws attention to a new logic of ignorance that is emerging in conjunction with a new knowledge logic. 

I en tid då medielandskapet är i ständig förändring och traditionell medieforskning konstant utmanas ökar behovet av att förena teknik, humaniora och samhällsvetenskap. Medie- och teknikforskning kräver innovativa angreppssätt för att navigera bland komplexa relationer mellan kultur, samhälle, ekonomi och teknologi.

I den här boken bjuder ledande forskare in till samtal om teknologins utmaningar och möjligheter. Här presenteras redskap för att utforska, beskriva, begreppsliggöra och förstå nya relationer mellan medieteknologier och deras omvärld – en kunskap som förbereder läsaren att på egen hand kombinera samhällsvetenskapernas kritiska analyser med teknikvetenskapernas tradition att utveckla tillförlitliga och effektiva system.

Tekniska mediestudier riktar sig till studenter inom ämnen som medieteknik, medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap, kulturvetenskap, data- och systemvetenskap, interaktionsdesign och informatik.

While the focus of information science and technology research is in information, sometimes the lack of information, information gaps and non-information can make an equally great or even greater difference. The purpose of this panel is to nuance the understanding of the absence of information and addressing the gap in theorising, investigating and working with information gaps and ‘non-information’ across the information field. Panellists present research conceptualising, documenting, and describing information gaps and non-information and how they are dealt with in the information field specifically addressing: 1) how conceptualisations of information gaps and non-information influence how they emerge as describable entities; 2) what approaches to manage information gaps and non-information exist in information science and technology research; 3) what aspects of information gaps and non-information different approaches address, make visible and invisible; and 4) how novel insights from the current state-of-the-art research can be translated to practice, policies and actions. 

Social media and other platforms have become an essential part of meaning-making on outdoor activities, influencing discourses about “good nature” and “good outdoor experiences.” However, much research on environmental communication in online spaces explores such discourses without considering the influence of platforms. This article proposes that “nature” visible online is co-constructed by users and platforms alike. Using the empirical case of nature selfies—an archetype of imagery on social media platforms—posted on Instagram, Facebook, and Tripadvisor, and a small participatory “breaching experiment” aimed at collecting “ugly” nature selfies, we analyse and interrogate nature/society relationships displayed online within the platform contexts of attention economy and affordances. We conclude that these reinforce the desirability of consuming “beautiful” nature, while simultaneously limiting the possibilities for alternative nature/society relationships to be developed and promoted.

Information literacy research is growing in importance but has been critiqued for remaining focused on practical topics of interest and attainment approaches to practice. Prior attempts to conceptualise information literacy have also often taken place without a comprehensive understanding of the ontological or epistemological foundations of theoretical work. The aim of this panel is to critically examine theory development and use within information literacy research through discussing the ways in which understandings of information literacy, including how it happens and how it shapes social life, are both enabled and constrained through critical, sociomaterial and discursive theoretical approaches. Providing a space to discuss and reflect on the impact of theory on information literacy scholarship, this panel creates a focal point for researchers, practitioners and students interested in the constructionand advancement of conceptually rich information literacy research and practice.

Introduction. This conceptual paper introduces the notion of algorithmically embodied emissions to highlight how everyday choices facilitated by commercial algorithmic information systems such as commercial search engines, social media and recommender systems contribute to the climate crisis and other forms of environmental destruction.

Method/Analysis. The proposed concept is developed by integrating terminology from the fields of information studies, critical algorithm studies and environmental impact assessment, and by examining a strategic selection of examples.

Results. Through the examples, the authors show that semantic interpretation of queries as well as the information architecture involve normative dimensions with implications for the climate crisis and other forms of environmental destruction.

Conclusions. The paper proposes a terminological framework that integrates conceptual considerations from environmental impact assessment, environmental communication, information studies and critical algorithm studies to articulate how algorithmic information systems are co-constitutive of environmental harm. The paper further suggest to extend environmental impact assessment to include algorithmic harms in order to take into account how responsibility and accountability are distributed among different actors with profoundly different conditions and opportunities to exercise them.

Paradoxes of Media and Information Literacy contributes to ongoing conversations about control of knowledge and different ways of knowing. It does so by analysing why media and information literacy (MIL) is proposed as a solution for addressing the current information crisis.

Questioning why MIL is commonly believed to wield such power, the book throws into sharp relief several paradoxes that are built into common understandings of such literacies. Haider and Sundin take the reader on a journey across different fields of practice, research and policymaking, including librarianship, information studies, teaching and journalism, media and communication and the educational sciences. The authors also consider national information policy proposals and the recommendations of NGOs or international bodies, such as UNESCO and the OECD. Showing that MIL plays an active role in contemporary controversies, such as those on climate change or vaccination, Haider and Sundin argue that such controversies challenge existing notions of fact and ignorance, trust and doubt, and our understanding of information access and information control. The book thus argues for the need to unpack and understand the contradictions forming around these notions in relation to MIL, rather than attempting to arrive at a single, comprehensive definition.

Paradoxes of Media and Information Literacy combines careful analytical and conceptual discussions with an in-depth understanding of information practices and of the contemporary information infrastructure. It is essential reading for scholars and students engaged in library and information studies, media and communication, journalism studies and the educational sciences.

Varför dyker det upp rasistiska svar på Google? Hur kan börsen kraschar utan att vi märker det? Och hur kommer det sig egentligen att vi tycker och tänker som vi gör? Algoritmer finns överallt runt omkring oss. De styr allt från datingsidor till Facebook-flöden, från övervakningskameror till Netflix-rekommendationer. Men vem har egentligen skrivit koden som styr våra liv? Och varför?

Purpose The article makes an empirical and conceptual contribution to understanding the temporalities of information literacies. The paper aims to identify different ways in which anticipation of certain outcomes shapes strategies and tactics for engagement with algorithmic information intermediaries. The paper suggests that, given the dominance of predictive algorithms in society, information literacies need to be understood as sites of anticipation. Design/methodology/approach The article explores the ways in which the invisible algorithms of information intermediaries are conceptualised, made sense of and challenged by young people in their everyday lives. This is couched in a conceptual discussion of the role of anticipation in understanding expressions of information literacies in algorithmic cultures. The empirical material drawn on consists of semi-structured, pair interviews with 61 17–19 year olds, carried out in Sweden and Denmark. The analysis is carried out by means of a qualitative thematic analysis in three steps and along two sensitising concepts – agency and temporality. Findings The results are presented through three themes, anticipating personalisation, divergences and interventions. These highlight how articulating an anticipatory stance works towards connecting individual responsibilities, collective responsibilities and corporate interests and thus potentially facilitating an understanding of information as co-constituted by the socio-material conditions that enable it. This has clear implications for the framing of information literacies in relation to algorithmic systems. Originality/value The notion of algo-rhythm awareness constitutes a novel contribution to the field. By centring the role of anticipation in the emergence of information literacies, the article advances understanding of the temporalities of information.

Selfies and nature photography represent and stage idealised forms of the self and nature respectively, constructing specific norms of share-worthy imagery, experiences, and ultimately ‘beauty’. Connecting these two genres, we suggest that the visual and co-located textual sign systems (e.g. hashtags, shares, likes) of nature-selfies code these entanglements and facilitate certain understandings of and engagements with 'nature' or 'wilderness'; nature-selfies thereby not only connect but are also implicated in both ends of this mediation. Building on extant the STS  the disciplinarily diverse literature on platforms, in our contribution, we investigate expressions of the aligned data practices of taking, sharing, and interacting with selfies as influenced by the infrastructural arrangements es of specific social media platforms. Exploring five instances cases of different nature-selfie contexts through field and desk research, we find that nature-selfies mediate (often unequal) human-nature and human-human relationships through ‘stuff’ and its absence. These relationships not only demarcate community membership, but also impact and exploit nature in material and discursive terms. We suggest further study of taking, sharing, and interacting with nature-selfies and nature-through-selfies as a (in many ways) highly impactful everyday practice of engaging with the environment, possibly contributing to an understanding of the tensions expressed within the sustainability issues of our times.

Sverige bör driva frågan om ett öppet webbindex internationellt. Det skriver Dirk Lewandowski, Jutta Haider och Olof Sundin, som forskar kring sökmotorer.

Purpose The article introduces selected theoretical approaches to time and temporality relevant to the field of library and information science, and it briefly introduces the papers gathered in this special issue. A number of issues that could potentially be followed in future research are presented. Design/methodology/approach The authors review a selection of theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of time that originate in or are of particular relevance to library and information science. Four main themes are identified: (1) information as object in temporal perspectives; (2) time and information as tools of power and control; (3) time in society; and (4) experiencing and practicing time. Findings The paper advocates a thorough engagement with how time and temporality shape notions of information more broadly. This includes, for example, paying attention to how various dimensions of the late-modern time regime of acceleration feed into the ways in which information is operationalised, how information work is commodified, and how hierarchies of information are established; paying attention to the changing temporal dynamics that networked information systems imply for our understanding of documents or of memory institutions; or how external events such as social and natural crises quickly alter modes, speed, and forms of data production and use, in areas as diverse as information practices, policy, management, representation, and organisation, amongst others. Originality/value By foregrounding temporal perspectives in library and information science, the authors advocate dialogue with important perspectives on time that come from other fields. Rather than just including such perspectives in library and information science, however, the authors find that the focus on information and documents that the library and information science field contributes has great potential to advance the understanding of how notions and experiences of time shape late-modern societies and individuals.

This opinion piece takes Google's response to the so-called COVID-19 infodemic, as a starting point to argue for the need to consider societal relevance as a complement to other types of relevance. The authors maintain that if information science wants to be a discipline at the forefront of research on relevance, search engines, and their use, then the information science research community needs to address itself to the challenges and conditions that commercial search engines create in. The article concludes with a tentative list of related research topics.

Wikis are often considered to be the core platform of peer production. This chapter delineates their most central design principles, history and affordances. Wikis are described as content management systems that allow for flexible collaboration without a defined content owner or leader. Users can modify the content and structure of documents directly in their web browser. Edits are usually archived and open to revision. This chapter pays particular attention to the most successful wiki-based system, the non-profit, online encyclopedia Wikipedia. As the chapter explains, Wikipedia actually contains a broad range of more or less individual wiki projects and has inspired a plethora of other endeavors, both open source and proprietary. The particular peer production model employed in Wikipedia is elucidated, and in the course also complicated. The chapter concludes by highlighting a number of tensions emerging from a wiki-based peer production model, between amateurs and experts, human editors and bots, lay knowledge and academic knowledge and the shaping of trust through external actors.

The ability of citizens to establish the credibility of information and information sources through critical assessment is often emphasized as essential for the upholding of a democratic society and for people’s health and safety. Drawing on material-discursive conceptualizations, the article asks, how does critical assessment of information and information sources play out as it is folded into a networked information infrastructure in which different types of information are mediated and shaped by the same algorithms and flattened into the same interfaces? The empirical material comprises dyadic interviews with 61 adolescents. The interviews were analysed using an interpretative approach focusing on the construction of action and meaning. The analysis foregrounds trust and agency as two dimensions. This way normative assumptions become visible as stereotypes, sometimes positioned as ideals towards which to strive, other times as deterrent examples: the non-evaluator, the naïve evaluator, the skeptical evaluator and the confident evaluator. The created stereotypes help to comprehend different understandings of critical assessment of information and how these can bring about different actions. The article argues that critical assessment of information as an element in media and information literacy must be understood not just in relation to how it is used to assess the credibility of information, but also regarding how it is performatively enrolled in the shaping of knowledge and in the creation of ignorance and doubt.

Varför behöver vi algoritmer? I detta avsnitt träffar vi professor Jutta Haider vid högskolan i Borås och frågar om algoritmers betydelse och påverkan. Vi diskuterar allt från filterbubblor, algoritmers prioritering av värdeladdade ord till om man kan säga att algoritmer är som publicistiska filter? 

The chapter focuses on the notion of critical evaluation of information, which is an important part of media and information literacy (MIL). The concepts frictions of relevance and infrastructural meaningmaking are introduced to shed light on the information infrastructure’s significance for MIL in today’s digital media ecology. Furthermore, the chapter discusses some of the limitations inherent in placing theresponsibility for evaluating information predominantly on the individual, thus challenging the straightforward connection between MIL and democracy.

Invisible Search and Online Search Engines considers the use of search engines in contemporary everyday life and the challenges this poses for media and information literacy. Looking for mediated information is mostly done online and arbitrated by the various tools and devices that people carry with them on a daily basis. Because of this, search engines have a significant impact on the structure of our lives, and personal and public memories. Haider and Sundin consider what this means for society, whilst also uniting research on information retrieval with research on how people actually look for and encounter information. Search engines are now one of society’s key infrastructures for knowing and becoming informed. While their use is dispersed across myriads of social practices, where they have acquired close to naturalised positions, they are commercially and technically centralised. Arguing that search, searching, and search engines have become so widely used that we have stopped noticing them, Haider and Sundin consider what it means to be so reliant on this all-encompassing and increasingly invisible information infrastructure. Invisible Search and Online Search Engines is the first book to approach search and search engines from a perspective that combines insights from the technical expertise of information science research with a social science and humanities approach. As such, the book should be essential reading for academics, researchers, and students working on and studying information science, library and information science (LIS), media studies, journalism, digital cultures, and educational sciences.

This paper presents a theory-driven discussion on the role of facts in society, couched between a brief historical overview and a discussion of the contemporary situation, exemplified in particular by openly available web-based fact services. Implications for the conceptualisation of information literacy – and in particular information literacy in relation to today’s dominant algorithmic information infrastructure – are considered throughout. Method. This is a conceptual paper where theoretical reasoning is accompanied by examples from a small empirical material. This material consists of the use and observation of three web-based fact services as well as expert interviews with three producers and one user of one of the services. In particular Hannah Arendt’s essay “Truth and politics” is drawn on to contextualise and understand the role of facts in society. Results. The web-based fact services investigated here facilitate and describe the creation of facts based on open data in a rather traditional way, i.e. by providing references and pointing to sources. However, the established facts are then inserted into today’s networked information landscape, which is an arena for competing knowledge claims working according to the market’s principles of popularity, and this leads to conflicting situations and poses new demands on information literacy. **Conclusions.**This paper suggests the need for a view of information literacy that accounts for infrastructural meaning-making at the same time as it enables the political dimensions of the way in which facts and factual information are created and valued in contemporary society to be taken seriously.

Wikis are often considered to be the core platform of peer production. This chapter delineates their most central design principles, history and affordances. Wikis are described as content management systems that allow for flexible collaboration without a defined content owner or leader. Users can modify the content and structure of documents directly in their web browser. Edits are usually archived and open to revision. This chapter pays particular attention to the most successful wiki-based system, the non-profit, online encyclopedia Wikipedia. As the chapter explains, Wikipedia actually contains a broad range of more or less individual wiki projects and has inspired a plethora of other endeavors, both open source and proprietary. The particular peer production model employed in Wikipedia is elucidated, and in the course also complicated. The chapter concludes by highlighting a number of tensions emerging from a wiki-based peer production model, between amateurs and experts, human editors and bots, lay knowledge and academic knowledge and the shaping of trust through external actors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how information on air pollution is shaped online on an everyday basis, with a particular emphasis on digital devices and digital representations as constitutive of environmental information practices. Furthermore, this research highlights an understudied aspect of air pollution – the digital flow of multimodal representations that citizens encounter and produce in their everyday life. The information gathering was carried out on an everyday basis during February-March 2017. The study is based on 403 microblog posts from the social media site Sina Weibo, and netnographic fieldwork, including the observation of news, advertisements, and diary writing. The collected data were mapped in clusters based on the interrelations of objects, agents, and activities, and analyzed in depth using qualitative multimodal analysis. Findings: Information enacted through specific socio-materialist configurations depicts air pollution as self-contained and separated from human action. Air quality apps are central in connecting a wider nexus of representations and promoting such perceptions, illustrating the role of digital devices in an everyday information context. Social implications: The study reveals a schism between Chinese political environmental visions and everyday environmental information practices, which raises questions of how the battle against air pollution can be sustained in the long term. Originality/value: This study suggests that digital material aspects – inbuilt applications of digital devices and digital representations of objects – are interrelated with physical experiences of air pollution, and thus constitute elements of practice in their own right.

Open access has established itself as an issue that researchers, universities, and various infrastructure providers, such as libraries and academic publishers, have to relate to. Commonly policies requiring open access are framed as expanding access to information and hence as being part of a democratization of society and knowledge production processes. However, there are also other aspects that are part of the way in which open access is commonly imagined in the various policy documents, declarations, and institutional demands that often go unnoticed. This essay wants to foreground some of these issues by asking the overarching question: “If open access and open science are the solutions, then what is the problem they are meant to solve?” The essay discusses how demands to open up access to research align also with processes of control and evaluation and are often grounded in ideas of economic growth as constant acceleration.

The purpose of this paper is to understand what role researchers assign to online representations on the new digital communication sites that have emerged, such as Academia, ResearchGate or Mendeley. How are researchers’ online presentations created, managed, accessed and, more generally, viewed by academic researchers themselves? And how are expectations of the academic reward system navigated and re-shaped in response to the possibilities afforded by social media and other digital tools? Design/methodology/approach Focus groups have been used for empirical investigation to learn about the role online representation is assigned by the concerned researchers. Findings The study shows that traditional scholarly communication documents are what also scaffolds trust and builds reputation in the new setting. In this sense, the new social network sites reinforce rather than challenge the importance of formal publications. Originality/value An understanding of the different ways in which researchers fathom the complex connection between reputation and trust in relation to online visibility as a measure of, or at least an attempt at, publicity (either within academia or outside it) is essential. This paper emphasizes the need to tell different stories by exploring how researchers understand their own practices and reasons for them.

Introduction. This paper examines situations in which people restrict themselves in order to control their online searching and how this is negotiated. It is framed in a sociomaterial perspective taking account of the entanglement of information technology with its users and the conditions of its use. It contributes to a conceptual discussion of the sociomaterial shaping of the informational texture of issues and practices and of how online search is entangled across practices and situations. Method. The paper draws on empirical material from 21 focus groups with 127 participants carried out in Sweden 2014 and 2015. Analysis. The focus group conversations were transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis to establish returning themes. The present analysis cuts across these themes by tracing anecdotes of failed or restricted searches. Results. The following issues are discussed: notions of self-control to avoid surveillance, search as a 'conversation killer', as posing a risk for learning something unwelcome, of how not to be able to form the question, and of how to relate to being offline. Conclusion. The paper closes with a question joining methodological and theoretical concerns: How can we study identifiable information activities and objects as enmeshed across practices, while still considering their specific character as information activities?

This study investigates online material published in reaction to a Science magazine report showing the absence of peer-review and editorial processes in a set of fee-charging open access journals in Biology. Quantitative and qualitative textual analyses are combined to map conceptual relations in these reactions; and to explore how understandings of scholarly communication and publishing relate to specific conceptualisations of science and of the hedging of scientific knowledge. A discussion of the connection of trust and scientific knowledge and of the role of peer-review for establishing and communicating this connection provides for the theoretical and topical framing. Special attention is paid to the pervasiveness of digital technologies in formal scholarly communication processes. Three dimensions of trust are traced in the material analysed: (1) trust through personal experience and informal knowledge, (2) trust through organised, internal control, (3) trust through form. The article concludes by discussing how certain understandings of the conditions for trust in science are challenged by perceptions of possibilities for deceit in digital environments.

Research data are complicated things. The question of whether they are things at all is of course contentious. Yet, even if we leave this issue aside for now, there are continuous debates - some would say struggles - over who owns the data, how to handle and describe it, how to store and share more of it and why, in short, who has which interest in it. It is also unclear when it is appropriate to speak of research data in the first place, as opposed to say, publication, document, working material, metadata, catalogue entry and so on.

PurposeThe aim of the study is to understand how meaning is assigned to online searching by viewing it as a mundane, yet often invisible, activity of everyday life and an integrated part of various social practices.Design/methodology/approachSearching is investigated with a sociomaterial approach with a starting point in information searching as entangled across practices and material arrangements and as a mundane part of everyday life. 21 focus groups with 127 participants have been carried out. The study focuses particularly on peoples’ experiences and meaning-making and on how these experiences and the making of meaning could be understood in the light of algorithmic shaping.FindingsAn often-invisible activity such as searching is made visible with the help of focus group discussions. An understanding of the relationship between searching and everyday life through two interrelated narratives is proposed: a search-ification of everyday life and a mundane-ification of search.Originality/valueThe study broadens the often narrow focus on searching in order to open up for a research-based discussion in information science on the role of online searching in society and everyday life.

En rapport skriven i uppdrag av Kansliet för strategi- och samtidsfrågor

Copyright © 2016 by Association for Information Science and Technology The workshop brings together differing perspectives on what makes research data possible. How data is made represents an on-going negotiation between a number of elements. It reflects, firstly, the nature of disciplines and the complex way this is linked to cultures of research data and data sharing. Secondly, data is made across the complex temporalities within different practices of its management. Thirdly, it increasingly reflects the influences of data policies: working at the international and national, down to institutional level. Fourthly, it is also shaped by the renegotiation of professional interests and relationships such as between librarians, computing services, archivists and research administrators. And, fifthly, data is being shaped within models of education and training of current and new information professionals. The panel seeks to bring together a diverse range of participants to explore appropriate theories and methodologies for work in this field, using a conversation cafe format, and based on discussions around the five elements.

This scoping review of 80 research articles in library and information science (LIS) and related fields, published between 2004 and 2014, focuses on the use of social network sites by researchers. The results show that social network sites are used as part of scholarly life, yet with disciplinary differences. It is also shown that the area lacks methodological, theoretical and empirical coherence and theoretical stringency. The most salient strands of research (general uptake, outreach, special tools/cases, assessing impact, practices/new modes of communication) are mapped and ways to improve research in the field are identified. This provides a first step toward a more comprehensive understanding of the roles of social network sites in scholarship.

This article studies environmental information as it circulates in social media, specifically in personal blogs and microblogs. It rests on a thematic analysis of a selection of Swedish language, personal, everyday life environment blogs active during 2011 and 2012 and the social media applications connected to these blogs. Gibson's concept of affordances and Foucault's notion of governmentality are brought together to examine how material and technological affordances of social media and the structures of governmentality work together to engender a type of information on environmentally friendly living that is rooted in the conditions of the Web, together with a view of society which is structured around choice and individual responsibility. The article argues that information is woven into the texture of the social on every level, including everyday life practices, and hence social media, as tools in such practices, contribute to shaping the way in which information on environmentally friendly living is articulated, shaped, and filled with meaning.

Purpose: This study explores informational structures producing and organizing the construction of waste sorting in Sweden. It shows how the issue is constructed by it being searched for in Google and how this contributes to the specific informational texture of waste sorting in Sweden. It is guided by the following questions: Who are the main actors and which are the central topics featuring in Google results on popular, suggested searches for waste sorting in Sweden? What do the link relations between these tell us about the issue space that is formed around waste sorting in Sweden? How is the construction of the notions of waste sorting and waste shaped in the information available through Google’s features for related and other relevant searches? Design/methodology/approach: Waste sorting is discussed as a practice structured along moral rules and as a classification exercise. The study brings together two types of material, results from searches carried out in Google and lists of Google query suggestions for relevant search terms. These are analysed with a mixed method approach, uniting quantitative network analysis and qualitative content analysis of query suggestions. A sociomaterial approach theoretically grounds the analysis. Finding: Waste sorting in Sweden emerges as an issue that is characterised by dense networks of rules and regulation, focused in public authorities and government agencies, which in turn address consumers, waste management businesses and other authorities. Search engine use and waste sorting in Sweden are shown to be joined together in various mundane everyday life practices and practices of governance that become visible through the search engine in form of search results and suggested searches. The search engine is shown to work as a fluid classification system, which is also created and shaped by its use.Originality/value: The study offers a novel methodological approach to studying the informational structures of an issue and of its shaping through it being searched for. The sociomaterially grounded analysis of Google as a fluid classification system is original.

Increasingly the material research deals with is cast as data. This is an ambiguous concept, which describes the matter of research in all stages of the research process. From having been seen as a stepping-stone on the way to producing the scientific results, increasingly data is itself positioned as the result. At the same time demands for data preservation and open data are often motivated with the hope that they will be of some use for new discoveries in the future. This poster highlights some of the ways in which notions of data emerge in the construction of big science facilities in order to raise some issues concerning implications for how and when knowledge production is thought to occur. We studied data and their making in setting up of two large-scale research facilities in southern Sweden, ESS and MAX IV, specifically of the necessary infrastructure for dealing with research data management. The main focus is on temporal aspects of data, thus shifting the interest from the question “what are data?” to the often more productive question “when are data?”. This also works to emphasis various sociomaterial entanglements shaping research data and its meaning in different organisational contexts.

Digital research data is often advanced as a trouble-free concept and used to describe the material of research at all stages in a research process. However frequently such framing lacks understanding of the roles of disciplinary and organisational cultures, and of what the various practices, including those of funding policy and university administration, involved in shaping what research data are and can do and when. In this paper we explore data and the making of data during the construction of two big science facilities in Sweden, the European Spallation Source (ESS) and MAX IV. Specifically we focus on the necessary infrastructure for dealing with various aspects of research data management (RDM). We transform the question "What are data?" into "When are data?" and highlight how research data are also shaped by their entanglement across different support services and professional practices aiding, preceding and succeeding the work of the researcher. This brings into relief how the making of data relates to the making possible of data and that making possible occurs by setting up and planning for production, storage, and use of research data. Paying attention to temporal aspects in the construction of research data allows us to show some ways in which the meaning of data is contingent to when they are approached, to the possibilities of support infrastructures and their various materialities and to strategic roles data are assigned. This paper draws on a study carried out in 2014 and 2015. The material used was compiled in interviews and document studies.

With digital infrastructures now permeating most aspects of society, online search has become integral to everyday life in unprecedented ways. Looking for information is today mostly done online and mediated through the various tools and devices that we carry with us on a daily basis. This way search is enmeshed into our cultural practices and everyday life, yet it often remains invisible. Furthermore, algorithms and economic interests organise search and thus contribute to structuring private as much as professional lives and public and personal memories. Being searchable is a feature of information that is culturally and socially structured and which needs to be explored from a variety of perspectives in order to understand the currently on-going “searchification” of society. This session wants to put the spotlight on the narratives, ideologies, ethical dimensions, and also the mundane practices tied to online search - its meaning, function, implications and limits - in contemporary society.; Published meeting abstract

This poster presents the design of a research project in its initial stages. The project Green Search investigates shaping of environmental information, including information on problems and proposed solutions, through their representation in search engine results, in social media tools, and in mobile applications dedicated to environmentally friendly living and consumption and how this is experienced by people using these tools. The project is situated in a socio-technical framework, which sees technology and society as mutually dependent and co-constructed. The following four research questions, organized in two interlinked parts, guide the study: Part I: Configurations - How are specific environmental issues with bearing on everyday life practices configured through web search and recommendation services and in mobile applications facilitating environmentally friendly living? In which ways do users judge mediated personal recommendations (through social media), search engine results and information from dedicated mobile applications for environmentally friendly living? Part II: Trust - How is trust attributed to the information retrieved/received on environmental issues with bearing on everyday life practices, specifically considering how different sources are seen to relate to each other? Which interests, organizations or link relations are perceived as trustworthy and how is this motivated? This is investigated in relation to two thematic areas: food and the home. The presented project uses a mixed method approach, with qualitative methods (focus group interviews) being supplemented with quantitative elements (web analyses).

In her presentation she will focus on two interconnected issues. Firstly, she will argue for Library and Information Science’s unique suitability to function as a nexus between professions, policy makers and different research disciplines. Secondly, she will outline how informing about the environment, including on environmental protection and destruction, needs to be (re)framed in a way that deeply inscribes it into practices of everyday life.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the construction and configuration of environmentally friendly living through making visible the link networks that surround personal greener living blogs. The following questions guide the exploration: which types of organisations/actors structure the issue network of green living blogs as it emerges through links? How do these links contribute to carving out thematic areas as particularly influential for the construction of what greener living is seen to mean? Design/methodology/approach: Mixed method, a link and co-link analysis of 46 personal blogs carried out with the IssueCrawler tool, is backed up by a qualitative textual analysis of central personal green living blogs to contextualise the resulting networks. Findings: The resulting network shows an issue space that is divided in two halves: one half where green living is largely an issue of relating outwards (e.g. by broaching consumption) and another half which is inwards oriented (e.g. beauty products, personal well-being). A large integrative centre of mainly personal blogs functions as a hub for different notions of greener living, structured around pleasure vs a problem focus, and along inwards vs outwards orientation. Research limitations/implications: The empirical material consists of a sample of Swedish language blogs, which has implications for the outcome of the study. Practical implications: The study intends to contribute to laying the ground for developing adequately targeted and multi-faceted (online) information campaigns to inform about environmentally friendly living. Originality/value: The results can contribute to expand understanding of environmentally friendly living as it is represented online and thereby add value to comprehend and target parts of society. This paper contributes to the area of environmental information, which is an important and topical yet under-researched area in information studies. The IssueCrawler tool is used in a concrete empirical study in information studies. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1468-4527.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the construction and configuration of environmentally friendly living through making visible the link networks that surround personal greener living blogs.

The following questions guide the exploration: which types of organisations/actors structure the issue network of green living blogs as it emerges through links? How do these links contribute to carving out thematic areas as particularly influential for the construction of what greener living is seen to mean?

Design/methodology/approach: Mixed method, a link and co-link analysis of 46 personal blogs carried out with the IssueCrawler tool, is backed up by a qualitative textual analysis of central personal green living blogs to contextualise the resulting networks.

Findings: The resulting network shows an issue space that is divided in two halves: one half where green living is largely an issue of relating outwards (e.g. by broaching consumption) and another half which is inwards oriented (e.g. beauty products, personal well-being). A large integrative centre of mainly personal blogs functions as a hub for different notions of greener living, structured around pleasure vs a problem focus, and along inwards vs outwards orientation.

Research limitations/implications: The empirical material consists of a sample of Swedish language blogs, which has implications for the outcome of the study.

Practical implications: The study intends to contribute to laying the ground for developing adequately targeted and multi-faceted (online) information campaigns to inform about environmentally friendly living. Originality/value: The results can contribute to expand understanding of environmentally friendly living as it is represented online and thereby add value to comprehend and target parts of society. This paper contributes to the area of environmental information, which is an important and topical yet under-researched area in information studies. The IssueCrawler tool is used in a concrete empirical study in information studies. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1468-4527.

This paper presents a qualitative thematic analysis of reader comments posted in connection to a series of articles published after Encyclopaedia Britannica's announcement to forego its print edition. It shows how ideas of what information is, are entangled with ideas of what a certain medium is and does. Two research questions guide the analysis: 1) How are encyclopedias as information sources imagined in contemporary public discourse? 2) How does the materiality of encyclopedias shape ideas of knowledge, information and memory? A theoretical basis is the distinction between an epistemological discourse and a practice discourse of science as proposed by Bernd Frohmann. Furthermore, the concept of remediation as developed by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin is drawn on. The analysis maps out different functions encyclopedias as information sources and external memories are assigned in contemporary society and in the recent past. It shows how these functions go into one another and how they are entangled with certain social practices. Through this it makes visible how understandings of information at a personal level are entwined with ideas of materiality, technologies, and culture that are formed in conjuncture with larger historical and societal shifts.

Det här kapitlet diskuterar och analyserar digitaliseringen av det vetenskapliga publiceringssystemet, framförallt i relation till peer review-processen och Open Access (OA). I vilken utsträckning är exempelvis tillit till vetenskaplig forskning, uttryckt i publikationer, rättfärdigat och hur kan den bedömas? Kapitlet använder sig av exemplet där vetenskapsjournalisten John Bohannon avslöjade brister i peer review-processen i ett antal OA-tidskrifter Bohannons artikel publicerades i Science Magazine i septmeber 2013 och väckte stor uppmärksamhet: i akademiska sammanhang, inom OA-rörelsen och i nyhetsmedier. Bohannon kritiserades bl.a a. för att han i sin undersökning inte skickat in artikeln till t.ex. tidskrifter med prenumerationsavgifter eller OA-tidskrifter utan författaravgifter för att kontrollera hur den fingerade artikeln skulle ha tagits emot i tidskrifter med andra finansieringsmodeller. Bohannons artikel, och de reaktioner den väckte, är ett intressant exempel att analysera för att studera de processer som i hög grad ligger bakom hur forskningen granskas och hur dess tillförlitlighet bedöms och garanteras; och inte minst, vad som händer när dessa processer börjar ifrågasättas. För viktiga frågor i sammanhanget är i vilken utsträckning Bohannons artikel handlar om tillförlitlighet hos OA-tidskrifter med författaravgifter, eller i vilken utsträckning den handlar om peer review-processens tillförlitlighet, eller rent av om tillit till det vetenskapliga publikationssystemet och därmed också till det som vi kallar för vetenskaplig kunskap som helhet. För att mer systematiskt kunna studera vilka teman som dyker upp i reaktionerna på Bohannons artikel använde vi en webtjänst som identifierar webpublikationer med anknytning till OA-frågor för att identifiera dokument som rapporterade om, och kommenterade, Bohannons artikel. På så sätt hittade vi ca 80 websidor med reaktioner på, eller rapportering om, Bohannons artikel. Dessa var publicerade från och med dagen då Bohannons artikel publicerades och ca två veckor framåt, i allt ifrån traditionella och webbaserade nyhetsmedier, via universitetsbibliotek och organisationer kopplade till OA-rörelsen, till individer som bloggar om OA- och vetenskapliga kommunikationsfrågor.

This paper presents on-going research on the production of knowledge in contemporary professional digital encyclopaedias. By adopting a theoretical perspective that considers the interplay of humans, non-humans and practices at the same level, it develops further a socio-technical perspective on knowledge production. Methodologically, the project involves an ethnographic study staring from two editorial sites – the Swedish Nationalencyklopedin and the Norwegian Store Norske Leksikon. The empirical material consists of participatory observations, semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, internal documents, as well as the two encyclopaedias appearance on the web, in social and legacy media. The preliminary results point to a co-existence of old and new orders of knowledge. Traditional taxonomies and formal expertise blend with social media, Google Analytics and new orders of work. The way encyclopaedias adjust to Google exemplifies, albeit in different ways, the fundamental role of ‘management by Google’ in contemporary networked society. It is concluded that digital encyclopaedias, Wikipedia as well as Nationalencyklopedin and Norwegian Store Norske Leksikon, constitute interesting arenas for investigating changing demands on the production of public knowledge.

The article aims at making visible new orders of encyclopaedic knowledge by means of an ethnographic study carried out during eight months at the editorial office of the leading commercial encyclopaedia in Sweden, Nationalencyklopedin. The investigation is framed in a socio-technical understanding of how people, technologies and practices relate to each other. Three themes were identified during the analysis: Organisation of labour amongst the editors, the use of statistics, and NE as a producer of facts versus a producer of analysis. The analysis revolves around the ambivalence, uncertainty, sometimes even friction, between traditional encyclopaedic knowledge and network culture. The often routine-based practices of updating articles meets ideas of project work, of open data, of algorithms and most of all of quantification.

This paper aims at making visible new orders of encyclopaedic knowledge by means of an ethnographic study carried out during eight months at the editorial office of the leading commercial encyclopaedia in Sweden, Nationalencyklopedin (NE). The investigation is framed in a socio-technical understanding of how people, technologies and practices relate to each other. Three themes were identified during the analysis: Organisation of labour amongst the editors, the use of statistics, and the contrast between NE as a producer of facts and NE as a producer of analysis. The analysis revolves around the ambivalence, uncertainty, sometimes even friction, between traditional encyclopaedic knowledge and network culture. The often routine-based practices of updating articles meet ideas of project work, of open data, of algorithms and most of all of quantification. © rst Monday, 1995-2013.

This paper aims at making visible new orders of encyclopaedic knowledge by means of an ethnographic study carried out during eight months at the editorial office of the leading commercial encyclopaedia in Sweden, Nationalencyklopedin (NE). The investigation is framed in a socio-technical understanding of how people, technologies and practices relate to each other. Three themes were identified during the analysis: Organisation of labour amongst the editors, the use of statistics, and the contrast between NE as a producer of facts and NE as a producer of analysis. The analysis revolves around the ambivalence, uncertainty, sometimes even friction, between traditional encyclopaedic knowledge and network culture. The often routine-based practices of updating articles meet ideas of project work, of open data, of algorithms and most of all of quantification. 

This paper aims at making visible new orders of encyclopaedic knowledge by means of an ethnographic study carried out during eight months at the editorial office of the leading commercial encyclopaedia in Sweden, Nationalencyklopedin (NE). The investigation is framed in a socio-technical understanding of how people, technologies and practices relate to each other. Three themes were identified during the analysis: Organisation of labour amongst the editors, the use of statistics, and the contrast between NE as a producer of facts and NE as a producer of analysis. The analysis revolves around the ambivalence, uncertainty, sometimes even friction, between traditional encyclopaedic knowledge and network culture. The often routine-based practices of updating articles meet ideas of project work, of open data, of algorithms and most of all of quantification. © rst Monday, 1995-2013.

Purpose: This article aims to explore construction, production and distribution of environmental information in social media. Specifically, the focus is on people's accounts in social media of their everyday life practices aimed at leading what are considered environmentally friendly lives. The article seeks to establish how through the reproduction of alignments of certain everyday and domestic practices with environmental destruction and protection situated information on the environment is constructed and made available. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a qualitative, interpretative analysis of content, materiality and form of blogs and of their enmeshed social media applications, dedicated specifically to aspects of environmentally friendly everyday life. The blogs were selected from an interlinked set of 60 Swedish language environment blogs. Findings: Formal, topical and social arrangements give priority to certain material conditions and practices that then underpin a set of dominant versions of a greener life, while others remain submerged. The routinised alignment of certain practices with the environment is indispensable for environmental information to work. However, breaking with routines and re-arranging practices is what makes them possible in the first place. De-routinisation and the culturally non-habitual character make for the informational value of material practices and of practices of engagement. Social implications: The study contributes to the understanding of what makes environmental information meaningful in everyday life. This has potential implications for policy making and information campaigns in the area. Originality/value: Environmental issues are an underrepresented area of research in LIS. This article contributes to the development of this research area in the field. Furthermore, uniting a practice approach with a theoretical interest in everyday life politics is a novel addition to studies of social engagement in online environments. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

This article examines a number of dominant assumptions which underpin the Open Access movement. The notion of science in central documents of the Open Access movement is discussed and put in relation to the discourse of international development. This way it becomes obvious that Open Access indeed challenges parts of the scholarly communication system, that however the notions of knowledge and of science it draws on are largely anchored in a hegemonic discourse of development and progress.

This panel debates whether the ways in which social media are changing the nature, creation, seeking, use and sharing of information constitute a transformation or are primarily marked by continuity. Ubiquitous and everyday access to social media (for some seems to be bringing about chang s in social practice, including of information-related activities, such that conceptualisations of information itself are potentially reshaped. Discussants draw inspiration from the pervasive impact on information activities of the everyday adoption of social media. At a theoretical level they also draw inspiration from the analytic resources of contemporary practice theory and its emphasis on materiality and embodiment, routine and change, social expectations and social identity, and knowledge as a process. All the participants of the panel have conducted new empirical research on social media use with a focus on its deep as well as broad impact. The audience members are invited t discuss with the panelists questions such as how social media relate to routinised daily practices and institutionalised practices and hierarchies, how their use refashions social relationships, how they turn information seekers and users into information managers, producers and creators and shape perceptions of information authority and trustworthiness, and how a new theorisation can help librarians, information professionals and researchers understand change and assume a proactive role in it.

This paper attempts an investigation of how environmental protection and destruction are framed in social media accounts of environmentally relevant everyday life practices, especially with a view to the types of futures that are brought in, envisioned, implied or bracketed. To trace this it draws on a case study with material from a group of interconnected, active Swedish environ- mental, family-life blogs and from other social media applications mashed- up in these blogs. In staging their everyday and domestic lives people repro- duce, shape and re-invent discursive and practice repertoires. It is striking to see how seemingly trivial practices connected with environmental awa- reness, recycling, choosing certain products, cycling, avoiding flying, saving energy, avoiding plastic or vegetarian cooking are woven into varying kinds of larger narratives of longing, change, fear, hope, engagement or withdrawal and how this is shaped by the affordances of social media. Uniting interests in the informational value of material practices and in the “small” politics of the web, drawing on Bakardjieva's notion of subactivism, this presentation adds to examinations of how continuous discursive alignments of certain practices with environmental protection and destruction shape the produc- tion and circulation of certain types of information on the environment and environmental ethics.; Published meeting abstract

Purpose: This study sets out to explore how people account for their translation, negotiation and shaping of environmentally relevant practices as information practices in their everyday life during the holidays and asks further how these narratives can be seen as accounting for situated information practices. It aims to focus on how summer guests holidaying in southern Sweden talk about how they connect different kinds of common everyday life practices to environmental information.

Design/methodology/approach: The investigation was carried out over a period of five months during 2008. It is based on seven semi-structured interviews with nine owners of summer cottages in a holiday village in southern Sweden, three field visits to the village, one including a guided tour, as well as textual analysis of official documents and a local journal. A qualitative thematic analysis, together with a theoretical reading, brings together the intertwined narratives on environmental and information practices, which emerged in the interviews with close readings of textual documents. The resulting themes were given additional meaning by relating them to observations from field visits.

Findings: First, there is no obvious link between people's theoretical knowledge of environmental issues and their actual practices in everyday life. This is also the case for those aware of the impact individual practices are said to have on the environment and on society at large. Second, certain objects and the practices tied to them seem to have become carriers of environmental information in themselves. They are so routinely connected to environmental issues that people "think" through them, when they account for how they think about the environment in a way that has meaning to them. Social implications: Focusing on the situated information practices involved in creating meaning on environmental issues could have implications for how we think about information campaigns and policy making regarding environmental issues and lifestyles.

Originality/value: This paper suggests that a strong focus on the various perceived and constructed roles of information might contribute to conceptualise more robustly the role of objects and practices for conveying and enacting environmental issues and help to counter the de-coupling of private and institutional responsibilities. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

The article draws together studies on encyclopaedic expressions throughout history with Foucault's notion of heterotopia, i.e. actually existing utopias or ‘other’, particular spaces that exist besides society's regular spaces and which work according to their own rules. It explores how we can understand contemporary online encyclopaedias, specifically Wikipedia, as digital heterotopias. For this it investigates Wikipedia as an archive for our cultural memory in its different – and sometimes contested – versions. In conclusion, participatory online encyclopaedias are framed as a continuation of an Enlightenment ideal as well as distinct networked spaces that are made possible through the affordances of the Internet.

This article explores how we can understand contemporary participatory online encyclopaedic expressions, particularly Wikipedia, in their traditional role as continuation of the Enlightenment ideal, as well as in the distinctly different space of the Internet. Firstly we position these encyclopaedias in a historical tradition. Secondly, we assign them a place in contemporary digital networks which marks them out as sites in which Enlightenment ideals of universal knowledge take on a new shape. We argue that the Foucauldian concept of heterotopia, that is special spaces which exist within society, transferred online, can serve to understand Wikipedia and similar participatory online encyclopaedias in their role as unique spaces for the construction of knowledge, memory and culture in late modern society.

There appears to be an increasing interest within library and information studies (LIS) in so-called indigenous or traditional knowledge. Discussions on usefulness and applicability of indigenous knowledge in development seem to be motivating electronic documentation and the creation of databases. Often, definitions provided by international organisations are drawn on unquestioningly, while power structures embedded in descriptions provided by such organisations are ignored. This article aims at drawing attention to the ways in which international organisations define and talk about indigenous knowledge in relation to development. This is achieved by critical, close reading of six publications issued between 1998 and 2008 by the following organisations: WIPO, UNESCO, ICSU, UNDP, the World Bank, and IFLA. The critical reflections are also intended to shed light on how documentation practises can be understood as extensions of power. For this the authors draw on Foucauldian notions of power and discourse as well as on post-development and postcolonial perspectives. Relationships and discursive procedures for statements on science, development discourse and intellectual property rights, are shown to be influential in the creation of the concept indigenous knowledge. Relating indigenous knowledge to post-colonial and post-development studies reveals how indigenous knowledge is created and kept marginalized within the discursive structure of development. The analysis concludes by showing how knowledge named indigenous knowledge is trapped and created in a circular flow which legitimises international aid organizations, development discourse and the intellectual property rights system. The article concludes by demanding greater awareness among LIS researchers and practitioners regarding the culturally embedded character of knowledge practices and of the power of classifying and defining. © 2010 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York.

The article draws together studies on encyclopaedic expressions throughout history with Foucault's notion of heterotopia, i.e. actually existing utopias or 'other', particular spaces that exist besides society's regular spaces and which work according to their own rules. It explores how we can understand contemporary online encyclopaedias, specifically Wikipedia, as digital heterotopias. For this it investigates Wikipedia as an archive for our cultural memory in its different - and sometimes contested - versions. In conclusion, participatory online encyclopaedias are framed as a continuation of an Enlightenment ideal as well as distinct networked spaces that are made possible through the affordances of the Internet. © Författarna. Publicerad av Högskolan i Borås.

Miljö och miljöfrågor har under den senaste tiden lyfts fram som ytterst viktiga för framtiden, inte minst växthuseffekten och dess konsekvenser. Att vara och agera miljömedvetet kan sägas ha gått från att ha varit ett val för ett engagerat fåtal till att ha blivit en etablerad livsstil för många. Miljöfrågor är också av stor betydelse för Simrishamns kommun. Under några sommarmånader mer än fördubblas befolkningen varje år. Turistnäringen är följaktligen viktig samtidigt som ett ökat antal turister sliter på miljön. Projektet Miljöpraktiker i vardagen: livsstil, information och förändring i Simrishamn har studerat hur sommargäster i sin vardag handlar och resonerar kring miljöfrågor och miljöinformation. I projektet har vi fått en fördjupad förståelse av hur sommargäster skapar mening i relation till miljö och information i sin vardag. Med livsstil menas i projektet olika sätt att agera som skiljer grupper av människor från varandra. Det är genom konsumtion och icke-konsumtion av t.ex. kläder, semesterresor, mat, alkohol, medier och andra produkter eller tjänster som olika livsstilar formas. I projektet har vi undersökt hur sommargäster i eller nära pensionsåldern resonerar kring och handlar utifrån den information om miljöfrågor de menar att de tar del av. Projektet är genomfört med utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning om relationen mellan livsstil, miljöagerande och miljöinformation. Sju intervjuer med sammanlagt nio personer boende i en fritidsby i Simrishamns kommun har genomförts. Intervjuerna har handlat om hur de boende argumenterar och handlar i relation till miljöfrågor och miljöinformation. Särskilt synliggörs de konflikter som finns mellan vad människor säger och vad människor gör i sin vardag. Dessutom har den bild av Simrishamn utforskats som presenteras i av kommunen producerade broschyrer och andra dokument. Slutligen har vi besökt den fritidsby som intervjudeltagarna har sitt boende i. Vid analysen har tidigare forskning, intervjumaterial samt broschyrer och andra dokument från Simrishamns kommun belyst varandra. Genomgången av tidigare forskning tillsammans med den empiriska studien av hur människor handlar och talar om miljö i sin vardag visar på två nära relaterade och betydelsefulla punkter. Den första punkten rör vad människor vet om miljön och hur de handlar. Liksom tidigare forskning har visat finns det i studien ingen självklar länk mellan vad människor vet, dvs. deras teoretiska kunskap om miljöfrågor och exempelvis klimatförändring, och deras faktiska handlande när de t.ex. köper mat eller väljer transportmedel. Det gäller även de människor som är medvetna om sambandet mellan sina handlingar och konsekvenserna av dessa handlingar för miljön och samhället i stort. Det reflekteras även i det faktum att det som låter sig göras till en låg kostnad, ekonomisk såväl som annan, föredras framför det som en av intervjudeltagarna kallar “uppoffringar”, dvs sådana handlingar som skulle påverka vardagen i för stor utsträckning. Den andra punkten handlar om hur bilar, komposter, sopor och lågenergilampor samt de aktiviteter som är sammanbundna med dessa objekt har kommit att bli en slags ’bärare’ av miljöinformation i sig själva. Vardagligt handlande, som t.ex. att sopsortera eller att byta till lågenergilampor, är så nära kopplat till frågor om miljöproblematik att människor tänker genom dem när de resonerar kring miljön. Dvs. vissa konkreta objekt och handlingar har central betydelse för människors miljömedvetande. Dessa ovanstående rutiner kan dock också medföra en fara för miljön då vissa av dem riskerar att ta överhanden och utvecklas till en slags enfråge-engagemang. Ett sådant engagemang riskerar att föra med sig en lugnande känslan av att 'något görs' på bekostnad av den 'större bilden' eftersom dessa rutiner ofta har marginell eller liten betydelse för miljön om de inte kombineras med andra. Å andra sidan kan den abstrakta 'större bilden' av den komplexa miljöproblematiken vara en grund till en paralyserande känsla av maktlöshet som miljöinformation ofta tycks föra med sig för den enskilda människan. Eller omvänt, frågan är om det inte är de svårigheter som intervjudeltagarna har med att relatera ett uppriktigt engagemang för miljön med konkreta handlingar som kan vara en av orsakerna till den känsla av maktlöshet som de flesta deltagare ger uttryck för? Kanske är det också behovet av att fokusera på det konkreta – på att sopsortera, kompostera etc – som ger vissa väletablerade rutiner en så viktigt roll i deltagarnas samtal om deras miljörelaterade handlingar? Med andra ord, har kanske den lokala miljöstationen blivit allas 'favoritankare' i försöken att etablera en känsla av meningsfullhet och säkerhet vis-á-vis en stor, svårfångad och osynlig upplevd fara. För Simrishamns kommun och simrishamnarna – både permanentboende och sommargäster – ställs ett samtida problem på sin spets. Vi önskar alla en ren miljö med intakt ekosystem, orörd natur och vackra stränder och en plats som Simrishamn drar naturligtvis fördel av allas vår önskan. Men om vi alla tar t.ex. bilen till Simrishamn och dess omnejd riskerar Simrishamn att tappa just den dragningskraft som gör att vi söker oss dit, eftersom bilåkandet kan bli en miljöbelastning. För Simrishamns kommun, liksom för andra turistorter världen över är detta en balansakt på slak lina, vilken leder till frågor som hur 'grön turism' kan vidareutvecklas och hur människors miljömässiga engagemang, sett som uttryck för livsstilar, möjligtvis kan bidra till det? Eller är det så att grön turism har en inbyggd motsättning som inte går att blunda för? Oavsett vad svaren på dessa frågor är kan vi konstatera att abstrakt information och teoretisk kunskap allena inte är lösningen på de miljöproblem som ökad turism trots allt kan leda till. En möjlig slutsats av studien är vikten av att skapa utrymme för människor att utveckla livsstilar som står i bättre samklang med en hållbar och ’grön’ turism; livsstilar där miljövänliga rutiner kan bli normaliserade och till en del av vardagen. Meningsfull information om miljö och miljöförstöring finns då så att säga inbyggd i komposthögen snarare än i förmaningar med hjälp av abstrakt information.

This thesis investigates the connection between open access – the free online availability and distribution of scientific and scholarly publications – and the ‘developing world’ from a post- development perspective. It takes a discourse analytical approach, drawing predominantly on Michel Foucault’s understanding of discourse. It aims to answer the following questions: - Which notions of science, of development and progress, of knowledge as well as of information and technology are capitalised on in the open access debates and in which way are they shaped as a consequence? - Which discursive effects can be established, what are the results and of which kind are they? The thesis is divided into six chapters, chapters 2 to 5 are grouped into two parts. In the introduction (chapter 1) the general problem space is outlined, the connection between the open access movement and the ‘developing world’ is established; the research approach is briefly sketched, followed by a presentation of the research questions. Furthermore, the relevance of the study for Library and Information Science is discussed. Chapter 2 introduces the notion of discourse. It contains a discussion of the Foucauldian concept of discourse in relation to the notions of knowledge, truth, and power, as well as resistance, governmentality, and pastoral power. The manifestation of discourse in language is discussed with reference to Michel Pêcheux. The way in which discourses are dispersed unevenly in society is examined. It concludes with a presentation of the concept of the discursive procedure, which forms the basis for the analyses. Chapter 3 introduces post-development theory, specifically focusing on development discourse. It presents and problematises the concept of development, of poverty and ignorance, as well as of science. The historical foundations of development discourse and the role of science and technology in it are examined. Chapter 4 investigates the representation of open access in its relation to development. It is based on a corpus consisting of 38 articles and similar publications and 5 statements and declarations. The latter are also examined from a genre perspective. The following discursive procedures are identified: (1) Leaving a blank or defining the undefinable: The elusiveness of the ‘developing world’, (2) Technologism and technological determinism, (3) Economism, (4) Scientific centralism and scientism, (5) Temporal distancing. It concludes with a discussion of the guiding metaphor, the divide. Chapter 5 investigates how open access is debated in the context of development. It draws on a two-week long email debate organised by a development institution in 2006. 146 postings by 49 participants are included in the analysis. The following discursive procedures are identified: (1) Technologism, (2) The role of the profession: mediation, translation, and control, (3) Rural people and the lack of education, (4) Developmentalism and anti- developmentalism: Positioning oneself in and against development. It concludes with a discussion of the guiding metaphor, the barrier, as well as of identity construction. The concluding chapter 6 is concerned with providing a sum-up of the analyses with a view to answering the research questions. It considers a possible future for the open access movement in its relation to the ‘developing world’ and concludes with a brief discussion of issues relevant for future research. The main findings suggest that the ‘developing world’ is constructed around the coordinates provided by mainstream development thought. Open access is inserted into its discursive repertoire as a problem of development, a tool for its delivery, and its measure. The dominant understanding of information adheres to a sender/receiver model. However, ruptures occur in significant places. This requires a partial re-positioning of the way in which development is framed and of open access’ role in it.

Purpose - The paper seeks to reconsider open access and its relation to issues of "development" by highlighting the ties the open access movement has with the hegemonic discourse of development and to question some of the assumptions about science and scientific communication upon which the open access debates are based. The paper also aims to bring out the conflict arising from the convergence of the hegemonic discourses of science and development with the contemporary discourse of openness. Design/methodology/approach - The paper takes the form of a critical reading of a range of published work on open access and the so-called "developing world" as well as of various open access declarations. The argument is supported by insights from post-development studies. Findings - Open access is presented as an issue of moral concern beyond the narrow scope of scholarly communication. Claims are made based on hegemonic discourses that are positioned as a priori and universal. The construction of open access as an issue of unquestionable moral necessity also impedes the problematisation of its own heritage. Originality/value - This paper is intended to open up the view for open access's less obvious alliances and conflicting discursive ties and thus to initiate a politisation, which is necessary in order to further the debate in a more fruitful way. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to investigate and critically assess the notions of "information poverty" in LIS by highlighting its connections with development discourse.

Design/methodology/approach - The article takes a discourse analysis approach, which starts from Michel Foucault's understanding of discourse. "Information poverty" is posited as a statement and investigated in its relation to other statements. The focus is on discursive procedures that emerge from the repeated connections between statements. The article draws on the interpretative analysis of 35 English language articles published in scholarly and professional LIS journals between 1995 and 2005.

Findings - "Information poverty" and the "information poor" are established as being assigned specific positions in the discourse of LIS as the result of overlapping, sometimes conflicting discursive procedures. The concept emerges as a possibility in LIS by anchoring it in the dominant discourse of development. Traces of development discourse surface in LIS and contribute to the legitimisation of the concept of "information poverty" by lending it authority.

Research limitations/implications - The material selection is linguistically biased. Results and findings are fully applicable only in an English language context.

Originality/value - The article relates the professional discourse of LIS to the dominant discourse of development and thus highlights some of the assumptions upon which the concept of "information poverty" is built. Moreover, the article is intended to contribute to the further development of discourse analysis in LIS.