Purpose

In this article, we propose a novel methodological approach to understanding the informational texture of climate obstruction and related issues by weaving together scattered but entangled data fragments.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a methodological allegory about skipping stones in a lake and noticing the resulting ripples, we draw on the literature on climate change denial online and previous methodological approaches to explore and analyse fragmented digital phenomena. We implement this proposed methodological approach by focusing on the effects of a stone hitting a lake of climate obstruction. This is done through a series of skips, including analyses of search engine results pages, hyperlink networks, podcast show notes and large language models' responses.

Findings

The methodology proposed and adopted allows for a simultaneous qualitative and quantitative approach to the interpretative analysis of content that is similar in meaning but takes a variety of modes and forms. We show how opposition to climate change mitigation fluctuates in the informational texture and thrives in the context of a recent controversial pseudo-documentary film. We also point towards further possible applications of the methodological approach in question.

Originality/value

Skipping stones and noticing the ripples extends present approaches to studying informational textures through interconnected data fragments representing the same phenomena across a multitude of information systems and platforms.

Weather applications constitute mundane data infrastructures that people use on a daily basis. However, little attention is afforded to how these everyday technologies and their data potentially shape users’ understanding of weather. One group to which weather conditions are particularly salient is farmers. The field of agriculture is increasingly data-driven, encompassing different commercial and non-commercial digital weather products. However, the potential performativity of said data on farmers’ understandings of weather remains little explored. Taking inspiration from mundane data studies, and by interviewing Swedish farmers, we find that weather app data intensify farmers’ attention to unfolding weather conditions, and affect farmers’ relations to their environment and understanding of weather. Moreover, their experiences of using weather apps are characterised by ambivalence – the co-existence of conflicting feelings, practices and attitudes. This ambivalence emerges at the intersection of farmers’ data use, habits, routines, discourses and embodiment. We propose to call this phenomenon ‘digital betweenness’. ‘Digital betweenness’ directs and sensitises farmers to opposing and concurrent practices, forces, ideas and desires that are entangled in weather data encounters.

This chapter examines distributed agency and materiality in practices by proposing posthumanism as a frame for practice-based information studies. Drawing on a posthumanist body of work in social theory, the authors reflect on the information-related activities carried out among geographically dispersed citizen scientists in relation to species abundances and the applications and information systems they use when conducting voluntary monitoring of the Swedish flora and fauna. Central to the chapter are notions concerning the inseparability between the organic and the material in terms of how seeking, sharing, organising, documenting, and other means of interaction with information are conducted in relation to other species and material objects. The significance of material arrangements and the interweaving of agency among numerous species are thus accentuated through rich descriptions of theoretical as well as empirical illustrative examples. The chapter ends with a summary of the theoretical focus of enquiry, including suggestions for possible directions for future research adopting posthuman and multispecies perspectives to studies of information practices.

Review of: Huvila, I., Andersson, L., & Sköld, O. (Eds.). (2024). Perspectives on paradata: Research and practice of documenting process knowledge. Springer International Publishing AG.

Introduction. Literature on people’s dealings with information sometimes suggeststhat the concepts of information behaviour and information practice are interchangeable. These concepts are often used without theoretical underpinning.This contribution presents an in-depth examination of the concept of informationpractice in relation to theoretical contributions within the information behaviourliterature.

Method. This conceptual paper critically examines the theoretical foundations oftwo central concepts by exploring existing information research and literature onsocial science theory. It aims to unpack the intellectual roots from which these concepts have emerged.

Analysis. Based on an established distinction between theories of action andtheories of practice, a fine-grained comparison of theoretical differences betweeninformation behaviour and information practice research is presented.

Results. Contributions based on the concept of information behaviour areanthropocentric in nature, psychologically oriented, and portray dealings withinformation as planned behaviour grounded in individual choice. The informationpractice literature leans towards a posthumanist perspective through its focus onmateriality and distributed agency.

Conclusion. Theories and concepts are ambiguous phenomena that can be imbuedwith different meanings by different authors. This does not necessarily pose aproblem if authors strive to clearly explain their theoretical premises and what theymean by the central concepts they use.

Ett ord som jag tycker sammanfattar Miljökommunikationsdagen 2025 är reflexivitet. Jag uppskattade hur sessionernas upplägg och deltagarnas diskussioner genomsyrades av betydelsen av att iaktta sig själv i förhållande till sin omvärld. Många av de samtal och presentationer som ägde rum fick mig att tänka på hur vi kan få syn på våra kommunikationspraktiker genom att vara självmedvetna om standarduttryck och vanor. Att gemensamt diskutera dessa saker gör att vi kan betänka, och kanske också ifrågasätta, vårt förhållande till något så tätt sammankopplat som natur och kultur.