User Tools



Structure and action / Rosenbaum(1996)

Citation - Rosenbaum, H. (1996). Structure and action: Towards a new concept of the information use environment. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science.

Rosenbaum 認為,系統導向的資訊行為研究過於受限於既有系統框架,但使用者導向的資訊行為研究又過於流於個人主義,缺乏對社會結構面向的解釋力。因此,Rosenbaum 建議以Taylor的IUE為基礎,並參考Giddens的結構化理論,以建立一整合的資訊行為研究的理論性框架。

Background -

  • LIS: understand the social context within which the generation and dissemination of information takes place in organizational settings.

Questions: -

Arguments -

  • the relation between social structure and action is LIS's fundamental issue:
    • “The determination of the relationship between structure and action is a fundamental issue in any discipline that seeks to understand something about the social world [Giddens, 1984:219] and library and information science [LIS] is no exception.”
  • 根據近來的文獻,此問題仍未被妥善解決 [Savolainen, 1993][Taylor, 1991][Hewins, 1990][Dervin & Nilan, 1986]
    • [note]: further reading: [Hjorland, 2000][Pettigrew, 2001][Wilson, 2003]
  • 社會科學中相關領域也正在處理結構與行動整合的問題
    • [note]: 於社會學、經濟學理論中找基礎,比往哲學(抽象)找基礎更具體,也比往各個社會學子領域(傳播、管理、教育、政治、組織研究、人類學、文化研究)找理論更具整合力
  • LIS's information seeking and use 研究是以結構或系統取向的,忽略了使用者,其關係也限於結構(資訊系統)決定行動(使用者的行為)。 [Taylor, 1986][Dervin & Nilan, 1986][Cole, 1994][Savolainen, 1993]
    • LIS's information seeking and use 研究是以行動導向或使用者中心取向的 [Hewins, 1990][Dervin & Nilan, 1986]
  • LIS 這兩種取向的研究,累積了許多成果,但仍然無力解決一些實務困境。[Taylor, 1986]
    • 此困境來自於兩種取向無法互相處理彼此的議題。
      • 系統或結構取向主張結構與行動的關係是「結構決定、由上而下」的。此取向無法處理個人行動與互動層次的能動性,使用者的需求是由「結構」所決定的,因此此取向研究的資訊需求其實是「結構的需求」而非「個體的需求」。
      • 使用者或行動取向採「由下而上」的策略詮釋結構與行動的關係。社會個體間的互動是其他社會「顯現(emerges)」:機構、社會結構、宏觀社會秩序的基礎。因此資訊不再是一種「客觀實體」,而是一種「人類建構」。其批評是,流於方法論上的個人主義,而無法處理現有的社會結構現象。
  • Taylor (1986, 1991)的研究提出一種整合結構與行動關係的可能: information use environment

Information use environment

Taylor [1991]: information use environment

  • Taylor's IUE 以使用者為中心,處理其社會脈絡中的資訊。
    • “It focuses on the study of information in its social contexts and explicitly places the user at the center of its conceptual framework, a move which has been long called for in information science.” [36, 37, 38, 39, 40].
  • IUE 的四元素
    • sets of people[人]: 人口統計,已決定的社會特性:經濟上的社會定位、產業社會學的政治與文化結構
    • the structure and thrust of problems[問題]: 由結構對使用者的認知、資訊需求所起的決定性作用
    • assumptions about the resolution[方案前提]: 對問題類型列出可行性解決方案的前提
    • characteristics of settings[場所特徵]: 環境的物質與場所的社會脈絡

IUE ver.Giddens

  • problems: Taylor's IUE isn't fully developed (to accommodation between structure and action)
  • solution: add Giddens' structuration approach 結構化理論
  • IUE ver.Giddens: Organizational information use environment[組織性的資訊使用環境]: a component of organizational structure composed of rules and resources which affect information flow in the organization and which hold potential criteria used to value information, typical information-based problems faced by organizational members, and acceptable resolutions to those problems.
    一個組織性結構的單元,此單元由對組織中資訊流產生影響的規則與資源(ie. Giddens' structure)所組成,此單元也掌握了潛在的對資訊加值、對資訊問題的分類、以及對問題解決方案的判準。
    • rule[角色]: a generalizable procedure or technique that can be used to form, sustain, change, terminate, and recreate information behaviors;
      一能被用於形成、承擔、改變、終結、與創造資訊行為的概化程序或技巧;
    • resource[資源]: a social or material element of the organizational setting that can be used to carry out information behaviors; resources allow command over objects and processes (allocative) and people (authoritative);
      一組織性場所(setting)的社會性或物質性的元素。此元素可以被用於實現資訊行為。資源(resource)包含物體或工具程序(配置性資源)與人(權威性資源)。
    • problematic situation[問題情境]: some portion of a manager's experience that is attended to and given boundaries by a manager, who labels it as a single entity that requires attention and possible action and which centers on information;
      某些管理者由經驗中標明與劃界的部份,這些問題情境被標明為一個單一的實體,以加以注意與對應可能行動。
    • problem resolution[問題解決]: when that portion of the manager's experience that gave rise to the problematic situation no longer requires attention and action.
      某些管理者由經驗中標明與劃界的部份。此部份使解決已浮現的問題情境。
      • [note]: 此處未太多著墨如何由 Giddens 改造 IUE。需見其博士論文。
Taylor IUE Rosembaum IUE Giddens
people role actor
problem problematic situation (structure of problem)
setting resource structure
resolution resolution (tool, 便利工具)

管理者的資訊使用環境

以組織性資訊使用環境 研究公共管理者的資訊使用環境

結論

references

Note

Metadata