Jack Andersen

Knowledge Organization: A Sociohistorical Analysis and Critique

In this article, the authors examine the discipline of knowledge organization by harnessing the theories of Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas. The argument is that knowledge organization is not just a question of improved technology; as an academic discipline, it has to define and legitimize its relevance for society. The authors use the theories of Foucault and Habermas to provide a sociohistorical analysis and critique of knowledge organization in order to point out how the discipline understands itself and how it is a de facto human activity. The self‐understanding of the discipline is investigated through the case of knowledge organization in the Danish public libraries at the beginning of the twentieth century, using the theories of Foucault. The second part of the article deals with the correspondence between the organization of society and knowledge organization based on the concept of Habermas’s public sphere.

Developing the library: Between efficiency, accountability and forms of recognition

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine and critique the dominant new public management (NPM)‐mode of thinking in library development.Design/methodology/approach – The authors examine the Danish Library Act from 2000 and a library policy from the municipal library of Aarhus in Denmark in order to show how they respectively display new public management thinking and handle pathologies of recognition.Findings – The Danish Library Act from 2000 reflects an economic discourse which makes it hard for libraries to develop any normatively grounded agenda. The library policy from the municipal library of Aarhus reveals that it intends to deal with handling recognition but actually does the opposite.Research limitations/implications – The context surrounding libraries and library development is becoming more political than ever. User groups are more diverse than ever and some do not even feel as being part of society. If libraries are to cope with this situation, they must try to work with the concept ...

Understanding information history from a genre-theoretical perspective

In this article we argue for how a genre‐theoretical approach to information history can contribute to our understanding of what has historically been conceived of as information, what sort of networks and activities triggered the production and use of information, and what forms information was presented and communicated in. Through 2 case studies we show how information and the genres used for communicating that information was perceived and used by the relevant agents involved with the genres. Based on the case studies, we conclude by discussing how the fields of information history and rhetorical genre theory can inform each other.

Archiving, ordering, and searching: search engines, algorithms, databases, and deep mediatization:

This article argues that search engines, algorithms, and databases can be considered as a way of understanding deep mediatization. They are embedded in a variety of social and cultural practices, and as such, they change our communicative actions to be shaped by their logic of archiving, ordering, and searching. I argue that, increasingly and in particular ways, search engines, algorithms, and databases shape our everyday communicative actions as they make us think, internalize, and act along the lines of their particular modes of communication action. After having briefly reviewed recent trends in mediatization research, the argument is discussed and unfolded in between the material and social constructivist-phenomenological interpretations of mediatization. In conclusion, it is discussed how deep this form of mediatization can be taken to be.

Libraries as an infrastructure for a sustainable public sphere in a digital age

This session will focus upon challenges to upholding a sustainable public sphere in a digital age and the potential of libraries to contribute to an infrastructure that might help us cope with these challenges. The workshop can be seen as a continuation of last year’s workshop themed Partnership with society: A social and cultural approach to iSchool research

Genre, Organized Knowledge, and Communicative Action in Digital Culture

Abstract The purpose of the chapter is to argue for a twofold understanding of knowledge organization: the organization of knowledge as a form of communicative action in digital culture and the organization of knowledge as an analytical means to address features of digital culture. The approach taken is an interpretative text-based form of argumentation. The chapter suggests that by putting forward such a twofold understanding of knowledge organization, new directions are given as to how to situate and understand the activity and practice of the organization of knowledge in digital culture. By offering the twofold understanding of the organization of knowledge, a tool of reflection is provided when users and the public at large try to make sense of, for example, data, archives, search engines, or algorithms. The originality of the chapter is its demonstration of how to conceive of knowledge organization as a form of communicative action and as an analytical means for understanding issues in digital culture.

Re-Describing Knowledge Organization — A Genre and Activity-Based View

Abstract Purpose This chapter offers a re-description of knowledge organization in light of genre and activity theory. Knowledge organization needs a new description in order to account for those activities and practices constituting and causing concrete knowledge organization activity. Genre and activity theory is put forward as a framework for situating such a re-description. Findings By means of genre and activity theory, the chapters argues that understanding the genre and activity systems, in which every form of knowledge organization is embedded, makes us capable of seeing how knowledge organization, as a genre, both can be a tool and an object in genred human activities. Originality/value In contrast to much research into knowledge organization, this chapter does not emphasize techniques, standards, or rules to be the sole object of study. Instead, an emphasis is put on the genre and activity systems informing and shaping concrete forms of knowledge organization activity. With this, we are able to understand how knowledge organization activity also contributes to construct genre and activity systems and not only aid them.

What Genre Theory Does

Abstract Purpose To provide a small overview of genre theory and its associated concepts and to show how genre theory has had its antecedents in certain parts of the social sciences and not in the humanities. Findings The chapter argues that the explanatory force of genre theory may be explained with its emphasis on everyday genres, de facto genres. Originality/value By providing an overview of genre theory, the chapter demonstrates the wealth and richness of forms of explanations in genre theory.

What Can the Study of Information Do to Genre Studies

Genre theory has in recent years entered the study of information (Andersen, 2008). The question remains whether we in the information field have made our own independent contributions to genre theory, not only ‘applying’ genre theory. From 6 different positions, this workshop will discuss the role and potential of genre studies in the study of information and what the study of information can contribute with to the study of genre. Coming from universities in North America and Denmark, the panelists will each present a perspective or argument. Each perspective or argument is developed around the question what the study of information can contribute with to the study of genre.