Tim Gorichanaz

Document phenomenology: a framework for holistic analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance document ontology and epistemology by proposing a framework for analysing documents from multiple perspectives of research and practice. Design/methodology/approach Understanding is positioned as an epistemic aim of documents, which can be approached through phenomenology. Findings A phenomenological framework for document analysis is articulated. Key concepts in this framework are include intrinsic information, extrinsic information, abtrinsic information, and adtrinsic information. Information and meaning are distinguished. Finally, documents are positioned as part of a structural framework, which includes individual documents, parts of documents (docemes and docs), and systems of documents. Research limitations/implications Scholarship is extended with an eye toward holism; still, it is possible that important aspects of documents are overlooked. This framework serves as a stepping-stone along the continual refinement of methods for understanding documents. Practical implications Both scholars and practitioners can consider documents through this framework. This will lead to further co-understanding and collaboration, as well as better education and a deeper understanding of all manner of document experiences. Originality/value This paper fills a need for a common way to conceptualise documents that respects the numerous ways in which documents exist and are used and examined. Such coherence is vital for the advancement of document scholarship and is the promotion of document literacy in society, which is becoming increasingly important.

Information and experience, a dialogue

Purpose Scholars in information science have recently become interested in “information experience,” but it remains largely unclear why this research is important and how it fits within the broader disciplinary structure of information science. The purpose of this paper is to clarify this issue. Design/methodology/approach The discussion unfolds in the form of a philosophical dialogue between the Epistemologist, who represents the traditional and majority epistemological viewpoint of information science, and the Aestheticist, representing the emerging paradigm of experiential information inquiry. Findings A framework emerges that recognizes dual conceptualizations of truth (veritas and aletheia) and consequently information and knowledge (gnostic and pathic). The epistemic aim of understanding is revealed as the common ground between epistemology and aesthetics. Originality/value The value of studying human experiences of information is grounded in work spanning philosophy, psychology and a number of social science methodologies, and it is contextualized within information science generally. Moreover, the dialogic format of this paper presents an opportunity for disciplinary self-reflection and offers a touch of heart to the field.

There’s no shortcut: Building understanding from information in ultrarunning

Now that information proliferates, information science should turn its attention towards higher order epistemic aims, such as understanding. Before systems to support the building of understanding can be designed, the process of building understanding must be explored. This article discusses the findings from an interpretative phenomenological analysis study on the information experience of participants in a 100-mile footrace which reveal how these participants have built understanding in their athletic pursuits. Three ways in which ultrarunners build understanding – by taking time, by undergoing struggle and by incorporating multiple perspectives – are described. The ensuing discussion leads to three questions that can guide the future development of information systems that support understanding: First, how can information science slow people down? Second, how can information science encourage people to willingly struggle? And, third, how can information science stimulate analogical thinking?

Experiencing the Bible

ABSTRACT This study uses interpretative phenomenological analysis, a qualitative interview methodology, to examine the information experience of Catholic readers of the Bible. It presents a detailed, individual-focused account of how Catholics experience the Bible, in its diverse oral, print, and digital manifestations, as a source of religious information. Participants in this study were found to experience the Bible as Gods Word, with which they interface in three thematic ways: Connections, Journey, and Practice. These themes are, in turn, linked by the processes of sharing, repetition, and interpretation. This work extends previous research on the religious reading of believers and numinous document experience, and it contributes to a budding conceptualization of reading as an example of document work rather than a merely cognitive activity.

A gardener's experience of document work at a historic landscape site

Research in document work has tended to take a sociocultural perspective. Recent interest in document experience invites the consideration of document work from the perspective of an individuals lived experience. This paper reports on a holistic, single‐case study of how the head gardener at Shofuso Japanese House and Garden, a historic landscape site in Philadelphia, experiences the document work involved in developing a comprehensive garden plan. A hermeneutic analysis of the data reveals how the underlying foundational values of authenticity, education and reducing ambiguity support the process of document work in this case, which involves summoning diverse knowledge, channeling the master and stepping back. This process is punctuated by organizational and historical challenges. These findings suggest that the theoretical framework of foundation‐process‐challenges may be used to study the lived experience of document work in other cases. Further ramifications are discussed for practice in gardening and historical document work.

Beautiful and sublime: the aesthetics of running in a commodified world

Abstract In the United States, running as a leisure activity continues to grow in popularity. Healthism can explain some of this popularity, but it does not explain ultradistance running. Motivations for running can be seen through the framework of the Kantian beautiful and the sublime. Beauty arises through extrinsic motivation (e.g. products, physique, competition) and relates to an economy of form, while the sublime arises through intrinsic motivation (e.g. life meaning) and relates to confronting the challenge of infinity. The commercial, casual, and competitive aspects of distance running correspond to the beautiful, while its wilderness, serious, ultradistance aspects correspond to the sublime. This framework is used to explain the resistance of ultrarunning to the would-be detrimental effects of commodification, as well as ultrarunning’s ‘wild turn.’

How the document got its authority

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to invite further consideration of and research into the authoritativeness, reliability and trustworthiness of documents. How do documents come to be trusted? Why are some more trusted than others? Design/methodology/approach – The cases of the Oxford English Dictionary and Wikipedia policies are explored from a historical perspective, and other cases are considered. Findings – Authoritativeness seems inherent to documents because of a cognitive metaphor that says “what is persistent is trustworthy”. Practical implications – This feature of documents exposes users to a number of pitfalls related to trusting illegitimate documents. This has important implications for document literacy. Originality/value – New insight into documents is achieved by applying cognitive metaphors and prototype theory to documents.