Information Cosmopolitics: An Actor-Network Theory Approach to Information Practices

Information Cosmopolitics explores interaction between nationalist and information sharing practices in academic communities with a view to understanding the potential impacts of these interactions. This book is also a resounding critique of existing theories and methods as well as the launching point for the proposition of an alternate approach. Dominant approaches in the Information Behaviour (IB) field are investigated, as well as questions existing theoretical approaches to nationalism and cosmopolitanism. The concept of information cosmopolitics is introduced as an approach for tracing information practices and enabling research participants to perform their own narratives and positionings, and that the focus of information studies should be on tracing the continuous circulation of processes of individualisation and collectivization.

1. Introduction 2. Theory and practice: Jumping between different frames of references 3. Actor-network theory: An alternative approach 4. Setting up the fieldwork 5. The fieldwork 6. Some patterns in participants’ information practices 7. Information cosmopolitics: A model of information practices 8. Propositions instead of conclusions: Yet another invitation to perplexity