scholarly journals Participant-driven photo-elicitation in library settings: A methodological discussion

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (125) ◽  
pp. 81-103
Author(s):  
Shailoo Bedi ◽  
Jenaya Webb
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Library Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Library And Information Studies ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Productive Method

With the current attention in libraries on user-focused services and spaces, there is an increased interest in qualitative research methods that can provide insight into users’ experiences. In this paper, we advance photo-elicitation—a research method that employs photographs in interviews—as one such method. Although widely used in the social sciences, photo-elicitation has seen comparatively little uptake in Library and Information Studies (LIS). Here, we provide an overview of the method, consider epistemological and theoretical approaches, discuss cases of its application in library contexts and examine the benefits of using photo-elicitation for LIS research. We draw on our own research experiences and argue that photo-elicitation is a productive method for learning about the lived experiences of our users and for creating a collaborative approach to library research.

scholarly journals Systematic Reviews in Theory and Practice for Library and Information Studies

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (112) ◽  
pp. 6-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue F Phelps ◽  
Nicole Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Specific Question ◽  
The Social ◽  
Library And Information Studies ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
Care Field

This article is about the use of systematic reviews as a research methodology in library and information studies (LIS). A systematic review is an attempt to gather all of the research on a given topic in order to answer a specific question. They have been used extensively in the health care field and have more recently found their way into the social sciences, including librarianship. Examples of the use of systematic reviews in LIS illustrate the benefits and challenges to using this methodology. Included is a brief description of how to conduct a review and a reading list for further information.

Developing Information and Library Theory for a Conflicted Paradigm World

Libri ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Crowley
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Value Of Information ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
English Language ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Multiple Modernities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Library And Information Studies ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis essay examines theory development for local, national, and international information and library programs facing service issues involving the religious beliefs of users. Applying both culturally pragmatic and secular standpoints, the author identifies a relative lack of attention paid to such issues in the English language literatures of North American and European library and information studies (LIS). In contrast, secular theorists throughout the social sciences, as well as other fields and disciplines, are increasingly engaging with the impact of denominational and personal religious phenomena on nations and their cultures. To address this deficit in LIS theory, the essay asserts the value of information, knowledge, and library scholars drawing on understandings of the deep structures of cultures and multiple modernities, specifically including religious modernities. Further, the essay offers suggestions for secular academics and other investigators in developing the research and theory appropriate for advising LIS practitioners who are providing services which take into account the religious beliefs of the users.

Social Sciences between the Systems: The Ecuadorian University between Science, Education, Politics and Economy

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Altmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Education Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Global North ◽  
Self Production ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Operative Closure

Universities are, like all organizations, at the intersection of different functional subsystems. They are not only dedicated to research (science) and teaching (education) but are also place for communications that form part of politics, economics and so on. But, what happens to universities, and, more precisely, social sciences in university, if the social system they work in is not differentiated in the way the social sciences in the Global North are used to? What if there is no clear distinction between science and politics? Does academic autonomy lead in this situation to some kind of ‘university as a subsystem’, complete with its own code and autopoiesis? Or will the different subsystems de-differentiate increasingly, as predicted by Luhmann? This contribution will analyse social sciences in Ecuadorian universities as an example for organizations at the intersection of functional systems that are not fully differentiated. The development, the operative closure, the institutionalization and the self-production of a concrete discipline under constant pressure of other social systems will be analysed. The goal is a further insight into processes of differentiation in the Global South and the role of institutions in these processes. Part of this is the attempt to actualize and criticize Niklas Luhmann’s approach of systems theory to regions outside of the Global North. JEL: O300, Z130

scholarly journals History as inspiration: Tracing Franco-Chinese architectural elements in Hanoi old houses

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vu Thi Hanh
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Architectural Elements ◽  
Research Article ◽  
The Social ◽  
Networks Analysis ◽  
Insight Into

History is written in textbooks but is indubitably remembered through cultural artifacts and architecture. This is particularly the case when one thinks of Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, where its thousands of years of ancient history can be found in the old citadels, and more than half a century of French colonialism can be glimpsed in the Old Quarter houses. Many of these structures have survived the brutality of wars and now feed into the nostalgia of French aesthetic. Yet, in what way can we come to gain greater insight into a cultural space where there is an interconnection between religion, house designs, and forms of feeling? One can find an answer to this question in a newly-published scientific research article titled “Cultural evolution in Vietnam's early 20th century: A Bayesian networks analysis of Hanoi Franco-Chinese house designs” in the Social Sciences and Humanities Open journal of Elsevier.

Pursuing Salvation on the Playground

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas K. Rademacher
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Sociology Department ◽  
Childhood Development ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
The Social ◽  
Catholic University Of America ◽  
Insight Into

Paul Hanly Furfey spent his early professional career, from the time of his hire onto the faculty of the sociology department at Catholic University of America to the time just before he took a sabbatical to Germany, emphasizing scientific resources for social reform through childhood development. He promoted the integration of the social sciences and the Christian tradition as a way to effectively socialize children. He believed that the latest psychological and sociological standards provided important insight into child-rearing and that the data provided by these disciplines should be joined to spiritual resources in order to be effective in the more important question of salvation. Children could be raised to honourable adulthood and ultimately merit heaven given a conventional approach to childrearing. He continued his explorations into the place of philosophy and theology in the field of sociology. He challenged a materialist bias in the field while criticizing those who did not pursue their research with adequate rigor.

Actors

2019 ◽  
pp. 42-52
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Merkel ◽  
Hans-Jürgen Wagener
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Action Theory ◽  
System Change ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Subjective Assessments ◽  
Collective Decisions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transformation Processes ◽  
Empirical Approaches

Methodological individualism is widely accepted in the social sciences as a fundamental theoretical paradigm. In this context, it means attributing collective decisions or societal acceptance to individual behaviour. From the perspective of action theory, the outcome of transformation processes therefore depends less on objective circumstances (structures) or power configurations than on the subjective assessments, strategies, and actions of the relevant actors. As a rule, elites are the predominant actors in political and in economic system change. Since in the transformation process the basic institutions of society are generally reformulated at the negotiating table, much of the attention is centred on negotiation theories that use game-theoretical tools. By contrast to modernization, culturalist, and structuralist theories, actor theories set out from the micro and meso levels of the actors. Different approaches can be discerned. Historical-empirical approaches do not go beyond the description of transformation processes. Economic public choice approaches assume rather simplistic motivational structures of actors. In actor-centred institutionalism, the social sciences find a typical fusion of paradigms: action- and structure-theoretical approaches are combined.

Introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Charisma’

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Maren Freudenberg ◽  
Tim Weitzel
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conceptual Debate ◽  
The Individual

The introduction to the special issue on ‘charisma’ offers a very brief overview of the development of the concept in the social sciences and various critiques and intersecting debates. It casts a close look at Max Weber’s sometimes contradictory use of the concept and the different ways he conceptualized it in his sociology of religion and his sociology of domination. It then examines alternative theoretical approaches to ‘charisma’ that emerge in the course of the twentieth century before outlining this special issue’s contribution to the conceptual debate and the individual articles’ operationalization of the term by viewing charisma as relational, communicative, procedural, as well as related to ideas, practices, and objects.

Who owns 'culture'?1

1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Thomas Lawson ◽  
Robert N. McCauley
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Early Childhood Development ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Childhood Development ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Fieldwork Experience ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cross Cultural Research ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractNo one owns the concept 'culture'. Anthropology's long-standing proprietary claim on the concept rests on three sorts of contentions - none of which are convincing. Anthropology's overwhelmingly interpretive approaches to cultural materials have led to a preoccupation with the details of cultural materials at the expense of formulating explanatory theories. This has, among other things, rendered fieldwork experience sufficient for professional credentials. However, if the details are all that matter, then comparative and cross-cultural research, as well as most of the social sciences, make no sense. Contrary to this view, it is proposed here that theories reveal which details matter. Cognitive accounts of the sort we advanced in Rethinking Religion (1990) offer a firm theoretical basis for cross-cultural study of religious materials. Other types of research concerning non-human primates, early childhood development, and various social and cognitive impairments also offer insight into culture (without relying on fieldwork studies).

scholarly journals Talking Doping: A Frame Analysis of Communication About Doping Among Talented, Young, Norwegian Road Cyclists

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Renslo Sandvik ◽  
Åse Strandbu ◽  
Sigmund Loland
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Frame Analysis ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Hegemonic Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
Road Cyclists ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Complex Phenomena ◽  
Everyday Communication ◽  
Insight Into

In everyday communication, participants can critically explore their understanding of morally complex phenomena. There has been little effort within the social sciences to provide insight into whether and how athletes communicate among themselves about morally contested topics. This study attempts to fill this gap in the literature. Through focus group interviews and with the help of Goffman’s frame analysis, we explore how a group of young, Norwegian road cyclists communicates about doping. The article demonstrates that this communication is strongly norm-regulated and often appears as brief, assertive, and evasive. We show how the communication reflects a hegemonic discourse of doping as immoral and inexcusable. We conclude that this discourse limits explorative communication and may limit young athletes’ preparation for doping-related dilemmas and social pressures.

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