Critical realism as a philosophy and social theory in information science?
| Pages | 11-22 |
| Published date | 01 February 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410510577989 |
| Date | 01 February 2005 |
| Author | Marianne Wikgren |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Critical realism as a philosophy
and social theory in information
science?
Marianne Wikgren
A
˚bo Akademi University Library, A
˚bo, Finland
Abstract
Purpose – The philosophical position known as critical realism is briefly introduced, and some of its
central features are used to connect the philosophy and the realist social theory to some current library
and information science (LIS) models of information behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a literature-based analysis of the critical realism
concepts of a stratified social reality, the importance of contextualisation, and the relation between
structure and agency. These features are discussed in relation to various models of
information-seeking behaviour, but also to the “interpretative” approach to information as meaning
which can only be achieved through discourses in a human community.
Findings – The critical realism perspective could lay a fruitful foundation for an interdisciplinary
research field like LIS, and its user studies in particular, concerned with many levels of information
creation, seeking, use and processing. It is the task of the LIS researcher to explain the mechanisms
that influence the information seeking, not only on an empirical level, by observing the user and
his/her discourse community, but also by revealing possible underlying causes and relations.
Originality/value – An awareness of the fact that social and cultural structures exist independent of
one’s knowledge of them has implications on how many central problems in the LIS field are regarded
and studied.
Keywords Philosophy, Information science, Libraries, Reality, Informationresearch
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
An interdisciplinary research field like library and information science (LIS), and its
user studies in particular, concerned with many levels of information creation, seeking,
use and processing, both institutional and system-oriented, individual and
collectivistic (Wilson, 2002), will naturally contain different ontological,
epistemological, and methodological perspectives (Budd (2001) gives an excellent
overview). On the one hand, Dervin (2003) rightly points out that we are “drowning in
concepts, variables, methods, theories”, while, on the other hand, Bates (2002, p. 15)
(also rightly) claims that: “the several metatheories driving research in information
seeking each have much of value to offer, and should not be placed in a life or death
struggle for dominance in our thinking and research”.
Nevertheless, research is always a question of making choices. These may be
unreflective, but they may also reflect a basic view of science. One choice is what part
of reality the researcher wants to focus on; another is what basic assumptions he or she
has of what this reality is like. In other words, all theory makes assumptions about the
nature of reality, and such ontological assumptions carry implications for the way one
conceives knowledge and necessarily regulate how one studies objects or events (Budd,
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
Critical realism
as a philosophy
and social theory
11
Accepted 13 August 2004
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 61 No. 1, 2005
pp. 11-22
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/00220410510577989
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