Everyday life as an evolving context of information behaviour
| Date | 06 September 2022 |
| Pages | 940-960 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2022-0116 |
| Published date | 06 September 2022 |
| Author | Reijo Savolainen |
Everyday life as an evolving
context of information behaviour
Reijo Savolainen
Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences,
Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the nature of everyday life as a context of information
behaviour by examining how researchers have approached this issue. To this end, particular attention is
directed to how they have characterized everyday life as a constellation of work-related and non-work
constituents.
Design/methodology/approach–Evolutionary concept analysis was conducted by focussing on 40 studies
on the topic. It is examined how the conceptualizations of everyday life and the relationships between work-
related and non-work constituents have been evolved since the 1990s. The analysis is based on the comparison
of the similarities and differences between the characterizations of the above constituents.
Findings –Early conceptualizations of everyday life as a context of information behaviour were largely based
on Savolainen’s model for everyday life information seeking. Later studies have proposed a more holistic
approach to everyday life in times when the boundaries between work-related and free-time activities have
become blurred, due to the growing use of networked information technologies and telecommuting. Since the
late 1990s, the understanding about the nature of everyday life as a context of information behaviour has
become more nuanced; thanks to a more detailed identification of the overlaps of work-related and non-work
constituents.
Research limitations/implications –As the study is based on a sample of studies examining the
relationships of work-related and non-work constituents, the findings cannot be generalized to concern the
contextual nature of everyday life as a whole.
Originality/value –The study pioneers by offering an in-depth analysis of the nature of everyday life as a
context of information behaviour.
Keywords Context, Everyday, Everyday life, Information behaviour, Information practices, Information
seeking
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Since the late 1990s, the concept of everyday life information seeking (ELIS) coined by
Savolainen (1995) has established its position in studies on information behaviour and
information practices (Hartel, 2019). The ELIS study offered a novel approach to issues that
were previously examined in terms of citizen information needs and seeking (Warner et al.,
1973), or non-work information needs and seeking (Chen and Hernon, 1982). ELIS research
focusses on information seeking occurring in non-work contexts such as consumption, health
and leisure, that is, domains that are not directly related to work task performance. While
advocating the significance of ELIS research, Savolainen (1995) emphasized that it should not
be interpreted as an attempt to create a false dichotomy between work-related and non-work
information seeking. This is because there are cases in which non-work and work-related
information seeking overlap, thus complementing each other.
AJIM
75,5
940
© Reijo Savolainen. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and
create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full
attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://
creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2050-3806.htm
Received 9 March 2022
Revised 16 May 2022
4 July 2022
Accepted 10 July 2022
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 75 No. 5, 2023
pp. 940-960
Emerald Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-03-2022-0116
Nevertheless, in recent years, there have been critical voices arguing that research on
everyday information behaviour needs rethinking because the ELIS model implies a division
between work-related and non-work information behaviour (Dalmer, 2019;McKenzie, 2020;
Ocepek, 2018). The critique is mainly based on the argument that with the growing use of
networked and mobile technologies, the boundaries between the work-related and non-work
domains have become blurred in today’s information environments. Consequently, the key
qualifier of ELIS, that is, everyday life should be interpreted more holistically. The ELIS
frameworkwas developed almostthree decades ago;what was referred toas “everyday life”at
thattime may no longer befully descriptiveof the featuresof daily life today.Everyday lifeis no
longer associated with non-work phenomena only because work-related and free time activities
have become enmeshed, due to the growing significance of remote work from home, for example.
The present study was inspired by the insightful critiques referred to above. An attempt
will be made to elaborate the issue further by examining the nature of everyday life as a
contextual qualifier of information behaviour. The main goal of the study is to find out how
researchers have characterized everyday life as an evolving context of information behaviour
and how they have conceptualized the relationships between work-related and non-work
constituents of everyday life. To attain this goal, evolutionary concept analysis was
conducted by scrutinizing a sample of 40 investigations on the above topics. The findings
offer a novel contribution to information behaviour research by deepening our understanding
about how information needs, seeking, use and sharing, as well as information work and
personal information management may occur in overlapping contexts. The findings also
reflect how ELIS research may be renewed so that it can realistically examine information
behaviour across work-related and non-work contexts.
The article is structured as follows. First, to create background, the relationships between
work-related and non-work constituents of everyday life are reviewed, followed by the
specification of the research questions (RQs), research material and methodology. Thereafter,
the research findings will be communicated. The last chapters discuss the research findings
and reflect their significance.
Background
Everyday life as a constellation of work-related and non-work phenomena
As a context of information behaviour, everyday life is subject to multiple meanings. In
information behaviour research, context is traditionally conceptualized in terms of spatial
and temporal factors indicating where and when information seeking, use and sharing
occur (Agarwal, 2018, pp. 9–18; Huvila, 2019). Contexts of information behaviour can be
approached as separate entities, but often it is more interesting to examine them as
interrelated sets of factors (Huvila, 2019). From this perspective, contexts of information
behaviour, for instance, work task performance and leisure activities can be approached as
partially overlapping phenomena. They may occur in certain places, for example, in the office
or at home, or in certain times, for example, during working hours or free time.
There is no generally agreed view about what is meant by everyday life as a context of
human activities.The terminology is further complicated in that researchers often use the
term everyday life interchangeably with daily life,everyday, everydayness and quotidian
(Ghisleni, 2017). Overall, phenomena related to everyday life tend to be “nebulous, pervasive
and ambiguous: obvious to the point of elusiveness”(Scott, 2009, p. 2). This is reflected in the
wide variety of characterizations of everyday life presented in diverse fields such as
sociology, philosophy, history and cultural studies (Ghisleni, 2017;Højholt and Schraube,
2015). Everyday life tends to incorporate multiple and partially opposite qualities: it can be
routinized, habitual and relatively static but also fluid and ambivalent in nature (Gardiner,
2000, p. 6). As a multifaceted phenomenon, everyday life is an inexhaustible research topic.
Everyday
life and
information
behaviour
941
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