Information-rich, but time-poor. Exploring members of parliament’s approaches to information by Chatman’s “small world” conception
| Date | 17 October 2019 |
| Published date | 17 October 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2019-0057 |
| Pages | 409-423 |
| Author | Åse Garten Galtrud,Katriina Byström |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Information-rich, but time-poor
Exploring members of parliament’s
approaches to information by Chatman’s
“small world”conception
Åse Garten Galtrud
Department of Research and Dissemination,
National Library of Norway, Oslo, Norway, and
Katriina Byström
Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to analyse how elite politicians in opposition in the Norwegian
parliament use information when responding to government propositions and investigate if Chatman’ssmall
world conceptioncan explain the socially and economicallyhighly privileged groups’approach to information.
Design/methodology/approach –The qualitative analysis of the data consisting of eight interviews with
seven members of parliament (MPs) and one political advisor is based on a selective coding grounded to
Chatman’s six propositions on life in the round.
Findings –The overall findings indicate that elite politicians’information practices concentrate in mastering
the flow of information and admitting attention selectively, but on broad topics. Whereas MPs information
practices within an intentional approach (i.e. to be used in political responses and debates) aligned with the
small world idea, the nebulous approach (i.e. keeping updated on societal issues) breaks the boundaries of
their “small worlds”.
Originality/value –The study provides a glimpse into information practises of a little studied group, elite
politicians. Moreover, it applies Chatman’s conception of small world in a novel manner.
Keywords Information research, Information behaviour, Information practices, Information poverty,
Elite politicians, Norwegian parliament
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The aim of this paper is to examine how Chatman’s theories on life in the round, small
worlds and information poverty can explain information seeking and the use of a socially,
economically and politically resourceful group of decision makers: members of parliament
(MPs). Chatman’s work focused on information seeking and the use of diverse marginalised
groups in society, such as retired women, janitors and women prisoners (Chatman, 1990,
1992, 1996, 1999). Her theories are applied also in less impoverished settings, such as
university administration (Huotari and Chatman, 2001). We arrived at applying Chatman’s
work after initial inputs from Taylor’s Information Use Environment (IUE) framework
(Taylor, 1991), which he explicated by a focus on legislators. Both Chatman and Taylor may
be seen as early examples of practice theoretical approaches that, in the past decade or so,
have gained attention in information studies, much in line with the more general practice
turn in social sciences. They emphasise a view of socially and culturally shared ways of
acting in relation to information, where its needs, seeking and use are afforded and
constrained by the conventions and values of the community (Byström et al., 2019).
In this paper, we will address the ways political elites seek and use information sources
in their work as members of the Norwegian parliament. We focus on politicians from the
opposition, and how they acquire information in order to respond to government proposals.
This focus delimitates onto information practices that serve in abrupt situations, where
government sets the agenda, matters span over a topically broad spectrum and response
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 76 No. 2, 2020
pp. 409-423
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-03-2019-0057
Received 28 March 2019
Revised 18 September 2019
Accepted 20 September 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
409
Information-
rich, but
time-poor
To continue reading
Request your trial