Taking Chatman back to prison: rethinking the theory of life in the round
| Date | 14 December 2022 |
| Pages | 973-987 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2022-0192 |
| Published date | 14 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Jane Garner |
Taking Chatman back to prison:
rethinking the theory of life in
the round
Jane Garner
School of Information and Communication Studies,
Charles Sturt University Faculty of Arts and Education, Wagga Wagga, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –This paper serves to test the validity of Chatman’s theory of “Life Lived in the Round”within a
modern prison context. In particular, it examines Propositions Five and Six of her theory.
Design/methodology/approach –Data regarding the information-seeking practices of Australian adult
female and male prisoners from maximum-, medium- and minimum-security facilities was gathered through
106 surveys and 27 semi-structured interviews. Participants’information-seeking from sources internal and
external to the “small world”of the prison was described. The information behaviours of the participants were
examined against Chatman’s theory of “Life in the Round”to determine its applicability in the prison context.
Findings –The data gathered does not support Chatman’s theory of “Life Lived in the Round”, despite that
theory being developed in a prison context. Neither Proposition Five nor Proposition Six of Chatman’s theory
can be supported when examined in the light of the current data.
Research limitations/implications –The inability of the data to support Chatman’s theory requires a
reassessment of the applicability of the theory, at least to the prison context. As the theory was generated in
part from a prison study, the foundational understandings of the theory could be questioned as a result of this
current research.
Originality/value –Although Chatman’s theory has been examined against the information behaviours of
other “Small World”communities, none of these studies have taken the theory back to the prison context from
which the theory was developed. This study is also novel as its findings do not support Chatman’s theory, in
contrast to other previously published examinations.
Keywords User studies, Information theory, Information studies, Information research, Information,
Information society
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This paper tests the applicability of Chatman’s theory of “Life in the Round”to a prison
context –a testing ground that Chatman herself used when developing her theory. As
Chatman chose to apply numerous sociological theories to studies of information poverty
(Chatman, 1999), the weaknesses of these theories became apparent to her when she
attempted to apply them to disadvantaged and impoverished social groups. In her work with
ageing women living in a retirement community, she found a community whose world was
Rethinking
Chatman’s
“Life in the
Round”
973
This study was conducted after the researcher gained full approval from the Charles Sturt University
Human Research Ethics Committee and the Corrective Services New South Wales Research Evaluation
and Statistics Team. All participants provided written informed consent before participating and were
free to leave the study and withdraw their data at any time during the study. Consent to enter the
Correctional Centres accessed for this study was kindly granted and supported by the General
Managers of each site. The project was fully funded by a Charles Sturt University research fund.
This research was made possible by funding from Charles Sturt University, and through the support
of the New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice which provided ethical oversight and
the logistical management required to enter multiple correctional centres. Thanks go to the Correctional
Officers and Centre Governors of the sites visited. My gratitude especially goes to the men and women
who chose to spend time with me and to share their stories.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 8 September 2022
Revised 25 November 2022
Accepted 30 November 2022
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 4, 2023
pp. 973-987
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-09-2022-0192
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