Mapping the Positive Turn for Information Science
a Workshop at the iConference 2016
Sunday, March 20, 2016 - Philadelphia, PA, USA
Organizers
Abstract
This half-day workshop bright together scholars, practitioners, and students from across the iSchool community to discuss current research around “positive” information phenomena, that is, non-problematical perspectives on the information experience. The session explored a range of positive concepts recently emerged in information science, such as: well-being, happiness, leisure and positive computing. Throughout the session, our conversation moved between information science to specialties such as positive psychology, positive sociology, and the sociology of happiness. Participants will shared their own thinking and research on these topics, mapped current and future research trajectories (shown below), and produced a foundation for future collaboration. In keeping with a spirit of interdisciplinarity, the event featured a keynote by the architect of positive sociology, sociologist and leisure scholar Dr. Robert A. Stebbins.
Format
The agenda used at the Workshop is shown below.
Report from the Workshop (by Andrew Cox)
The Workshop produced some really thoughtful contributions and a fascinating and wide ranging discussion by the 9 attendees and 4 workshop organisers.
Participants’ mappings* of how they saw the relation between the positive and information capture the rich potential of this perspective. Yet participants agreed that problem-oriented research is still being privileged over work that focuses on or seeks to enhance positive and higher things in life. We agreed that persuading research funders and journal reviewers to accept a positive perspective is important.
The session concluded with a discussion about how we could progress such an agenda further.
* With the permission of participants we are displaying the maps on the Workshop website, identified by first name only.
Participants’ mappings* of how they saw the relation between the positive and information capture the rich potential of this perspective. Yet participants agreed that problem-oriented research is still being privileged over work that focuses on or seeks to enhance positive and higher things in life. We agreed that persuading research funders and journal reviewers to accept a positive perspective is important.
The session concluded with a discussion about how we could progress such an agenda further.
- One suggestion was a special issue of a journal, such as Information Research or Library Trends.
- Another way forward might be to propose a further workshop, perhaps based on individual research papers, for ALISE, ASIS Annual meeting, ISIC or the next iConference.
- We also discussed whether we can develop a shared elevator pitch/slogan that explains research on the positive in a persuasive way. Thanks to everyone for an enjoyable and productive afternoon.
* With the permission of participants we are displaying the maps on the Workshop website, identified by first name only.
