Social And Cultural Awareness and Responsibility in Library, Information and Documentation Studies

Hjørland, Birger (2004) Social And Cultural Awareness and Responsibility in Library, Information and Documentation Studies, in Rayward, Boyd, Eds. Aware and responsible, chapter Chapter 4, pages pp. 71-91. Scarecrow Press.

Abstract

Demonstrates that knowledge concerning social and cultural awareness and responsibility (SCAR) is not opposed to efficiency in information systems development. On the contrary, such knowledge is a prerequisite for developing effective systems. An information system is supposed to provide relevant information and help fulfil the “information needs” of users and potential users. The concepts of “relevance” and information needs” in information science should be defined in a way that reflects social responsibility. Approaches that are not open to consider SCAR in user needs and relevance criteria cannot be regarded as being efficient. Questions related to SCAR are not only relevant for the methodology of information science as a research discipline, but involve—more or less—all kinds of knowledge production. Some theories of knowledge deny this thesis about the role of values, goals, and consequences in scientific activities, while other epistemologies approve it. The hermeneutic insight, that there is no neutral platform from which knowledge can be evaluated, implies that the seemingly neutral epistemologies are wrong: they are never neutral, they just do not acknowledge and discuss their basis, values, and consequences. Epistemological questions should never remain invisible or unconscious.