Finding common ground: A theory of community inquiry

Abstract

Much of current work in information science focuses on collaboration, in areas such as data standards, commons-based peer production, social networks, distributed knowledge creation, community and social informatics, collaborative information seeking, university-community engagement, and information use in work practices. However, the lack of robust theory makes it difficult to compare results, or to examine issues such as the relation between individual and collective inquiry. This talk presents a theory of community inquiry. Building upon the work of Peirce and Dewey, as well as that of contemporary scholars, and drawing from the concrete example of a extended collaboration in the Paseo Boricua community, the theory presents a way of describing and understanding collaboration and the ways in which it involves information creation and use.