Analyzing the Role of Knowledge Organization in Scholarly Communication: an Inquiry Into the Intellectual Foundation of Knowledge Organization
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Analyzing the role of knowledge organization in scholarly communication: An inquiry into the intellectual foundation of knowledge organization Jack Andersen PhD thesis from Department of Information Studies Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark Analyzing the role of knowledge organization in scholarly communication: An inquiry into the intellectual foundation of knowledge organization Jack Andersen PhD thesis from Department of Information Studies Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark CIP – cataloguing in publication Andersen, Jack Analyzing the role of knowledge organization in scholarly communication: An inquiry into the intellectual foundation of knowledge organization / Jack Andersen. Copenhagen: Department of Information Studies, Royal School of Library and Information Science, 2004. x, 257 p. + appendixes. Available: http://www.db.dk/dbi/samling/phd_dk.htm ISBN: 87-7415-278-5 ISBN 87-7415-278-5 © Copyright Jack Andersen 2004 All rights reserved Vidensorganisationens rolle i videnskabelig kommunikation: En undersøgelse af vidensorganisationens teoretiske grundlag Jack Andersen Ph.d.-afhandling fra Institut for Informationsstudier Danmarks Biblioteksskole, København For Simon Peter and Iben In dreams begin responsibilities Delmore Schwartz Abstract In this dissertation I analyze the relationship between social organization and knowledge organization. This analysis is carried out on two levels. The first level consists of three chapters each examining particular perspectives of the relationship. First, in terms of an examination of how communication technologies have shaped forms of social organization, I argue how knowledge organization is constituted by social organization. Second, I further situate knowledge organization in light of Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere and argue that this theory can be viewed as a fundamental model of knowledge organization. Third, by drawing on various theories of genre and activity systems, I underpin the connection between social organization and knowledge organization further by seeking to integrate these with knowledge organization. The second level examines the role of knowledge organization in scholarly communication by means of how indexing reflects and responds to the rhetorical activities of scholarly articles. I consider this as how knowledge organization can ascribe cognitive authority to documents. The texts are considered to constitute the mediating link between social organization and knowledge organization. I conclude that this relationship between social organization and knowledge organization must be understood and examined in order to fully account for the role knowledge organization in human activities based on document production and use such as scholarly communication. I II Resumé I denne afhandling analyserer jeg forholdet mellem social organisering og vidensorganisation. Denne analyse foretages på to niveauer. Det første niveau belyser igennem tre kapitler dette forhold. Igennem en belysning af, hvordan kommunikationsteknologier har indvirket på former for sociale organiseringer, argumenterer jeg for, at vidensorganisation er historisk betinget af disse former for sociale organiseringer. I næste skridt indplacerer og analyserer jeg vidensorganisation i lyset af Jürgen Habermas’ offentlighedsteori. Jeg argumenterer for, at denne kan ses som en fundamental vidensorganisationsmodel. Ved at trække på teorier om genre og virksomhedssystemer, underbygger jeg yderligere forbindelsen mellem social organisering og vidensorganisation ved at forsøge på at integrere disse med vidensorganisation. På det næste niveau analyserer jeg specifikt vidensorganisationens rolle i videnskabelig kommunikation. Dette gør jeg ved at foretage retoriske analyser af udvalgte videnskabelige artikler samt at se på, hvordan indekseringen af disse artikler responderer på og medierer artiklernes retoriske virksomhed. Dette behandles som et spørgsmål om, hvordan vidensorganisation kan bidrage til at tilskrive dokumenter erkendelsesmæssig autoritet. Artiklerne bliver betragtet som det medierende led mellem social organisation og vidensorganisaiton. Jeg konkluderer, at forholdet mellem social organisering og vidensorganisation skal forstås mere dybdegående, hvis vidensorganisationens rolle i menneskelig virksomhed baseret på produktion og brug af dokumenter skal kunne retfærdiggøres og underbygges. III IV Acknowledgements Acknowledgements is usually the place where one expresses a gratitude to those who in some way or another have contributed to or affected the materialization of one’s work. I am not going to make an exception. In my case, however, this amounts up to a whole lot of people. I want to thank the people at the library at the Royal School of Library and Information Science. Every time I ordered a book or article, and that I did a lot, they served me in an extremely friendly way. I am also thankful to the technical staff at the Royal for the binding of the dissertation. The director of the Royal School, Leif Lørring, has always expressed his support. Mona Madsen, the chair of the Department of Information Studies, always gave me support in terms of money for travels and for exempting me from teaching the last year. This gave me the necessary time to concentrate on writing. Thanks to doctoral students, Jeppe Nicolaisen and Laura Skouvig for constantly stimulating discussions that included both revelations and provocations. Thanks to Nanna Kann-Christensen, lecturer at the Royal School, for discussions about ‘daily’ things such as children. Thanks very much to Nan Dahlkild, also lecturer at the Royal School, for our numerous entertaining and serious discussions in the hallways. Frank Sejer Christensen, former doctoral student at the Royal School whose thoughts unfortunately had awful conditions there, has continually been a good discussion partner and a good friend. I thank you very much for that. Also thank you to Rune Dalgaard and Mats Dahlström, doctoral students from Århus and Borås respectively. I have found our e-mail conversations very intriguing. To the people in Santa Barbara, I cannot express my gratitude enough: Thank you Kris and Richard for letting Iben, Simon Peter and me stay with you. Thank you Rene for continually invoking my theoretical curiosity, and last, the reason why I went to Santa Barbara: Professor Charles Bazerman. Thank you, very very much for always taking the time to listen to my ideas, readings and interpretations of these and stimulating me to look for new theoretical pathways. My thinking about knowledge organization in connection with rhetoric, genre theory, writing, activity theory and social V theory is indebted to you. THANK YOU!!!. Thanks to my supervisor, professor Birger Hjørland, for believing in and supporting my project when I needed it most. Your ability to trigger one’s critical thinking is and has been indispensable. In Seattle, thank you Jens-Erik Mai for helping me getting around in the knowledge organization community and for always playing the devil’s advocate in our e-mail and live discussions. You know how I appreciate these. To my good friend at Kluwer Publishers, ‘Robbert’ van Berckelaer, thank you for our amusing conferences together. Shawn Cook proofread the manuscript and I cannot thank you enough for that. Also thank to Niels, Jakob, Jacob, Thomas and Morten for ‘hanging out’ with me when I needed a break. Last, but not least, thank you to my most two precious things in the world: My wife, Iben, and my son, Simon Peter. It is a truism, but as I have told you many many times before, I could not have made this without you two and your relentlessly loyal support. I LOVE YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!! Jack Andersen Copenhagen 2004 VI Contents Abstract I Resumé III Acknowledgements V 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Statement of problem 3 1.2 Situating the problem 4 1.2.1 The concept of cognitive authority 10 1.3 Argument and structure 21 1.4 Methodology 24 1.5 Theoretical and empirical approach 39 2. Knowledge organization in the context of library and information science 41 3. Social organization and knowledge organization: A sociohistorical view 49 3.2 Orality and knowledge organization 52 3.3 Writing and knowledge organization 53 3.4 Printing and knowledge organization 56 3.5 The Computer and knowledge organization 58 3.6 Summary 61 4. The social organization of documents and knowledge in society 65 4.1 A social theory of the media 66 4.2 Documents and social organization: A historical perspective 68 4.3 Habermas and the theory of public sphere 72 4.4 Toward a theory of the social organization of documents and knowledge 76 4.4.1 The public sphere and scholarly communication 81 4.5 Summary 83 5. Social organization and knowledge organization: A genre and activity approach 85 5.1 Genre and activity systems 86 5.2 Bakhtin’s notion speech genres 87 VII 5.3 Genre as social action 88 5.4 Systems of genres and social organization 89 5.5 Social organization through discourse 90 5.6 Writing, genres and activity systems 90 5.7 Summary: Genre and activity systems 90 5.8 Knowledge organization and genre and activity systems 91 5.9 Summary 94 6. The literary organization of the scholarly communication system 97 6.1 The notion of subject literature 97 6.2 Subject literature and its epistemological context 99 6.3 Subject literature in a communication context 105 6.3.1 Primary literature 107 6.3.2 Secondary literature 109 6.3.3 Tertiary literature 111 6.4 Summary: The epistemological and communicative