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Article
Publication date: 4 October 2017

Lennart Björneborn

Serendipity is an interesting phenomenon to study in information science as it plays a fundamental – but perhaps underestimated – role in how we discover, explore, and learn in…

2209

Abstract

Purpose

Serendipity is an interesting phenomenon to study in information science as it plays a fundamental – but perhaps underestimated – role in how we discover, explore, and learn in all fields of life. The purpose of this paper is to operationalize the concept of serendipity by providing terminological “building blocks” for understanding connections between environmental and personal factors in serendipitous encounters. Understanding these connections is essential when designing affordances in physical and digital environments that can facilitate serendipity.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, serendipity is defined as what happens when we, in unplanned ways, encounter resources (information, things, people, etc.) that we find interesting. In the outlined framework, serendipity is understood as an affordance, i.e., a usage potential when environmental and personal factors correspond with each other. The framework introduces three key affordances for facilitating serendipity: diversifiability, traversability, and sensoriability, covering capacities of physical and digital environments to be diversified, traversed, and sensed. The framework is structured around couplings between the three key affordances and three key personal serendipity factors: curiosity, mobility, and sensitivity. Ten sub-affordances for serendipity and ten coupled personal sub-factors are also briefly outlined. Related research is compared with and mapped into the framework aiming at a theoretical validation. The affordance approach to serendipity is discussed, including different degrees and types of serendipity.

Findings

All the terminological “building blocks” in the framework are seen to resonate with the included related research. Serendipity is found to be a commonplace phenomenon in everyday life. It is argued that we cannot “engineer” nor “design” serendipity per se, but can design affordances for serendipity. Serendipity may thus be intended by designers, but must always be unplanned by users. The outlined affordance approach to serendipity points to the importance of our sensory-motor abilities to discover and explore serendipitous affordances.

Research limitations/implications

Implications of the framework for designing physical and digital environments with affordances for serendipity are briefly considered. It is suggested that physical environments may have a primacy regarding affordances of sensoriability for facilitating serendipity, and digital environments a primacy regarding traversability, whereas physical and digital environments may afford similar degrees of diversifiability. In future research, the framework needs further empirical validation in physical and digital environments.

Originality/value

No other research has been found addressing affordances for serendipity and connections between environmental and personal factors in similarly detailed ways. The outlined framework and typology may function as a baseline for further serendipity studies.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 73 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 January 2022

Philip Roth

Informal knowledge sharing interactions (IKSI) are of particular value for innovation projects. This is especially true for unplanned IKSI, because they are even more likely to…

1267

Abstract

Purpose

Informal knowledge sharing interactions (IKSI) are of particular value for innovation projects. This is especially true for unplanned IKSI, because they are even more likely to provide non-redundant knowledge and new perspectives than planned IKSI. Seminal studies have shown that the formation of unplanned IKSI can be explained on the basis of spatial structures. Strictly speaking, however, these studies only explain unplanned encounters. Whether unplanned IKSI result from these unplanned encounters, though, cannot be satisfactorily explained on the basis of spatial configurations alone. The purpose of this paper is to tackle this explanatory gap by unraveling the fundamental social processes by application of the symbolic interaction theory.

Design/methodology/approach

For this purpose, the formation of 132 IKSI on innovation projects from three research and development departments of large companies was recorded in detail using a combination of diaries and interviews. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Findings

The analysis reveals that IKSI cause symbolic costs (image damages), and that these costs vary between types of social situations. Because actors anticipate situation-specific costs, their propensity to initiate IKSI can be explained in terms of the situations in which they encounter one another. Furthermore, the analysis reveals six particularly relevant characteristics of situations and further elaborates the basic argument by analyzing their functioning.

Originality/value

The paper complements previous explanations of unplanned IKSI by opening up the social processes underlying their formation.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 26 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 May 2023

Sanda Erdelez, Yuan-Ho Huang and Naresh Kumar Agarwal

This study investigated the moderating effect of organizational knowledge management performance on the sharing and use of information encountered by serendipity within the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigated the moderating effect of organizational knowledge management performance on the sharing and use of information encountered by serendipity within the organization.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors surveyed 274 medical librarians from the top 100 medical schools.

Findings

Individual information encountering predicted information encountering at work, which, in turn, predicted organizational sharing of encountered information. When the propensity to encounter information was high, then organizational knowledge management performance moderated the effect between organizational encountering and organizational sharing of information. Encountered information at work was only present when high organizational knowledge management performance was in place.

Research limitations/implications

This finding helps information behavior researchers discover the transfer of behaviors from everyday life to organizational environments.

Practical implications

It shows the need for greater support for information encounterers at work and the role of knowledge management, which may enhance their contribution to the organizational objectives.

Originality/value

Information encountering involves finding information by chance. Studies on information encountering have not focused on work settings and if the individual propensity to encounter information translates to organizational settings. Also, the relationship between information encountering and organizational knowledge management has not been studied so far.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 80 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 July 2018

Konstantina Martzoukou and Simon Burnett

This paper presents the research findings of the “Syrian New Scots’ Information Literacy Way-finding practices” research project, funded by the Information Literacy Group of the…

2396

Abstract

Purpose

This paper presents the research findings of the “Syrian New Scots’ Information Literacy Way-finding practices” research project, funded by the Information Literacy Group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. The purpose of this paper is to explore the information needs of “Syrian New Scots” (the preferred name for refugees in Scotland), their habitual and adaptive information literacy practices and the barriers and enablers they encounter within their new socio-cultural setting via their interactions with people, tools and processes.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data were collected via interviews with three Local Authority Leads for Syrian Resettlement and focus groups with Syrian New Scots in three geographical locations in Scotland: two rural areas and one urban. Syrian research subjects were also involved in a drawing exercise that helped to contextualise the findings.

Findings

The main information needs expressed by participants revolved around the learning of English language which was linked to addressing health-related information needs, well-being and community engagement. All participants also highlighted the issue of socio-cultural differences in fulfilling everyday life information needs (such as health and housing). Information provision to Syrian New Scots requires a more structured process that acknowledges personalised information needs and it is tailored to the different stages of the adaptation process. The findings suggest that the “ways of knowing” that Syrian refugees bring with them are converging information experiences of past and new knowledge structures gained via different socio-cultural and migration experiences.

Originality/value

The research findings of this project will be of interest to local and regional support organisations and community volunteer groups who contribute to the social well-being and social integration of Syrian refugees. In addition, they may be of interest to public libraries due to their role as centres for educational and cultural orientation sessions, and as places of support for newly settled Syrian refugees and the communities that embrace them.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 74 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 June 2018

Allegra Clare Schermuly

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of encounters on police legitimacy and levels of trust in the police in the Monash Local Government Area in the state of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of encounters on police legitimacy and levels of trust in the police in the Monash Local Government Area in the state of Victoria, Australia. Monash was chosen as it had experienced declining results in the official National Survey of Community Satisfaction with Policing in relation to police legitimacy and trust.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative case study comprising 18 interviews and six focus groups with community representatives from Monash is employed in the paper.

Findings

When procedural justice approaches are applied during encounters between the police and the public, encounters contribute to securing legitimacy for the police. Contact between the police and the public in everyday situations also enhances trust in the police, depending on the way the police conduct themselves during such interactions.

Research limitations/implications

Findings from a qualitative case study are not able to be widely generalised but the conclusions are still useful for informing insights into processes impacting police legitimacy and trust.

Practical implications

Contributes to informing evidence-based police practice around the way police conduct themselves during community interactions; informs policy decisions around allocation of funding for law enforcement with more officers required to carry out community policing; emphasises the importance of prioritising partnerships with communities; demonstrates that positive police/community relations have wider social cohesion implications in a contemporary era of counter-terrorism priorities.

Originality/value

The majority of research in this field to date has been quantitative. A qualitative approach provides fresh insights into the mechanisms of police legitimacy, especially the role of encounters and procedural justice.

Details

Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-3841

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2020

Amelia Green and Steffen Gray

The purpose of this paper is to begin unfurling the cultural value of street art experiences by opening up an audience-centred research stream sensitive to the nuances of this art…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to begin unfurling the cultural value of street art experiences by opening up an audience-centred research stream sensitive to the nuances of this art form.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper develops a two-part model through which to investigate how everyday citizens experience street art. The methodology involves a purposeful literature review, and direct assessment of how the nuances of street art could pertain to audience experiences.

Findings

The first part of the model conceptualises the characteristics that distinguish contemporary street art from other art forms. To help further guide future research, the second part distinguishes six layers that frame street art audience experiences: (1) “the art”, (2) artist's intentions for the art, (3) the street artist, (4) experiential context, (5) social contexts and (6) audience interpretive lenses.

Research limitations/implications

The investigative model provides a constructive stimulus for substantive empirical inquiries into the dynamics, complexities and implications of everyday street art experiences.

Practical implications

The research stream developed could inform appropriate approaches to facilitating street art, and collaboration amongst street artists, facilitators, municipal representatives and policymakers.

Originality/value

The paper helps to open up an audience-centred approach to street art that intersects with recent developments in arts experience, cultural value and arts marketing.

Details

Arts and the Market, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4945

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 21 December 2010

Jay Chaskes

This chapter explores the process through which one's moral career proceeds as one acquires a physical disability later in life. The author, who acquired a disability later in…

Abstract

This chapter explores the process through which one's moral career proceeds as one acquires a physical disability later in life. The author, who acquired a disability later in life, explores Goffman's notion of “moral career” as a process constructed from one's experience with both physical access and social access to the environment in which everyday interaction takes place. Using the extant literature and his personal experience, the author argues that one's identity as a person with a disability is always in a state of evolution. Rather than stable and fixed, it is unstable, although the rate of change is quite variable.

Details

Disability as a Fluid State
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-377-5

Book part
Publication date: 12 September 2017

Jane Wilkinson and Annemaree Lloyd-Zantiotis

Recent figures show that half the world’s refugees are children, with young people now representing more than 50 percent of victims of global armed conflict and displaced persons…

Abstract

Recent figures show that half the world’s refugees are children, with young people now representing more than 50 percent of victims of global armed conflict and displaced persons. Increasing numbers of refugee youth are entering their host nations’ compulsory and postcompulsory educational systems having experienced frequent resettlements and disrupted education, which in turn, pose major barriers for educational and future employment. The consequences of these experiences raise pressing equity implications for educators and educational systems. However, the picture is not uniformly bleak. Employing Bourdieu’s thinking tools of habitus, field and capital, Yosso’s concepts of community cultural wealth and photovoice methods, this chapter draws on studies of refugee youth of both genders from diverse ethnic and faith backgrounds, conducted in regional Australia. It examines how everyday spaces for learning, for example, church, faith-based and sporting groups and family can play a crucial role in enabling young people to build powerful forms of social and cultural capital necessary to successfully access and negotiate formal education and training settings. Its findings suggest first that everyday spaces can act as rich sites of informal learning, which young refugee people draw upon to advance their life chances, employability, and social inclusion. Second, they suggest that how one’s gender and “race” intersect may have important implications for how refugee youth access social and cultural capital in these everyday spaces as they navigate between informal learning and formal educational settings.

Details

The Power of Resistance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-462-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

Tingting Jiang, Fang Liu and Yu Chi

Information encountering is the serendipitous acquisition of information that requires low or no involvement and expectation of users. The purpose of this paper is to model the…

2214

Abstract

Purpose

Information encountering is the serendipitous acquisition of information that requires low or no involvement and expectation of users. The purpose of this paper is to model the explicit process and the implicit factors of online information encountering, i.e. how and why it occurs.

Design/methodology/approach

The critical incident technique was adopted to collect qualitative data from 16 interview participants. They contributed 27 true incidents of online information encountering which were used to identify the key phases of the encountering process. They also commented on the factors that they thought had an influence on the chance of the occurrence of encountering.

Findings

The macro-process of information encountering is composed of three phases. First, browsing, searching, or social interaction provides the context for encountering; second, the encountering occurrence consists of three steps – noticing the stimuli, examining the content, and acquiring interesting or useful content; and third, the information encountered will be explored further, saved, used, or shared. The 14 influencing factors of information encountering obtained divide into three clusters. User-related factors include sensitivity, emotions, expertise, attitudes, intentionality, curiosity, activity diversity; information-related factors include type, relevance, quality, visibility, and sources; and environment-related factors include time limits and interface usability.

Originality/value

This study engenders useful implications for designing information encountering experience. The changeable nature of some influencing factors suggests that encountering can be elicited through the purposive design of encountering support features or even encountering systems, and the macro-process depicts the natural occurring mechanisms of encountering for the design to follow.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 71 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2020

Michelle Westerlaken

This paper articulates a counter-concept to the notion of speciesism with the aim to encourage thinking beyond critique, towards imagining what non-speciesist worlds can actually…

640

Abstract

Purpose

This paper articulates a counter-concept to the notion of speciesism with the aim to encourage thinking beyond critique, towards imagining what non-speciesist worlds can actually look like.

Design/methodology/approach

By using the concept of “multi-species-isms” (or “multispecies”, as a simpler adjective), and linking it to feminist and relational ethics of “care”, the paper seeks to unite perspectives from both Critical Animal Studies as well as feminist, posthumanist theories. Already existing traces of multi-species-isms that exemplify different forms of multispecies care are visualised through annotated illustrations that accompany the text. These traces offer a cue for negotiating multispecies worlds without attempting to define their content in all too definite forms.

Findings

Rather than focusing on critiquing oppressive structures, the paper contributes narratives of multispecies worlds that inspire further imagination towards the positive ingredients of such worlds and show more concretely how multispecies care is practised in everyday life.

Social implications

These insights frame a starting point for a repertoire that shows the numerous ways in which multispecies relationships between humans and other animals are already given form.

Originality/value

By articulating the actual ingredients of multi-species-isms, rather than focusing on what they are not, the paper seeks to advance a move towards adding multispecies possibilities that can be especially helpful for those researchers, designers and activists concerned with imagining alternative futures.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 41 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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