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The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance and influence of the epistemologies: “empiricism”, “rationalism” and “positivism” in library and information science (LIS).

First, outlines the historical development of these epistemologies, by discussing and identifying basic characteristics in them and by introducing the criticism that has been raised against these views. Second, their importance for and influence in LIS have been examined.

The findings of this paper are that it is not a trivial matter to define those epistemologies and to characterise their influence. Many different interpretations exist and there is no consensus regarding current influence of positivism in LIS. Arguments are put forward that empiricism and positivism are still dominant within LIS and specific examples of the influence on positivism in LIS are provided. A specific analysis is made of the empiricist view of information seeking and it is shown that empiricism may be regarded as a normative theory of information seeking and knowledge organisation.

The paper discusses basic theoretical issues that are important for the further development of LIS as a scholarly field.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of economic theory to the point where “economic rationalism” is a commonly used term.

The paper draws on earlier research and published works examining: the history of economics; economic rationalism; and the different influences in comprising basic economic concepts.

The analysis of writing indicates that rationalism has been a focus of discussion in economic writing since Classical times, through to the “rational” influence in economic policy making from neoclassical economic writing. But, the specific term “economic rationalism” gained wider usage after Pusey's book. From that time, the term was used outside academia as a disparaging means to criticise economic theorists and policy makers.

The research is limited by the ability to examine all the literature in the field in greater depth. However, this has been ameliorated by examining a sufficient sample of literature relevant to the concept of rationality in economic theory and policy.

This paper provides a useful critique – from the classics to the modern era – of the contribution made to economic theory and practice. It provides managers with a comprehensive historical overview.

This paper fulfils an identified need and gives support to executives and managers who have doubts about theological justification for some values and accountability procedures being employed in policymaking.

There have been a number of studies of church‐state relations and the place of religion in education in nineteenth and early twentieth century Victoria. However, these studies, including J. S. Gregory’s authoritative Church and State, offer no significant discussion of Rationalism. This is somewhat surprising, since Gregory’s influential earlier discussion of church, state and education up to 1872 had included a few paragraphs on Rationalism. It is even more surprising that it was overlooked in Gregory’s later and larger study, which extends to the early twentieth century, since Rationalism was by then a much more powerful force. A consequence of this omission, together with the general shift of scholarly interest away from the church‐state issue, is that little is known about Rationalism and its approach to church‐state relations in the period when, arguably, it was a force to be reckoned with. This article helps correct this omission, first, by examining the development of Rationalism in Victoria up to the early 1900s, and second, by exploring its successful campaign against the Protestant attempt to install a divinity degree at the University of Melbourne.

This paper has three purposes. The first is to introduce the concept of fantasy, based on Lacanian pyschoanlysis, in order to link theoretically the role of narrative and affect in organizational strategies of control. The second is to use this concept to illuminate the fantasmatic as well as ideological character of so‐called “market rationality.” The third is to reveal three dominant fantasies organizations draw on in an age of market rationality.

This paper is primarily a conceptual investigation into the ways Lacanian psychoanalytic theories can help link the phenomena of narrative and affect within strategies of organizational control and second, how this relates to current trends of market rationalism.

Drawing on a psychoanalytic register, the paper argues that organizational control strategies revolve around the presence of a fantasy which is comprised of a symbiotic stable fantasy promising psychological wholeness and an unstable fantasy threatening to prevent this achievement. Further, it reflects on how emergent notions of market rationality, analogous to themes of a “boundaryless” or “protean” career, draw on a particular anti‐organizational fantasies to affectively grip subjects within their values and practices. Three fantasies employed by organizations in an age of market rationalism were then identified.

In broader terms future research can turn to the concept of fantasy to better explain organizational control and ideological interpellation of employees, particularly in regard to concepts of narrative and emotion for this process. Specifically, this paper offers an innovative way to understand and investigate market rationality and changing cultures of organizations within the globalizing economy.

This paper offers the category of Lacanian fantasy for linking narrative and affect in managerial ideologies. Additionally it draws on Lacanian theory to provide a more coherent and theoretically sophisticated account of market rationality and organizational strategies countering this trend.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how economic rationalism in policy development affects incomes and social cohesion within the communities in which businesses operate. Inequality of income occurs in most, if not all, countries. Historically, economic statisticians established various means of measuring levels of inequality within a country. Measuring inequality between countries, however, is a complex procedure because of differences in money exchange rates and standards of living. Poverty exists in most countries but it is particularly extreme in the Asia‐Pacific Region and in Africa. Economic rationalistic policies that depend on the supremacy of the market are developed mostly without regard for their impact upon income share, fairness and social justice concerns. Some other economic rationalistic policy outcomes are detrimental to social cohesion within communities.

This paper draws upon earlier research undertaken by the author as well as upon published works of other researchers.

The analysis of this paper indicates that there are great income inequalities not only within nations but also between nations in the Asia‐Pacific Region.

The research is limited by the ability to examine all the research literature in the field in greater depth. However, the examination that has been possible indicates that where economic rationalism has a significant input in policymaking wide disparities in the distribution of incomes become apparent.

This paper provides government and corporate executives with an understanding that the policies they develop could advantage one section of the community over another. This could have a detrimental affect on the social cohesion of the communities they administer or in which their businesses operate.

This paper fulfils an identified need and supports policymakers seeking to achieve just outcomes in the communities in which they operate.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the functionality of the particular epistemological schools with regard to the issues of users with visual impairment, to offer a theoretical answer to the question why these issues are not in the center of the interest of information science, and to try to find an epistemological approach that has ambitions to create the theoretical basis for the analysis of the relationship between information and visually impaired users.

The methodological basis of the paper is determined by the selection of the epistemological approach. In order to think about the concept of information and to put it in relation to issues associated with users with visual impairment, a conceptual analysis is applied.

Most of information science theories are based on empiricism and rationalism; this is the reason for their low interest in the questions of visually impaired users. Users with visual disabilities are out of the interest of rationalistic epistemology because it underestimates sensory perception; empiricism is not interested in them paradoxically because it overestimates sensory perception. Realism which fairly reflects such issues is an approach which allows the providing of information to persons with visual disabilities to be dealt with properly.

The paper has a speculative character. Its findings should be supported by empirical research in the future.

Theoretical questions solved in the paper come from the practice of providing information to visually impaired users. Because practice has an influence on theory and vice versa, the author hopes that the findings included in the paper can serve to improve practice in the field.

The paper provides theoretical anchoring of the issues which are related to the inclusion of people with disabilities into society and its findings have a potential to support such efforts.

This is first study linking questions of users with visual disabilities to highly abstract issues connected to the concept of information.

This paper aims to review numerous known drivers and antecedents of compromise behavior, proposing a basic categorization of the various contributions. This is done with the goal to integrate drivers and antecedents, previously largely discussed in isolation of one another, into a single conceptual model. This sheds light on the issue of previously overstated or understated relevance of individual drivers. The picture is completed by the proposition of new potential drivers of the compromise effect like lay rationalism and approval motivation.

The paper takes a conceptual approach in reflecting on prior findings from the field of compromise effect research and adjacent fields to develop a number of propositions aggregated in a conceptual model.

A number of previously overlooked, but potentially highly relevant interaction effects among known drivers of the compromise effect are proposed along with the proposition of several new drivers.

This conceptual paper offers a novel, broadly applicable categorization of compromise effect research. Further, it seems to be the first paper dedicated to an extensive review of established drivers of the compromise effect to examine the interdependence and possible interaction effects and of those drivers. Additionally, completely new potentially relevant drivers are discussed in detail and integrated into a conceptual model.

Economic rationalism is a major driver of the education system in many parts of the world. In the scramble to facilitate economic rationalism, the education needs required at national level to keep nations, like Australia, competitive into the twenty‐first century have not been fully considered. Such countries have ignored the needs of education for the first‐tier requirements of global organisations. First‐tier decision making is that aspect of centralized decision making activities, usually in highly developed countries, undertaken by those who can direct and control organizations, confining the rest of the world to lower levels of activity and income. Income, status, authority and consumption patterns radiate out from this tier along a declining curve. Neglecting the needs of the first tier has relegated education users to a follower, second‐ or third‐tier position. This paper considers this three‐tier system and how it relates to the Australian context that aspires to a first‐tier position.

A methodological study of religion including moral, ethical, and social values and economics takes us into the search, discovery, and establishment of a formal epistemological premise. Social economics is now studied as a methodological investigation of evolutionary and embedded systems integrating the moral, social, and economic systems. Thus an integrated theory of religion representing the realm of moral and social values and economics is formalized. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The author writes on the conjoint methodological perspective of the integrated domain of religion and economics. A formal ontology of the unified field of religion and economics is established in such an inter-causal and organically unified realm of moral, social, and economic values. A phenomenological model of the unified worldview that applies to a systemic concept of “everything” emerges. This methodology and the immanent phenomenological model relating to it convey the principle of inter-systemic organic symbiosis by a unique and universal worldview.

The systemic integration between religion and economics is formally studied within the immanent system methodology that formalizes inter-disciplinary symbiosis. The result is a new formal model of integration between religion and social economics.

Empirical work can further expand the scope of the paper.

Immense social, ethical, and cross-cultural implications emanate from the study.

The morality and ethical implications of religious values are imputed in the formal model and implications of the social economy.

The paper is of an original nature in establishing the episteme and formalism of integration between ethical and moral values of religion into the structure of the social economy. From this both a theoretical rigor as well as logical formalism can be drawn.