Social field, domains of knowledge and informational practice

Abstract

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to understand the information phenomenon through the means of informational practice-the way of acting that gives identity to a group-in a social field and knowledge domain. Design/methodology/approach-By relating Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of culture to the domain analysis approach of Birger Hjørland, the intention was to achieve a comprehensive interpretation of the structure which generates the discourse communities and, also, of the social structure from which they are derived. All of these form the conditions for understanding the efforts, objectives and interests of the actors in the social field that causes them to develop determined informational practices. The field of architecture was elected for analysis. Findings-The conclusions show that both the products and subjects of a domain of knowledge, inserted in social fields, are expressions of their informational practice. Research limitations/implications-The authors believe the theoretical model based on Bourdieu and Hjørland's concepts, here built to analyze the architecture domain, may be used to analyze other domains. Originality/value-Domain analysis is employed as an approach to the study of the information aspects but here supported by the sociological concepts of Bourdieu. Thus, it is possible to understand what, how and why the informational practices are constituted inside a domain of knowledge, and, fundamentally, interpret the historical, cultural, and social dimensions that influence the construction of information.

Domain analysis as a methodological paradigm in knowledge organization

“…The results are meta-analytical. Nascimento and Marteleto (2008) analyzed the internal structure and corpus of a journal Revista Pampulha to generate the information structure of a professional (not academic) discourse community. Lam (2011) creates an epistemological analysis of key documents in the knowledge organization of musicianship as discovered in music education.…”

Accessing the Urban Commons Through the Mediation of Information: The Eliana Silva Occupation, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

“…Capital, not only cultural and social, but also professional, political, economic, linguistic, symbolic and, importantly nowadays, informational determines the positions of individuals in the field—dominant (maximum capital) or dominated (minimum capital). The capital embraces assets which will decide the way the social actors act (Morado Nascimento and Marteleto, ).…”

Health as a Knowledge Domain and Social Field: Dialogues with Birger Hjørland and Pierre Bourdieu

“…The concepts of knowledge domains, domain analysis and discourse communities, developed by Hjørland and Albrechten, among other authors, related to the concepts of social field, scientific field, habitus and social capital produced by Bourdieu, can be an efficient theoretical and applicable tool to analyze specific domains and fields, combining the interests of the organization of knowledge to those of the sociology of knowledge. In this sense, guided by Hjørland's view of the social, cultural and historical dimension on the building of systems, languages and classification and other knowledge organization devices, Bourdieu's view would reflect the social conditions of production not only of knowledge, but of the means of its representation, organization and use (Nascimento and Marteleto 2008).…”