Theoretical Problems in Information Studies: Philosophy, Ethics, Epistemology Research Cluster

The current configuration of the research cluster on Theoretical Problems in Information Studies: Philosophy, Ethics, Epistemology is formed by investigations of how the issues nominated in its title benefit from the works of structuralist and post-structuralist theorists such as Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Giles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Bruno Latour, Ian Hacking, Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, and Antonio Negri. Topics currently under investigation include:

  • the application of “assemblage theory” to information studies;
  • Foucauldian analysis of the semantic web;
  • a Deleuzian theory of librarianship;
  • the controversy over the concept of "immaterial labour";
  • Deleuzian and Foucauldian contributions to information ethics;
  • the relation of information technologies to biopolitics and the reinterpretation of "species-being"; and
  • theoretical issues in documentation.

The following faculty members have research interests in this area (faculty member's program affiliation indicated in parentheses):

Campbell (LIS) , Dyer-Witheford (LIS/Media Studies), Frohmann (LIS/Media Studies).

[11/27/2008]