Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

Economics and Information Theory

政治自由主义 = Political liberalism

Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies can be properly targeted and developed to counter an ever-changing landscape of social problems. The book will be essential reading for all those who loved (or loathed) the arguments developed in Realistic Evaluation (Sage, 1997). It offers a complete blueprint for research synthesis, supported by detailed illustrations and worked examples from across the policy waterfront.

Evidence-based Policy: A Realist Perspective

The Turn: Integration of Information Seeking and Retrieval in Context (The Information Retrieval Series)

The profile of information policy in academic and policy-making circles has been rising in recent decades, a function, presumably, of the expansion of an ‘information society’. Nevertheless, there is widespread confusion over its meaning and purpose. This paper seeks to produce a clearer picture, building on useful groundwork in information science and other disciplines. The history of information policy is traced, featuring exposition of the pioneering contribution of Marc Porat in the 1970s. The present state of information policy is then described, with particular reference to some salient themes of current literature: issue inventories (i.e. the scope of information policy); academic identity (including a critique of attempts to appropriate information policy for one discipline); and the ideal – or, it is argued, illusion – of a ‘national information policy’. In the final section of the paper, some suggestions are made for the future direction of information policy. First, information policy should en...

The Past, Present, and Future of Information Policy: Towards a normative theory of the information society

From the Publisher:
We are often told that we are 'living in an information society' or that we are 'information workers'. But what exactly do these claims mean, and how might they be verified? In this important methodological study, Alistair Duff cuts through the rhetoric to get to the bottom of the 'information society thesis'.
Duff presents the argument that there are in reality several 'information society theses', each with its own disciplinary origin and tradition. One talks about an 'information economy'. Another, the Japanese theory of the 'informationised society', measures communication flows, while a third focuses on IT and the 'information revolution'. This book brings together the various schools and examines them systematically in a comparative setting. It represents one of the first in-depth treatments of the field as a whole.
Wide-ranging in coverage, this work will be of interest to scholars in information science, communication and media studies and social theory. It is a key text for the newly-unified specialism of information society studies, and an indispensable guide to the future of this discipline.

Information Society Studies

From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World

Reviews the literature of the information chain, analogous to ecology’s food chain, taking the Royal Society Scientific Information Conference, 1948, as the seminal point. Describes eight successive models of the information chain each incorporating contemporary thoughts and experiences. Each model is labelled with the year to which it may be said to refer: Distribution of Scientific Information 1948; Document Network 1967; Dissemination of Scientific and Technical Information 1978; Structure of Scientific Literature 1979; Ecosystem of Scientific Communication 1980; Information Chain 1988; Information Chain 1989; Pathways of Information Flow 1993. Although of wide applicability, the focus of interest for information scientists tends to be the communication of learned information.

Alistair S. Duff

Papers

The Past, Present, and Future of Information Policy: Towards a normative theory of the information society

Information Society Studies

From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World

Some post-war models of the information chain

Monitoring information security risks within health care