Brian L. Griffin

Bio: Brian L. Griffin is an academic researcher from University of Toronto. The author has contributed to research in topics: Information science & Embodied cognition. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 7 publications receiving 62 citations.

What everybody knows: embodied information in serious leisure

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the role of the body in information in serious leisure by reviewing existing work in information behaviour that theorises the role of the body, and by drawing selectively on literature from beyond information studies to extend our understanding,After finding a lack of attention to the body in most influential works on information behaviour, the paper identifies a number of important authors who do offer theorisations It then explores what can be learnt by examining studies of embodied information in the hobbies of running, music and the liberal arts, published outside the discipline,Auto-ethnographic studies influenced by phenomenology show that embodied information is central to the hobby of running, both through the diverse sensory information the runner uses and through the dissemination of information by the body as a sign Studies of music drawing on the theory of embodied cognition, similarly suggest that it is a key part of amateur music information behaviour Even when considering the liberal arts hobby, the core activity, reading, has been shown to be in significant ways embodied The examples reveal how it is not only in more obviously embodied leisure activities such as sports, in which the body must be considered,Embodied information refers to how the authors receive information from the senses and the way the body is a sign that can be read by others To fully understand this, more empirical and theoretical work is needed to reconcile insights from practice theory, phenomenology, embodied cognition and sensory studies,The paper demonstrates how and why the body has been neglected in information behaviour research, reviews current work and identifies perspectives from other disciplines that can begin to fill the gap

Information activity in serious leisure

Abstract: Background. In the past decade, scholars of information science have started to conduct research on information behaviour in serious leisure. Presently, these studies lack common concepts and terms and empirical discoveries are not easy to assemble into theory. Aim. This conceptual and methodological paper surveys the aforementioned research area and introduces Anders Hektor’s model of information behaviour in conjunction with the serious leisure perspective as a means to systematically study information behaviour in serious leisure. Method. Three methods are employed. The first is a selective literature review and intellectual history of research into information behaviour in serious leisure. The second is a conceptual analysis of Hektor’s model that relates its key features to the serious leisure perspective. The third consists of a deductive audit of three forms of serious leisure (the liberal arts hobby, amateur musicianship, and the hobby of running), utilizing the frameworks, concepts, and terms outlined in the paper. Results. Studies of information behaviour in serious leisure have increased and deepened in the past decade, largely through ideographic case studies. Hektor’s model of information behaviour, with its locus in everyday life and precise delineation of eight information activities, can complement such research designs. A deductive audit guided by Hektor’s model illuminated information activities within the three forms of serious leisure and enabled comparative observations. Conclusions. When combined with the serious leisure perspective, Hektor’s model enables research that is comparative and more precise. However, the extent to which this model captures physical or embodied information should be further examined.

Scientific progress or organizational innovation? A comparison of two turns in Library and Information Science

Abstract: This paper discusses the transformation of library and information science (LIS) from adiscipline narrowly concerned with classification and preservation in libraries and archives toone that includes a wide range of fields and professional training programs. Two alternative butnot mutually exclusive explanations may account for these developments. These changes couldreflect normal scientific progress as the discipline matures. The changes could also be the resultof isomorphic organizational changes in response to shifts in the environment and a need torealign the institutional logics of educational and professional organizations with those of theacademy. These explanations are explored through a comparison of two periods during whichLIS experienced rapid disciplinary and organizational changes: the decades during and afterWorld War II and the final decade of the 20th century. These abbreviated case studies suggestthat both explanations of disciplinary change provide some analytical leverage for explainingdifferent aspects of the development of LIS.

Multimedia Approaches to Learning the Foundations of Library and Information Science

Abstract: This paper presents a case study of two types of multimedia resources that were integrated as supplementary learning materials into the design and delivery of two different graduate courses on the ...

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

Embodied music cognition and mediation technology

Abstract: O VER THE PAST 25 YEARS OUR UNDERSTANDING of how music interacts with the human mind and brain has grown rapidly, and multimedia technologies have augmented the ways in which we engage with music. In Embodied Music Cognition and Mediation Technology, Marc Leman examines how these developments might be unified into something that is simultaneously a theory of music cognition and a blueprint for the music mediation technology of the future. Mediation refers to the mappings between the intentions and desires on the part of active musical participants and the technology that renders the music. The main mediating principle elaborated on in the monograph, which is more intellectual discourse than textbook, is rooted in the belief that musical interactions are socially charged, embodied affairs. Thus, individuals understand music in the same way that they understand others’ intentions during social interaction, and expressive intentions are attributed to music because patterns of sonic energy evoke bodily gestures that are meaningful to an individual due to his or her personal history as an active participant within a cultural environment. The first three chapters contextualize the embodied music cognition approach. In Chapter 1, Leman sets the scene by making clear the challenges that face those who are concerned with how subjective musical experiences are linked to physical sound patterns. Chapter 2 then deals with the diversity of paradigms that are relevant to the business of interdisciplinary music research. Here Leman adeptly identifies relationships between trends in music research, such as the emergence of systematic musicology, and landmark developments in the discipline of psychology, such as the advent of the Gestalt school and cognitivism. He also charts the progress made in the fields of technology, information theory, and computational modeling, with well selected philosophical matter visited along the way. This serves as a historical prelude to the birth of the modern embodied cognition paradigm, which asserts that, “knowledge does not emerge from passive perception, but from the need to act in an environment” (p. 43). In Chapter 3, Leman expands upon this ecological theme with a view toward music mediation technology, developing the premise that mediating technology should exploit the way in which individuals naturally engage themselves with music. The ensuing chapters delve into the details of what embodied music cognition means. Chapters 4 and 5 build a case for why it makes sense to think about engagement with music in terms of corporeal articulations and action-based ontologies, and how these lead to pleasurable experiences with music, whereas Chapters 6 and 7 describe how this type of framework might play itself out in musical instrument and music retrieval technologies. Throughout these chapters, Leman articulates a framework in which performer/music/listener interactions can be structured/mediated. The framework contends with the formidable challenges inherent in mapping between the intentions, actions, and percepts of individuals and very specific musical signals. Ultimately, the problem is one of identifying relationships between semantics and musical structure, and then specifying the technological requirements for accomplishing the translation from one to the other. Leman breaks the problem down into three interacting conceptual levels, which he talks about as first-person, second-person, and third-person descriptions. Thirdperson descriptions are objective representations of the structural features of the music, whereas first-person descriptions are subjectively assigned semantic labels that refer to expressive intentions. According to Leman, previous approaches to understanding music (e.g., traditional musicology) have fixated upon these two levels of description without giving adequate treatment to the “rules” that govern the mapping between objective representations and subjective interpretations. Such rules are needed to achieve his scientific goal of developing a complete theory of music, as well as his practical goal of developing a successful mediation technology. The key to Leman’s solution is the proposal that an understanding of musical intentions requires third-person and first-person descriptions to be linked via second-person descriptions, which are corporeal in nature. At this intermediate level, expressive bodily gestures from an individual’s repertoire of actions are used to describe moving sonic forms in a manner that the individual can interpret based on his or