Information cosmopolitics : an actor-network theory approach to information practices / Edin Tabak.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Introduction --
2. Theory and practice: Jumping between different frames of references --
3. Actor-network theory: An alternative approach --
4. Setting up the fieldwork --
5. The fieldwork --
6. Some patterns in participants' information practices --
7. Information cosmopolitics: A model of information practices --
8. Propositions instead of conclusions: Yet another invitation to perplexity.

Information Cosmopolitics explores interaction between nationalist and information sharing practices in academic communities with a view to understanding the potential impacts of these interactions. This book is also a resounding critique of existing theories and methods as well as the launching point for the proposition of an alternate approach. It investigates dominant approaches in the information behaviour field, and questions existing theoretical approaches to nationalism and cosmopolitanism. The concept of information cosmopolitics is introduced as an approach for tracing information practices and enabling research participants to perform their own narratives and positioning. The book argues that instead of trying an 'impossible task' of revealing the social or cognitive forces behind individual information practices, the focus on information studies should be on tracing the continuous circulation of processes of individualisation and collectivisation.