Publisher's Synopsis
Critical theory has multiple potential connotations in academic librarianship. Critical Theory in the narrow sense has had many different aspects and quite distinct historical phases that cross several generations. Its distinctiveness as a philosophical approach that extends to ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of history is most apparent when considered in light of the history of the philosophy of the social sciences. Critical Theorists have long sought to distinguish their aims, methods, theories, and forms of explanation from standard understandings in both the natural and the social sciences. Instead, they have claimed that social inquiry ought to combine rather than separate the poles of philosophy and the social sciences: explanation and understanding, structure and agency, regularity and normativity. Such an approach, Critical Theorists argue, permits their enterprise to be practical in a distinctively moral sense. They do not merely seek to provide the means to achieve some independent goal, but rather seek "human emancipation" in circumstances of domination and oppression. This normative task cannot be accomplished apart from the interplay between philosophy and social science through interdisciplinary empirical social research. Critical Theory developed a nonskeptical version of this conception, linking philosophy closely to the human and social sciences. In so doing, it can link empirical and interpretive social science to normative claims of truth, morality and justice, traditionally the purview of philosophy. While it defends the emphasis on normativity and Universalist ambitions found in the philosophical tradition, it does so within the context of particular sorts of empirical social research, with which it has to cooperate if it is to understand such normative claims within the current historical context. Critical Theory for Library and Information Science claims that information studies and its accompanying professions have largely neglected critical theory and that a more critical-theoretical approach is necessary for correcting epistemological assumptions within the field, particularly those relating to power and social justice. This monograph reflects a trend within information studies that questions the scientific and positivist views that have long dominated the field. It offers alternative methodologies for studying information phenomena, particularly those employed within the humanities and qualitative social sciences. In short, this volume represents an important and reasoned contribution at the advent of critical theory to metatheoretical discourse within information studies. The necessity of its intervention cannot be exaggerated. Critical theory has multiple potential connotations in academic librarianship. Critical Theory in the narrow sense has had many different aspects and quite distinct historical phases that cross several generations. Its distinctiveness as a philosophical approach that extends to ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of history is most apparent when considered in light of the history of the philosophy of the social sciences. Critical Theorists have long sought to distinguish their aims, methods, theories, and forms of explanation from standard understandings in both the natural and the social sciences. Instead, they have claimed that social inquiry ought to combine rather than separate the poles of philosophy and the social sciences: explanation and understanding, structure and agency, regularity and normativity. Such an approach, Critical Theorists argue, permits their enterprise to be practical in a distinctively moral sense. They do not merely seek to provide the means to achieve some independent goal, but rather seek "human emancipation" in circumstances of domination and oppression. This normative task cannot be accomplished apart from the interplay between philosophy and social science through interdisciplinary empirical social research. Critical Theory developed a nonskeptical version of this conception, linking philosophy closely to the human and social sciences. In so doing, it can link empirical and interpretive social science to normative claims of truth, morality and justice, traditionally the purview of philosophy. While it defends the emphasis on normativity and Universalist ambitions found in the philosophical tradition, it does so within the context of particular sorts of empirical social research, with which it has to cooperate if it is to understand such normative claims within the current historical context. Critical Theory for Library and Information Science claims that information studies and its accompanying professions have largely neglected critical theory and that a more critical-theoretical approach is necessary for correcting epistemological assumptions within the field, particularly those relating to power and social justice. This monograph reflects a trend within information studies that questions the scientific and positivist views that have long dominated the field. It offers alternative methodologies for studying information phenomena, particularly those employed within the humanities and qualitative social sciences. In short, this volume represents an important and reasoned contribution at the advent of critical theory to metatheoretical discourse within information studies. The necessity of its intervention cannot be exaggerated. Critical theory has multiple potential connotations in academic librarianship. Critical Theory in the narrow sense has had many different aspects and quite distinct historical phases that cross several generations. Its distinctiveness as a philosophical approach that extends to ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of history is most apparent when considered in light of the history of the philosophy of the social sciences. Critical Theorists have long sought to distinguish their aims, methods, theories, and forms of explanation from standard understandings in both the natural and the social sciences. Instead, they have claimed that social inquiry ought to combine rather than separate the poles of philosophy and the social sciences: explanation and understanding, structure and agency, regularity and normativity. Such an approach, Critical Theorists argue, permits their enterprise to be practical in a distinctively moral sense. They do not merely seek to provide the means to achieve some independent goal, but rather seek "human emancipation" in circumstances of domination and oppression. This normative task cannot be accomplished apart from the interplay between philosophy and social science through interdisciplinary empirical social research. Critical Theory developed a nonskeptical version of this conception, linking philosophy closely to the human and social sciences. In so doing, it can link empirical and interpretive social science to normative claims of truth, morality and justice, traditionally the purview of philosophy. While it defends the emphasis on normativity and Universalist ambitions found in the philosophical tradition, it does so within the context of particular sorts of empirical social research, with which it has to cooperate if it is to understand such normative claims within the current historical context. Critical Theory for Library and Information Science claims that information studies and its accompanying professions have largely neglected critical theory and that a more critical-theoretical approach is necessary for correcting epistemological assumptions within the field, particularly those relating to power and social justice. This monograph reflects a trend within information studies that questions the scientific and positivist views that have long dominated the field. It offers alternative methodologies for studying information phenomena, particularly those employed within the humanities and qualitative social sciences. In short, this volume represents an important and reasoned contribution at the advent of critical theory to metatheoretical discourse within information studies. The necessity of its intervention cannot be exaggerated.
