Information Cultures: Shapes and Shapings of Information

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to suggest a genealogy of the concept of information beyond the 20th century. The chapter discusses how the concept of information culture might provide a way of formulating such a genealogic strategy. The chapter approaches this purpose by providing a general narrative of premodern information cultures, examining works on early-modern scholars and 18th century savants and discussion of what seems to be a Foucauldian rupture in the conceptualization of information in 19th century England. The findings of the chapter are situated in the thinking that a genealogy of information would reveal that information had specific purposes in specific settings.

Citation

Skouvig, L. (2017), "Information Cultures: Shapes and Shapings of Information", The Organization of Knowledge (Studies in Information, Vol. 12), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-537720170000011008