Social-ecological information experiences
A very exciting new research project is in progress, inspired by the truly wonderful global collaborations I have been involved with over the past fifteen years in information research and transdisciplinary sciences.
Social-Ecological Information Experiences is an integrative conceptual framework that can guide the advancement of sustainability goals such as ecosystem health for biodiversity conservation. The framework is a synthesis of social sciences, information science, ecological and natural sciences, and technology (AI, data science etc). As these technologies are becoming essential to the study and implementation of social-ecological systems, the project highlights social, informational and experiential aspects that are particularly important for the ethical development of artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning. For example, addressing growing ethical challenges in reducing a range of algorithmic biases that perpetuate inequalities.
A brief outline of the project is below. Feel free to email me if you are interested in this project: faye@humanconstellation.org
What are social-ecological systems?
Social-ecological systems (SES) is a well-established bridging concept and strategy commonly used to understand and address socio-environmental problems, and to increase impact and action in sustainability science (Partelow, 2018; Shackleton, 2024). Social-ecological systems is an essential tool for supporting the United Nations’ ongoing goals in ecosystem restoration, encouraging transdisciplinary teams to integrate while giving equal attention to interaction with non-scientific (traditional) and scientific information and knowledge. With growing evidence that conventional approaches are often ineffective in dealing with complex socio-environmental problems, SES arose from the need to rethink the ways humans relate to the environment (Sala & Torchio, 2019). Viewing the complex relations between humans and the ecosystems in which they co-exist with non-humans (animals, plants, AI etc), can help in clarifying cause and effect relationships, diagnoses and addressing the need for changes (Galafassi et al, 2018).
What is information experience in social-ecological systems?
The application and understanding of SES is a key solution to ameliorate climate change and biodiversity loss. A deeper and more nuanced understanding of the social dimensions of SES, including informational and technological, would help elucidate what works best in addressing specific problems. Information experience is a holistic concept that integrates how and why people interact and engage with information/knowledge, going beyond simplistic transactional notions of information/knowledge exchange usually applied in SES.
Information experience as an object of study has evolved from traditional areas of information research—information behavior, information literacy, knowledge management, human-computer interaction etc. All of these areas are human-centered fields; however, information experience is broader and multidimensional, allowing for contextual and causal understandings of social-ecological information from multiple lifeforms or species within ecosystems’ experiential perspectives, including the relational contexts between humans and non-humans i.e. animals, ecosystems and/or technologies (Bruce et al, 2014; Miller, 2020; Sohljoo et al, 2024).
Although information experience can include both sides, the field of study focuses more deeply on internal and subjective ‘through the eyes of consciousness’ experiences, rather than external visible interactions in specific contexts traditionally uncovered by information behaviour studies (Bruce et al, 2014; Gorichanaz, 2020; Miller, 2020). As yet, complex perceptual realities and diverse pluralities are inadequately reflected in information experience research. Examining shared elements of social-ecological systems and information experience can expand basic conceptions of information experience and establish its place in sustainability research. This can also help build the connective tissue much needed to deepen our understanding of holistic and nuanced experiences in social-ecological aspects of sustainability science and action.
Why is this research needed?
The purpose of this study is to bridge the gap between information research and sustainability sciences (Nolin, 2010; Guerrero et al, 2018; Meschede & Henkel, 2019; Suorsa, 2024) by developing an understanding of the concept of information experience through a social-ecological systems lens. There is currently a gap in research, particularly from the information research fields to help better understand the transdisciplinary integration of the social informational aspects into ecological systems research (Keith et al, 2022, Miller, 2020; Miller, 2024; Polkinghorne et al, 2024; Strikwerda, 2024). There is a need for more studies that examine or integrate both social and ecological informational aspects simultaneously to develop holistic understandings of human-nature interactions (Lischka et al, 2018). This is important as quality information and data from empirical evidence (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods etc), and knowledge (i.e. experiential narratives) intertwined in sharing experience as a large part of social relations, are significant value components of social-ecological systems essential to ethical decision making for sustainability efforts (Keith at al, 2022; Partelow, 2018).
This research aims to fill this knowledge gap by explicating social-ecological information experience as an intersectional conceptual framework that can pave the way for:
Information scientists and practitioners to contribute to transdisciplinary social-ecological systems and sustainability science projects, and;
Ecologists, sustainability scientists and intermediaries (such as knowledge brokers, practitioners, creative professionals from social, technology and ecology/systems theory fields, working between research, industry and policy), to understand why and how information experience could be integrated into social-ecological systems projects.
This project aims to encourage and facilitate transdisciplinary collaborations through a literature review that weaves together commonly shared elements of information experience and social-ecological systems theory–relationality, impacts, understanding, plurality, and contextuality.
References
Bruce, C., Partridge, H., Davis, K., Hughes, H., & Stoodley, I. (Eds.). (2014). Information experience: Approaches to theory and practice. Emerald Group Publishing.
Galafassi, D., Daw, T. M., Thyresson, M., Rosendo, S., Chaigneau, T., Bandeira, S., Munyi, L., Gabrielsson, I. & Brown, K. (2018). Stories in social-ecological knowledge cocreation. Ecology and Society 23(1):23.
Gorichanaz, T. (2020). Information experience in theory and design. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Guerrero, A.M., Bennett, N.J., Wilson, K.A., Carter, N., Gill, D., Mills, M., Ives, C.D., Selinske, M.J., Larrosa, C., Bekessy, S. & Januchowski-Hartley, F.A. (2018). Achieving the promise of integration in social-ecological research. Ecology and Society, 23(3).
Keith, R. J., Given, L. M., Martin, J. M., & Hochuli, D. F. (2022). Collaborating with qualitative researchers to co‐design social‐ecological studies. Austral Ecology, 47(4), 880-888.
Lischka, S. A., Teel, T. L., Johnson, H. E., Reed, S. E., Breck, S., Carlos, A. D., & Crooks, K. R. (2018). A conceptual model for the integration of social and ecological information to understand human-wildlife interactions. Biological Conservation, 225, 80-87.
Meschede, C., & Henkel, M. (2019). Library and information science and sustainable development: a structured literature review. Journal of Documentation, 75(6), 1356-1369.
Miller, F. (2020). Producing shared understanding for digital and social innovation: Bridging divides with transdisciplinary information experience concepts and methods. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK.
Miller, F. Q. (2024). Shared understanding. In Darbellay, F. (Ed.) Elgar Encyclopedia of Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.
Nolin, J. (2010). Sustainable information and information science. Information Research, 15(2), 15-2.
Partelow, S. (2018). A review of the social-ecological systems framework. Ecology and Society, 23(4).
Polkinghorne, S., Bowell, P., & Given, L. M. (2024). Transdisciplinarity: an imperative for information behaviour research. Information Research, 29(2), 495-511.
Sala, J. E., & Torchio, G. (2019). Moving towards public policy-ready science: philosophical insights on the social-ecological systems perspective for conservation science. Ecosystems and People, 15(1), 232–246.
Shackleton R.T. (2024) Social-ecological systems (SES). In Darbellay, F. (Ed.) Elgar Encyclopedia of Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.
Solhjoo, N., Krtalić, M., & Goulding, A. (2024). The in-between: information experience within human-companion animal living environments. Journal of Documentation.
Strikwerda, J. (2024) Information. In Darbellay, F. (Ed.) Elgar Encyclopedia of Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.
Suorsa, A. (2024). Embodied and dialogical basis for understanding humans with information: A sustainable view. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology.