Informing Science Volume Two: Design and Research Issues

Book excerpt: The two volume Informing Science series is the first attempt to survey and synthesize research in the informing science transdiscipline. Part textbook, part collection of readings, the two volumes present both important research findings relating to the field and highlight fertile directions for future research. Volume Two: Design and Research Issues applies the building blocks of informing science described in Volume One: Concepts and Systems to design and research questions. It begins by looking at alternative approaches to informing system design. These include structured methodologies, agile approaches, effectuation, and emergent models. A series of chapters follows that present research findings related to a series of topics that have played an important role in the development of informing science as a research area. These include the relationship between rigor and research methods, threats to informing (such as misinformation and disinformation), the nature of informing impact, information cascades, the relationship of culture to informing, and the research-practice gap. The book concludes with a chapter that considers possible extensions to the current informing science research agenda and an afterword that presents the author’s reflections on the development of series and its long term future.