Conceptualizing Context and Its Relationship to the Information Behavior in Disseertation Research Process

Abstract

Context has been addressed as an influential factor of human information behavior. However, there is no consensus on what constitutes a context, or what the relationship between context and information behavior is. In this paper we explore the notions of context and describe the relationship between context and information behavior based on empirical findings, and reviews of current· literature. Our finding suggests that context is stratified and dynamic.A context is consisted of several situations, and each situation is defined by a set of related contextual factors. In this way, we propose a new approach to represent the context and situation. At different levels of context, multiple relationships between context and information behavior are identified, including the association relationship, the interaction relationship, and the one-directional relationship. These findings substantiate the concept of situation in Dervin's Sense-making approach, the concept of information horizon proposed by Sonnenwald, and Ingwersen's cognitive model of IR interaction. The multiple relationships between context and information behavior imply that information behavior is related to, but not equal to the process of problem solving. In contrast, information behavior can be viewed as a response of certain situation in the context.