Public Policy, Information Access, and Social Capital. Paul T. Jaeger, PhD, JD University of Maryland

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1 Public Policy, Information Access, and Social Capital Paul T. Jaeger, PhD, JD University of Maryland

2 Views of Social Capital Collective Asset Individual Asset Fosters dense social networks, norms, and trust Resources to which individuals have access through their social relationships Signifier of power

3 Social Capital Bowling Alone But also much deeper

4 Value of Social Capital Framework within which to understand the relationship between social structure and information access How communities effected by information access and information technology issues Used in many different Information Science contexts

5 Public Policy and Information Wide range of laws and policies reducing access to information over past seven years: Homeland Security Act, USA PATRIOT Act, CIPA, Executives orders, Executive agency memos, And on and on

6 Public Policy and Social Capital Public policies that reduce social capital negatively impact the health of democratic discourse and participation within a society

7 Habermas and Chatman Habermas explored notion of the importance of the exchange of political information in the public sphere at the societal level Chatman s chronicled the importance of small worlds in exchange of information within the context of social groups

8 Information Worlds Combining concepts of Chatman and Habermas can illuminate overall impacts of reductions on society, by combining macro and micro levels Information Worlds (Burnett & Jaeger) melds these two approaches into a single multi-leveled conceptualization of the interactions between social norms and values, information, and community, particularly in situations in which multiple worlds overlap

9 Information Worlds Help to contextualize efforts to overcome gaps in information access created by these laws and policies Public sphere agencies, like public libraries, and Certain small worlds, such as scientists

10 Information Worlds and Social Capital Public policy working to reduce information access and exchange necessary to build social capital Certain social groups working to counteract loss of information access and exchange in order to build social capital

11 Information Worlds and Social Capital In seeking to mitigate reductions in access to and exchange of information, these social groups generate social capital related to important political and social issues that might otherwise be lost as a result of public policy

12 Research Needs This situation merits much greater attention than it receives in Information Science Social, professional, governmental, and research implications

13 Selected Related Works Burnett, G. B., & Jaeger, P. T. (in press). Small worlds, lifeworlds, and information: The ramifications of the information behaviors of social groups in public policy and the public sphere. Information Research. Burnett, G., Jaeger, P. T., & Thompson, K. M. (in press). The social aspects of information access: The viewpoint of normative theory of information behavior. Library & Information Science Research. Jaeger, P. T. (2005). Deliberative democracy and the conceptual foundations of electronic government. Government Information Quarterly, 22(4), Jaeger, P. T. (in press). Information policy, information access, and democratic participation: The national and international implications of the Bush administration s information politics. Government Information Quarterly. Jaeger, P. T. & Burnett, G. (2005). Information access and exchange among small worlds in a democratic society: The role of policy in redefining information behavior in the post-9/11 United States. Library Quarterly, 75(4), Jaeger, P. T. & Thompson, K. M. (2004). Social information behavior and the democratic process: Information poverty, normative behavior, and electronic government in the United States. Library & Information Science Research, 26(1),