1 - Discourse domains and their role in knowledge production dissemination and organization

Abstract

Domain analysis for knowledge organization is the embrace of techniques for discovering the knowledge base of specific communities, for the purpose of informing the science of the order of knowledge and its application in knowledge organization systems. Domain analysis has become a core paradigm within the knowledge organization community in the postmodern environment. The papers that now are seen as catalytical in knowledge organization came from Hjørland and Albrechtsen (1995), which suggested domain analysis as a new approach to information science; a follow-on article Hjørland and Albrechtsen, 1999 focused directly toward the knowledge organization community; Hjørland (2002), which lays out 11 formal techniques; and, a special 2003 issue of Knowledge Organization on domain analysis edited by Hjørland and Hartel. Tennis (2003) defines two axes for the functioning of domain analysis as a methodological paradigm for the discovery of transferable analytical ontology. Just as domain analysis for knowledge organization has incorporated many theoretical perspectives, so has it been demonstrated to be a multimethod paradigm. There are many ways to elicit a terminological or thematic knowledge base by using empirical techniques for documentary analysis or qualitative techniques for ethnographic observation of a domain. Critical theory, semiotics, and discourse analysis provide social and cultural approaches to understanding domain epistemological perspectives. Domain analysis is a multitheoretical, multimethods core paradigm in the science of knowledge organization.