Abstract
Abstract The visualization of Information Science as a postmodern science must aim at overcoming borderline dominant models, surpassing simplistic methodological impasses, and covering complex phenomena. In this regard, the article is inserted in the epistemological discussions, selecting social epistemology and decolonial thought as its themes. Its purpose is to identify the possible convergences between decolonial thought and social epistemology and, based on that, to propose, in an essay-like way, a decolonial social epistemology. In the methodological aspect, this is an exploratory, qualitative, and bibliographic research. The technical procedure for the analysis of the bibliography took place using a non-probabilistic approach, by judgment. The main result of this article is the construction of a historical and epistemological panorama that makes possible the approximation of thematics that, although produced in different contexts and interests, converge in a common objective: that of constituting a social, democratic epistemic field and that does not disregard the different subjects of knowledge. Thus, the reflections that combine the proposal of social epistemology with the decolonial thought or movement may bring theoretical panoramas and perspectives closer to the professional practice and research aimed at the 21st century informational context.
Highlights
Contemporary discussions on the field of Information Science seeking to understand its origin, scientific traits, and the possibilities of its application in the society in which we live are wide and well-known
The reflections that combine the proposal of social epistemology with the decolonial thought or movement may bring theoretical panoramas and perspectives closer to the professional practice and research aimed at the 21st century informational context
The sources of information selected in the research refer to the theoretical construction of the ‘decolonial’ epistemic field, to the protagonism of the epistemologies’ social aspect constituted in the 20th century, and to the centrality of Social Epistemology published by Jesse Shera in the 1970s. All these steps are developed in specific items of the article that ends with the proposal of a decolonial social epistemology for the Information Science area
Summary
Contemporary discussions on the field of Information Science seeking to understand its origin, scientific traits, and the possibilities of its application in the society in which we live are wide and well-known. The recognition and official record of Information Science as a scientific field dates back to the early 1960s in the United States, when a group of professors and librarians from the Georgia Institute of Technology gathered at the Conferences on Training Science Information Specialists to address issues inherent to such training locally (Brasileiro et al, 2015) Such an event is not enough to encompass the arising landmark of the Information Science field, since other important manifestations emerged over time in different countries, contributing significantly to the creation of different spaces of action within this knowledge field. Significant is the article of Silva and Karpinski (2018), that describes the result of social networks research on Nuclei of Afro-Brazilian Studies based on reflections related to post-colonial thought In this context, the choice for Social Epistemology is justified by its proposal to be a facilitator of the social knowledge production from democratic information services. The reflections that combine the proposal of social epistemology with the decolonial thought or movement may bring theoretical panoramas and perspectives closer to the professional practice and research aimed at the 21st century informational context
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