Chapter 4: Metatheories, Theories, and Models

A book like this one, focused as it is on information behavior research, cannot do justice to centuries of philosophical debate about reality, worldviews, and human knowledge. Instead, we identify some major questions and terms, and suggest several good sources that discuss the philosophies underlying our focus: the use of theory to guide investigations on the seeking, sharing, and use of information across contexts. We discuss some of the theories that are used by information behavior researchers, as well as some of the models that have been developed to explain human information behavior.

Metatheory is theory about theory. It addresses the philosophical assumptions about the nature of reality, and of knowledge, that stand behind specific theories and their related concepts. Metatheory concerns the assumptions that researchers hold about the world and how to investigate it. These include ontology (the nature of reality; what exists and how it might be categorized), axiology (the nature of values), epistemology (what we know, and how we can know), and methodology (how we can find out).