Os estudos de práticas informacionais no campo da pós-graduação brasileira em ciência da informação

Abstract

This research aims to analyze how some of the theoretical and methodological foundations of sociology have been used in master's and doctoral research in the field of Information Science, which has informational practices as its theme. To do so, we anchor ourselves in the theoretical basis of the social paradigm of Information Science, as well as Information User Studies with an emphasis on Information Practice Studies. The investigation was carried out based on dissertations and theses developed in postgraduate programs in IS in Brazil, located in the Capes Catalog of Theses and Dissertations and in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.To meet the proposed objective, we presented the historical process of the development of information practices studies in Brazil; we locate studies of information practices in Brazil (2008-2022); we identified the theoretical-methodological foundations originating from sociology in theses and dissertations on informational practices; we detect the subjects/objects of studies of theses and dissertations and; we verify the connections between information practice studies and other theoretical perspectives, concepts and notions. This is a documentary, descriptive research, with a qualitative-quantitative approach. As data collection instruments, we used semi-structured interviews and strategic searches in the Capes Theses and Dissertations Catalog and in BDTD. We work with quantitative data using basic statistical resources (percentages). The organization and analysis of qualitative data were carried out using the categorization technique, based on Bardin's content analysis. The situation of the production of theses and dissertations in information practices was seen from four (4) categories: year, institution, region and teacher/advisor. The period of higher production was from 2017 to 2019. The universities with increased production on studies of information practices are UFMG, followed by UFPB and; then UnB/BSB. The regions with the greatest production of studies on information practices are the Southeast, Northeast and Central-West. The teachers who stood out most in supervising theses and dissertations on information practices were professor Carlos Alberto Ávila Araújo (UFMG); professor Edvaldo Carvalho Alves (UFPB); professor Ivette Kafure Muñoz (UnB) and; Professor Rodrigo Silva (UFRGS). In the subject/object of studies category, we find research with transsexuals, black women, transgender women, LGBTQIA+ people, pregnant prisoners, young people in prison, deaf people and others. We identified that studies of practices have been relating to other themes and concepts such as mediation and appropriation of information, gender and culture, informational resilience, social networks, social representation and, these studies have been using theoretical and methodological approaches from sociology such as Symbolic interactionism, Ethnography, Ethnomethodology, Netnography, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Bourdieu's Praxiology. It is concluded that research into informational practices has been attending marginalized contexts and subordinated subjects in society, which is characterized as a new look at informational phenomena from different aspects and dimensions of reality. It shows that studies of informational practices have been relating to other theoretical perspectives of IC, working on concepts and notions that have stimulated theoretical reflections and strengthened the practical approach. It reveals the significant use of sociological approaches as subsidies for understanding new informational phenomena that have been studied from the perspective of informational practices, contributing to the expansion of the construction of sociological knowledge in the field of information science.