Link To: *Sense-Making The Information Confluence Project SITE DIVISIONS: Authors Site Resources Application Contexts SMM Interviewing Approaches Research Approaches |
Sense-Making is an approach to thinking about and implementing communication research and practice and the design of communication-based systems and activities. It consists of a set of philosophical assumptions, substantive propositions, methodological framings, and methods. It has been applied in myriad settings (e.g., libraries, information systems, media systems, web sites, public information campaigns, classrooms, counseling services, and so on), at myriad levels (e.g., intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, organizational, mass, national, global), and within myriad perspectives (e.g., constructivist, critical, cultural, feminist, postmodern, communitarian). The approach has been developed by Brenda Dervin and is being expanded, transformed, and enriched daily by the efforts of some 100-plus persons worldwide (academics and practitioners, teachers and students). This web site is designed to provide access to these efforts and links to those who are involved. On this site, Sense-Making (capitalized) refers to the methodology; sense-making (not capitalized) refers to the phenomena of making and unmaking of sense. Since Sense-Making has been under development since 1972, it cannot be encapsulated in a few sentences or even the intersection of all the documents on this web site. It is important, however, for the reader to know that the project has been based on three central assumptions regarding communication practice: (a) That it is possible to design and implement communication systems and practices that are responsive to human needs; (b) That it is possible for humans to enlarge their communication repertoires to pursue this vision; (c) That achieving these outcomes requires the development of communication-based methodological approaches. |