Information in social practice: A practice approach to understanding information activities in personal photography

This theoretical paper explores the implications of adopting a practice approach in information science, proposing ‘information in social practice’ as an umbrella term in preference to ‘information behaviour’ or ‘information practice’. The paper explores one influential definition of practice and how four forms of personal photography would be understood within it. It shows that social practices often involve information activities such as seeking or managing information, although they are not the end of the practice. Information activities differ markedly between apparently similar practices; indeed conceptions of what information is are shaped by particular practices. This justifies examining information at the practice level. The focus in the practice approach on social convention and identity, materiality and embodiment, routine and change may also change how we look at information.