Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Paul Otlet And The Ultimate Prospect Of Documentation, Olivier Le Deuff, Arthur Perret

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Paul Otlet (1868-1944) has left information science a vast written legacy. He imagined future developments of documentation around new devices. His anticipations have attracted some misunderstandings and criticism. Otlet’s more daring projections were considered utopian but they are best studied in the historical context of his time. We present the relationship between the concepts of documentation and hyperdocumentation, the ultimate prospect of documentation, and the proximity between Otlet’s work and current conceptions of transhumanism in view of his Mundaneum project.

More Than Meets The Eye: Toward An Ontology Of Proximity, Laurie J. Bonnici, Brian C. O'Connor

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Words cannot describe photographs in the same sense that key words or subject headings can describe verbal documents because words are not native elements of photographs. Words can describe anecdata – reactions and associations that might be functional. Some form of data is coded in some medium, transmitted, received, and decoded. Some forms of coding and circumstances of message making and decoding require little proximity of the recipient to the message maker, while some forms utterly depend on proximity. We explore 10 photographs and interactive data accumulated through interactive exhibition to explore proximity and functional meaning. These examples demonstrate three …

Paratext – A Useful Concept For The Analysis Of Digital Documents?, Roswitha Skare

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In his study, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation , the French literature scholar Gérard Genette introduces the concept of the “paratext” to the public. Genette explains the term paratext as that “what enables a text to become a book and to be offered as such to its readers and, more generally, to the public” (Genette 1997, 1).

Genette’s concept has since also been applied to other media, especially audiovisual forms, such as film and television. Film scholars are using the concept when analyzing the importance of opening scenes and credits in films , or the significance of different technologies in providing …

Programs And Strategies For Community Resilience In A Metropolitan Area Public Library: A Case Study, Andreas Vårheim

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper reports a case study on community-oriented public library programs in a metropolitan Texan city. A main purpose of the paper is to report the findings from this explorative case study on the relationship of a public library system with its communities from a community resilience perspective. The study is a part of a research project aiming at creating empirically-based knowledge on the role of public libraries in forming community resilience. The description of specific library programs is a basis for further study of the mechanisms contributing to community resilience. Community resilience enables communities to face major environmental change …

Writing Documentarity, Arthur Perret

Proceedings from the Document Academy

European pioneers of documentation have inspired us to adopt a functional approach to documents. This has led to works on documentality, which is related to the agency and use of documents, and now on documentarity. We define documentarity as a “quantifiable quality”: not what is a document, but how something can seem documentary. This requires input from writing theories and the study of markup (architext, scripturation) and a comparison between interfaces and the underlying processes (documentarisation, editorialisation).

Documentary Provenance And Digitized Collections: Concepts And Problems, Mats Dahlström, Joacim Hansson

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Provenance research in digitized memory institution collections is mainly devoted to documenting and mapping the trajectories of the physical source documents across time, place and contexts, primarily by developing metadata standards and data models. The provenance of the digital reproduction and its relation to one or several physical source documents is however not being subjected to much inquiry. A possible explanation for this is the face-value approach with which we tend to regard digital reproductions. Looking more closely at such reproductions and their complex digitization process suggests a far from straightforward and linear provenance relation, and begs the question of …

Scholarly Communication And Documentary Fragmentations In The Public Space: A Functional Citation Study, Fidelia Ibekwe, Lucie Loubère

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper studies how academic content published in Open Edition.org, an online publication platform in the Social Sciences and Humanities is re-appropriated by members of the public. Our research is therefore concerned with the public appropriation of science and Open science. After extracting the contexts of citation of these content and mapping them, we propose a typology of citation functions as well as of citers (their origins and types). Our preliminary results indicated that academic literature is repurposed and cited by members of the public mainly as scientific warrant (support for their argumentation). We also found that academic content is …

Foregrounding Documentation Within Metaliteracy, Marc Kosciejew

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Documentation plays a central role in metaliteracy. When individuals engage in metaliterate practices of creating, sharing, and assessing information, they are, in fact, engaging in practices with documents. Yet, while the goals and objectives of metaliteracy implicitly acknowledge documentation, they do not explicitly emphasize the fundamental roles played by it in helping facilitate and enable various metaliterate practices. This article aims to make these roles explicit.

By foregrounding documentation – specifically documents and their associated practices – within metaliteracy, this article argues for the recognition of the fundamental roles played by documents and their associated practices within metaliterate practices and …

When Might Human Indexing Be Strongly Justified, Julian Warner

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The paper is concerned with the justification for human indexing, in the modern era. We understand human indexing in a classic sense, of human description of information objects in accord with a controlled vocabulary.

A justification for human indexing would be, when it yields a value commensurate with its cost. A long historically established value for retrieval systems is selection power, or an enhanced capacity for informed choice for the searcher.

The question of the justification for human indexing is made analytically tractable by reversing the historical order of development. We ask, what forms of selection power are not readily …

Metaphors For Meaningful Documents, Martin I. Nord

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The ever-increasing speed and reach of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are often lauded for the beneficial social effects we are told they have. This raises questions about the connection between knowledge and social relationships, especially concerning meaningful relationships in a world where people are increasingly represented as data. To answer this question, one approach is to consider the role of documents in communicating “meaningful” content in pursuit of understanding. Because this is difficult to articulate, this paper takes the approach of using metaphors—specifically of the document as a bridge, a window, a painting, a briefcase, and a mirror—to consider …

Information Design: Textualization, Documentarization, Auctorialization, Manuel Zacklad

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In this article on information design, we will begin by recalling our definition of information anchored in an anthropological vision of communication, and we will then present Buckland’s ternary approach to information, which is in tune with our typology. Secondly, we will return to the notion of device (dispositif) to introduce information and communication devices, of which we will give a few examples. This will allow us, in the third section, to present the design of recorded information in all its richness and complexity, combining the issues of textualization, authorialization, and documentarization.

The Ontology Of Documents, Revisited, Jonathan Furner

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Three contributions are made to understanding the nature of documents. A survey of definitions of "document" from the last century shows that those definitions which most accurately reflect the ways in which the term "document" is used in practice are typically compound definitions, consisting of two or three elements that each refer to a different function of documents: medium, message, and meaning. Locating documents in E. J. Lowe's four-category ontology results in consideration of documents as universals rather than as particulars. Analysis of B. Smith's theory of document acts suggest that all documents, not just the ones that are involved …

A Mid-Decade Update On Amish Settlement Growth, Joseph Donnermeyer, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The rapid growth of the Amish population brings a concomitant growth of new settlements. This research note provides a mid-century report on new Amish settlement growth in North America, emphasizing that the vast percentage of today's extant settlements have been established in the very recent past. As settlements in-fill around decades-old settlements, spatially distinctive Amish regions are taking shape, both in states of historic settlement and neighboring states. The apparent recent success of geographically outlying settlements is also of note, given the unequivocal failure of such settlements in the more distant past.

Online Mapping Tools For Geolocating Amish Settlements, Andrew Wilson, Brian Lonabocker, Megan Zagorski

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This technical note demonstrates the value of using online mapping tools as a method of geolocating Amish settlements. Primarily using freely available Bing and Google maps and published lists of the addresses of Amish ministers, we geolocated 1,362 Amish households in Ohio and 1,203 in Pennsylvania, representing about 10% of Amish households in those states. From these data we were able to derive a population density map of the Amish across Ohio and Pennsylvania. We caution that our map is merely a model and based on several assumptions, but the product is a finer resolution map of Amish distribution than …

Efforts To Improve Roadway Safety: A Collaborative Approach Between Amish Communities And A Professional Engineering Society, S. Dee Jepsen, Andrew "Dewey" Mann

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Lighting and marking recommendations for animal-drawn buggies and wagons were first established in 2001 through an American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Engineering Practice, EP576.1. Many Anabaptist communities who primarily rely on animal-drawn vehicles utilize this practice for marking their buggies and wagons; however they do not utilize the practice for their low-profile vehicles, such as pony carts. Visibility for pony carts on public roads is important to protect the operators, typically women and children. Following a series of tragic deaths in their community, the Holmes and Wayne Counties, Ohio, Amish safety committee raised the concern of having …

Interpreting Non-Amish Perceptions Of The Old Order Amish Using Cultural Relativism And Human Rights Frameworks, Kristin Park

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Relatively little is known about how ordinary non-Amish citizens interact with and perceive their Old Order Amish neighbors. This study used interpretive and semi-inductive approaches with in-depth interviews to describe and analyze interactions and perceptions of non-Amish research participants. Sixteen subjects were identified from purposive, snowball and theoretical sampling in a region near a sizeable, very tradition-minded Old Order settlement. All participants engaged in secondary relationships, while several individuals had intimate and enduring relationships with a small number of Amish individuals and families. While most participants perceived their Amish acquaintances and friends as honest, hard-working, caring and community-minded, some expressed …

Hoover Mennonites In Belize: A History Of Expansion In The Shadow Of Separation, Carel Roessingh, Daniëlle Bovenberg

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

We examine the migration history of the Old Order Hoover Mennonites located in the small, multi-ethnic country of Belize. The Hoover Mennonites live in the settlements of Upper Barton Creek, Springfield, Birdwalk, and Roseville. Characterized as one of Belize’s more conservative churches, the Hoover Church is also Belize’s most geographically dispersed Mennonite community. This paper brings together historical and present-day sources to account for and chart this dispersion. To describe what brought together this group between 1958 and 1984 and what drove their subsequent migration across Belize, we examine the religious and legal circumstances of the founding of their settlements. …

A Socio-Religious Introduction To The Apostolic Churches In North America, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The Apostolic Christian Churches descend from the religious revivals instigated under the leadership of Samuel Fröhlich in 1830s Switzerland. Fusing Anabaptist thought into his revival through contact with Mennonites, Fröhlich’s movement constitutes a distinct religious tradition within the larger Anabaptist movement. Research about this Anabaptist tradition has remained sparse. This article helps introduce the Apostolics to a scholarly audience. It reviews the movement’s recent history in North America, tracing the history of both the largest body—the Apostolic Christian Church of America—and several smaller, generally more conservative, factions. In addition to establishing links between the Apostolics and other Anabaptist branches, this …

Amish Settlements Across America: 2013, Joseph Donnermeyer, David Luthy

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This short research report is based upon previous editions of “Amish Settlements across North America,” which was published periodically in Family Life. It accounts for new settlements founded since the last edition (2008), as well as settlements which are recently extinct. The information is presented in a series of six tables, including a list of all Amish settlements as of September 30, 2013 (Table 1). Table 2 summarizes the number of settlements and church districts in each state, while Tables 3 and 4 shows trends in settlement increases, decade by decade, since 1900. Table 5 is a list of settlements …

Continuity And Change In A Southern Beachy Amish-Mennonite Congregation, William L. Smith

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Key leaders in a Beachy Amish-Mennonite church in southwest Georgia were interviewed to discuss the congregation’s history and position on religious beliefs and practices, gender roles and family life, education, work life, and areas of current concern. I then use the framework of boundary maintenance to assess the congregation’s viability. I conclude that while this congregation has experienced a variety of changes, its history reflects continuity rather than change.

Occupation Patterns Of Amish Settlements In Wisconsin, John Cross

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This article explores occupation patterns of Amish households and settlements in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has seen dramatic growth in Amish settlements over the past 50 years. Using household occupation data reported in Amish directories, dairy producer license listings, and surveys of Amish leaders in 2012 and 2015, this article describes primary household economic activities. Key findings include (1) a rate of 58 percent of Wisconsin’s Amish households are employed in some type of farming, (2) 37.4 percent of all Wisconsin Amish households have dairy herds, and (3) in 32 percent of Amish settlements, woodworking jobs dominated. Maps visualize the proportion of …

Bourdieu In Plain Anabaptist Studies? A Symposium Review Of Good Gingrich, Luann. 2016. Out Of Place: Social Exclusion And Mennonite Migrants In Canada. Toronto, On: University Of Toronto Press., Jeffrey Longhofer, Steven Reschly, Luann Good Gingrich

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Editor’s introduction—This symposium offers the reviews of two authors who, without sparing whatever criticism can be mustered, hold her work up as archetypal for rigorous methods and theory in plain Anabaptist studies. I have little more to say about Luann Good Gingrich’s work than that it is has been long, long in waiting. But let me add just a bit more and say why.

Now here is a study where a researcher has brought thick theory to interpret meticulously collected and presented interview data about a plain Anabaptist group (Old Colony Mennonites) in the context of broader forces. Yet, with …

Explaining Anabaptist Persistence In The Modern Economy: Past Paradigms And New Institutional Theory, Martin Lutz

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Amish and plain Anabaptist economic research has focused either on the religious ethic in the tradition of Weber—religious convictions drive economic behavior—or the ethnic resources model—resources are mobilized to entrepreneurship. Both approaches (1) neglect the greater market context within which the plain Anabaptists have been embedded since the Early Modern Period, and (2) focus primarily on either early Anabaptism or the late 1900s. This article presents New Institutional Economics Theory as an alternative paradigm which understands people's economic behavior by the institutional contexts they are in. It looks at the World War II economy in the United States when many …

The UnDistinguished Scholar Of The Amish, Werner Enninger, -Or- Has The Time Yet Come For Rigorous Theory In Amish Studies?, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Werner Enninger embodies the highest standards of methodological rigor and theoretical insight in Amish studies, and this article synthesizes his 30-some publications written in English. Enninger was a socio-linguist from Germany who conducted field research in Delaware in the 1970s and published intensely in the 1980s. His mixed methods address common hurdles field researchers face and offer meticulously detailed qualitative and quantitative data. Enninger’s theory can be organized around a social system model that fuses structural functionalism and symbolic interactionism. Within the model, he proposes a four-part superstructure—(1) core, group-defining values, namely, religious community and separation, (2) are realized in …

Of Shoulders And Shadows: Selected Amish Scholarship Before 1963, Joseph Donnermeyer

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

John Hostetler’s first edition of Amish Society in 1963 is a milestone in the advancement of scholarship about the Amish. It was revised and re-issued through three more editions. Even though the fourth and final edition was released nearly a quarter century ago, in 1993, Amish Society remains the most frequently cited authoritative sources about the Amish. Yet, there was a wealth of other solid scholarly work about the Amish before 1963, by such notable authors as Elmer Lewis Smith, Calvin Bachman, Walter Kollmorgen, Charles Loomis, and William Schreiber. The purpose of this review essay is to re-consider the merits …

Birthing New Kinships: The Cross-Pollinating Potential Of Amish Health Research, Natalie Jolly

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

In this article, I explore the connections between Amish gender socialization and Amish birth practices to suggest that an Amish construction of femininity shapes the ways that Amish women experience childbirth. This study is framed by Amish women’s health research and takes as a point of departure two observations often made about Amish childbirth practices: (1) medical research has found that Amish women have shorter labors than their non-Amish (English) counterparts, and (2) doctors, midwives, and birth attendants have argued that Amish women’s expression of pain during labor and delivery differs substantially from their English counterparts. I draw on my …

Reviving The Demographic Study Of The Amish, Corey Colyer, Cory Anderson, Joseph Donnermeyer, Rachel Stein, Samson Wasao

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The Amish exhibit distinctive demographic patterns, notably high fertility. While scholars have studied Amish population dynamics for more than a half century, recent research in this area is limited. We believe the time is ripe to reverse this trend. This article reviews data collection methods, points to a variety of accessible sources of new data, presents some preliminary results from the analysis of one such source (the McKune dataset for Holmes County, Ohio), introduces the research agenda and work of the newly formed Amish Population Research Group, and reviews past demographic findings to situate our agenda. An invitation is extended …

The Functionalist Problem In Kraybill’S Riddle Of Amish Culture, Michael Billig, Elam Zook

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Much of contemporary Amish scholarship manifests an implicit functionalist paradigm that harkens back to mid-20th-century social science. This perspective tends toward optimistic, even “Panglossian,” explanation of traits, in which everything that the Amish do or believe has a use, purpose, or reason; i.e., a function. The vagaries of history and the ebb and flow of power may be acknowledged, but they are relegated to minor explanatory factors. This essay provides a close reading of Donald Kraybill’s popular The Riddle of Amish Culture. It demonstrates the functionalist premises behind many of the explanations offered in Riddle, despite the …

Seventy-Five Years Of Amish Studies, 1942 To 2017: A Critical Review Of Scholarship Trends (With An Extensive Bibliography), Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

After 75 years, Amish studies has received no field reviews, an oversight I rectify with this article using several citation analysis techniques. I offer criteria for defining Amish research, which results in 983 references that are analyzed. Amish studies has a very highly centralized core of works; the top one percent of cited references account for nearly 20% of every citation in Amish studies, with Hostetler, Kraybill, Nolt, and Huntington dominating the top list. Few consolidated subareas exist, exceptions being language and health- population research. Analyzing Amish studies chronologically, the field early on accepted the definitive-sympathetic-authoritative-comprehensive-insider research approach, which legitimated …

Mapping Positive Change In Manitoba, Chihuahua, Mexico, Gracia Schlabach

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

While working in Manitoba Colony, Mexico, as teacher under Old Colony Mennonite Support from 2009 to 2014, I gathered data about the community from conversations and periodicals such as Kurze Nachrichten aus Mexico, Deutsch-Mexikanische Rundshau, Das Blatt, and Die Mennonitische Post. This information shows both changing demographics and positive growth that stems from improved literacy.