Community, Identity, and Knowledge: A Conceptual Framework for LIS Research

Communities are a source of identity. Every community has its distinct traditions, values, and norms. Communities provide a wealth of organized and deep rooted knowledge, which builds from countless interactions of various socio-political, socio-economic, and socio-cultural attributes that occur over time. This knowledge becomes the property of that particular community and plays an important role in shaping the identity structures of its members. The emergence of various communities, e.g. professional, academic, and virtual has provided the opportunity for individuals to acquire diverse knowledge by assuming membership in these communities. The interaction of various sub-identities of an individual through his/her membership in different communities continuously shapes the learning, thinking, and perceptual environment, which forms the nature of experiences, value preferences, and knowledge arrangements. This intricate and complex system of socialization shapes the identity of a person. The role of communities in shaping the personalities of its members depends on the nature of the knowledge that is organized in its socio-cultural traditions. Analysis of an individual's community affiliations can enable the researchers to comprehend the role that community specific knowledge plays in forming the identity. Consequently study of community memberships of an individual can help us to understand the identity dynamics of a person; furthermore examination of community knowledge can shed more light on social interaction process. Community knowledge, individual knowledge, and identity are the three constructs that need considerable attention in order to broaden and deepen our understanding of the relationship between a person and the community. This paper has taken the aforementioned stance to propose a theoretical framework. A framework that calls for the analysis of different interaction processes not only at different levels but also from diverse perspectives. It is hoped that proposed framework will provide new viewpoints to LIS research and resultantly will benefit both the academic as well as the professional practices.