A Ciência da Informação na Universidade de Coimbra: Um estudo epistemológico das investigações desenvolvidas nos 2.º e 3.º ciclos de estudos

Paulo Vicente; Maria Beatriz Marques; Liliana Isabel Esteves Gomes; Carlos Guardado Da Silva

doi:10.14195/2182-7974_38_2_1

Authors

Paulo Vicente Universidade de Coimbra, Centro de Estudos Interdisciplinares (CEIS20), Faculdade de Letras https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7488-592X
Maria Beatriz Marques Universidade de Coimbra, Faculdade de Letras https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0088-0429
Liliana Isabel Esteves Gomes Universidade de Coimbra, Centro de Estudos Interdisciplinares (CEIS20), Faculdade de Letras https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3786-2942
Carlos Guardado Da Silva Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Clássicos, Faculdade de Letras https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1490-8709

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/2182-7974_38_2_1

Keywords:

Information Science, Epistemology of Information Science, Information Science research, epistemic culture, paradigm

Abstract

Information Science (IS) is still building its own epistemological identity, a desideratum that has been distinguished by a succession and coexistence of paradigms. One of the most influential proposals is the classical triad of paradigms explored and deepened by Rafael Capurro: the physical, the cognitive and the social. On this basis, the main aim of this study is to look into in which of these paradigms fit the research of the master’s and Ph.D. in IS of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC).
The adopted methodology, based on the methods of literature search and qualitative content analysis, was grounded on the analysis of a total of 109 master’s dissertations and Ph.D. theses in IS defended in the FLUC (deposited in the institutional repository), between 2006 and 2022.
We conclude that, in the light of the physical, cognitive and social paradigms, there is not a single and univocal epistemological orientation. Rather, there is a hegemony of the physical paradigm, in line with both the Spanish and French epistemological trend in the IS domain, related, above all, to a secular documentalist tradition, coexisting with a significant, yet not preeminent, presence of the social paradigm. The incidence of the cognitive paradigm is less meaningful and appears always complemented by an approach that partly tends towards the premisses of the social paradigm.