THE FIELD OF INFORMATION POLICY .2. REDEFINING THE BOUNDARIES AND METHODOLOGIES

The paper continues an analysis of the field of information policy as a field of scholarship. The first part of the analysis was reported in an earlier paper and was linked to the call of Ian Rowlands for 'valu e-critical and paradigm-critical' approaches in information policy. Th e paper begins by comparing research in information policy with the ou tput of the field of policy studies. It concludes that there are subst antial gaps in the range of information policy research relative to th e scope of policy studies. The gaps are located in areas where value-a nd paradigm-critical approaches could have most impact in taking the f ield of information policy to intellectual maturity. The implications of adopting value-and paradigm-critical approaches to scholarship are explored within the context of the new interpretative social sciences which are dominating much of contemporary scholarship, Some approaches and frameworks from the new methodologies which are seen as particula rly relevant to information policy are described. A case is made for e xtending the range of research paradigms employed in information polic y research in the interests of strengthening its currently inadequate intellectual foundations.