The Importance of Theory for Information Professionals

Abstract

The author argues that we can easily be swayed by the popular notion of theory as an obstruse pastime for out-of-touch academics from the luxury of their ivory towers and that this is certainly a view we currently hear loudly from populist media outlets and politicians claiming they can fix the world’s problems with what they claim is a “common sense” approach. He futher argues that such a view is based on a misrepresentation of both theories in the sense that it is used by academic researchers and of the nature of common sense.