Login

Publications  •  Project Statistics

Glossary  •  Schools  •  Disciplines
People Search: 
   
Title/Abstract Search: 

Dissertation Information for Jennifer Kate Hartel

NAME:
- Jennifer Kate Hartel

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2007)

ADVISORS:
- Gregory H. Leazer

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Mary Niles Maack
- Leah Lievrouw
- Megan Franke
- Sanna Talja

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Information activities, resources, and spaces in the hobby of gourmet cooking

Abstract: In this dissertation I describe information phenomena in the hobby of gourmet cooking. The investigation draws upon theories of domain analysis, serious leisure, and social worlds to establish the hobby as a setting with distinct informational patterns. Specifically, I focus on information activities and information resources of the hobby, seen from the cook's perspective and in the context of their home. Applying scientific ethnography, I interviewed 20 cooks; then, each guided me through their household and explained their culinary information resources, which were photographed and sketched. The data (transcripts, photographs, and diagrams) were analyzed using grounded theory and NVivo software. The results provide an overview of the hobby and a context to describe information phenomena in detail; there are five areas of findings.

First, this hobby entails food preparation using high quality or exotic ingredients and advanced culinary techniques. Gourmet cooks have an aesthetic sensibility, love to entertain, and customize their kitchens as workshops. Second, the hobby unfolds in time as three temporal arcs: a hobby career, subjects, and episodes. These long, medium, and short time horizons have distinct information dynamics and a quintessential information resource. Third, hands-on cooking involves a process of nine sequential steps: exploring, planning, provisioning, prepping, assembling, cooking, serving, eating, and evaluating. Information activities and resources vary per step. Fourth, cooks gain skill and knowledge though a variety of information activities, namely: living a gourmet lifestyle, expressing culinary expertise, staying informed and inspired, launching a cooking episode, and using information during a cooking episode. Fifth, to support the hobby most cooks maintain a personal culinary library (PCL): a constellation of culinary information resources based in the home. PCLs vary in size and the larger types are organized as a mother lode, zones, recipe collections, and binders that altogether facilitate the discovery of keepers-proven, cherished recipes.

As a case study of a domestic leisure realm this project extends everyday life information seeking research beyond its typical focus on public settings and problem situations and offers a theoretical framework and methodology to study information in the context of pleasurable and profound human experiences.

MPACT Scores for Jennifer Kate Hartel

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-05-25 19:55:49

Advisors and Advisees Graph