Death of the user: Reconceptualizing subjects, objects, and their relations

Abstract

The article explains why the concept of the user in Library and Information Science (LIS) user studies and information seeking behavior is theoretically inadequate and it proposes a reconceptualization of subjects, objects, and their relations according to a model of 'double mediation.' Formal causation (affordances) is suggested as a substitute for mechanistic causation. The notion of 'affective causation' is introduced. The works of several psychoanalysts and continental and Anglo-American philosophers are used as tools to develop the model. © 2010 ASIS&T.