Information Design and Sense-Making c/o Dervin

'Information Design: Something New, Something Old

... I want in this chapter to challenge the central idea that information design is a new idea. Reducing the issues briefly to a polarity, it is useful to start by considering two ways to conceptualize information. One way, implicit in the above assumptions, is that information is something that describes an ordered reality and has some knowable, or at least idealized, isomorphic relationship to that reality (i.e., it represents in an identical way the form and content of reality). In short, information instructs us, this assumption says, about the nature of the world we live in: its history, its future, its functioning, our place in it, our possible
actions, and the potential consequences of those actions.' p.35.

[My emphasis.]

Brenda Dervin. Chaos, Order, and Sense-Making: A Proposed Theory for Information Design (chapter 3) In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information Design (pp. 35-57). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press

Previously: Information design: Tufte & Raskin 

Towards isomorphisms in Hodges' model

"The concept that best captures the process of homogenization is isomorphism. In Hawley's (1968) description, isomorphism is a constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions. At the population level, such an approach suggests that organizational characteristics are modified in the direction of increasing comparability with environmental characteristics; the number of organizations in a population is a function of environmental carrying capacity; and the diversity of organizational forms is isomorphic to environmental diversity." p.149.

"We identify three mechanisms through which institutional isomorphic change occurs, each with its own antecedents: 1) coercive isomorphism that stems from political influence and the problem of legitimacy; 2) mimetic isomorphism resulting from standard responses to uncertainty; and 3) normative isomorphism, associated with professionalization. This typology is an analytic one: the types are not always empirically distinct." p.150.

DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101

"Some of them went further, using approaches based in political economy, world systems theory, and theories of neocolonialism and underdevelopment to show that economic imperatives on a global scale were a major force in shaping education worldwide. Others interpreted such change through an institutional lens, arguing that the convergence toward accepted models of modernity has resulted in a process of educational isomorphism within and across countries." p.1.

Carnoy, M., & Rhoten, D. (2002). What Does Globalization Mean for Educational Change? A Comparative Approach. Comparative Education Review, 46(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1086/324053

"The movement is inspired by Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), who coined the term zoonosis, arguing that there should be no dividing lines between animal and human medicine. This position has been gathering momentum in the last fifteen years. The One Health Initiative is a rather daring interdisciplinary alliance that unites physicians, osteopaths, veterinarians, dentists, nurses, and other scientific-health and environmentally related disciplines, on the basis of a simple hypothesis, which is the isomorphism of structures between humans and animals in immunology, bacteriology, and vaccine developments. This means that humans are both exposed and vulnerable to new diseases, like bird flu and other epidemics, which they share with animal species." p.16.

Rosi Braidotti. (2015). Yes, There Is No Crisis. Working Towards the Posthumanities. DiGeSt. Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 2(1–2), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.11116/jdivegendstud.2.1-2.0009

"The chapter begins by developing the logic of strategic voting in a single- member district system, thus won by whichever party or candidate gets the most votes (first past the post, or FPTP). This represents the simplest and easiest case for the logic of strategic voting, and similarities (and sometimes theoretical isomorphism) exist between strategic voting— sometimes called instrumental voting (or voting as an investment)— and expected- utility maximization." p.3.

Aldrich, J. H., Blais, A., & Stephenson, L. B. (2018). Strategic Voting and Political Institutions. In J. H. Aldrich, A. Blais, & L. B. Stephenson (Eds.), The Many Faces of Strategic Voting: Tactical Behavior in Electoral Systems Around the World (pp. 1–27). University of Michigan Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh4zhzr.4 

"Let us take a closer look at this important topic: what might be termed the isomorphism between the realm of care and the realm of perception/oikeiôsis-allotriôsis." p.57.

Joaquim Braga & Mário Santiago de Carvalho (eds.) (2021). Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy. Cham: Springer Verlag.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-75478-5

- will add here ... suggestions welcome h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk

Identity: Self, person, client, patient ... player

INDIVIDUAL
|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

Identity morphism

My source: Twitter - X

https://x.com/Ravens/status/1751712286769660409?s=20

Plus:

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/lamar-jackson-makes-unreal-catch-of-his-own-pass-in-chiefs-ravens-afc-title-game-leaving-tony-romo-amazed/
 

Image:

https://krossovochkin.com/posts/2020_04_26_category_theory/

"Why models go wrong" BYTE, 1985

Why models go wrong
BYTE

 

"A model can be a physical object: a scale-model of an ancient settlement inferred from archeological evidence, or a physical anthropologist's reconstruction of a skeleton from a few bones and fragments. Most social models, however, are mathematical isomorphisms that specify one-to-one relationships between elements of the model and observable processes or entities. This abstractness gives models great versatility, but it also opens doors to potential problems. You don't need to be a naval architect to see that a model battleship has no bottom, but flaws in an equally defective sociometric model that repeatedly factors a large covariance matrix might escape casual scrutiny." p.151.

My source:
Houston, T.R. 1985. Why models go wrong. BYTE 10(10) : 151-164.