A structure–agency integrative framework for information access disparity

Purpose: This study aims to build an integrative framework for explaining society's information access disparity, which takes both structure and agency as well as their interactions into consideration. Design/methodology/approach: It adopts a qualitative survey design. It collects data on the development of 65 individuals' information access through interviews, and analyzes the data following grounded theory principles. Findings: A theoretical framework is established based on seven constructs and their relationships, all emerging from the empirical data. It rediscovers practice as the primary structural force shaping individuals' information access, hence society's information access disparity; it shows, meanwhile, that the effect of practice is mediated and/or interrupted by four agentic factors: affective responses to a practice, strategic move between practices, experiential returns of information, and quadrant state of mind. Research limitations/implications: It urges LIS researchers to go beyond the embedded information activities to examine both the embedded and embedding, beyond actions to examine both actions and experiences. Practical implications: It calls for information professionals to take a critical stance toward the practices they serve and partake in their reforms from an LIS perspective. Originality/value: The framework provides an integrative and novel explanation for information access disparity; it adds a number of LIS-relevant concepts to the general practice theories, highlighting the significance of embedded information activities in any practice and their reverberations; it also appears able to connect a range of human-related LIS theories and pinpoint their gaps.