{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,26]],"date-time":"2026-02-26T01:38:46Z","timestamp":1772069926597,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":81,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,8]],"date-time":"2020-10-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1602115200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JD"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>In the domain of information science, affordance is a relatively new concept that deserves further exploration. It may serve as a bridge to narrow the research-practice gap that has persisted in information studies. Building upon previous research, we call for a broader concept of affordance that would help researchers understand information practices from an ecological perspective.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>The study focuses on conceptualizing affordances for information practices in order to theorize engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments. We develop a hierarchical model and a component model to illustrate how key tenets of affordances can be linked with the decomposition of activities and its mechanism. Following this, we describe an illustrative case of a popular Chinese cloud-based music platform to demonstrate the utility of our conceptual frameworks in guiding studies of information practices.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The study proposes to shift the focus of technology affordances, which highlights the features and functions of particular technologies, to the affordances for practices that are enacted through technology and social construction within a sociocultural environment. The illustrative case of the cloud-based music platform shows that the proposed models can provide a structured view of operations, actions and motives for music information practices. The processes of internalization and externalization offer insight into the decomposition of information practice as a chain of activity-action-operation.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study contributes to the literature on theorizing engagement among people, technology and sociocultural environments through the theoretical lens of affordances and sheds new light on the challenges of information practice.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/jd-05-2020-0078","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,9]],"date-time":"2020-10-09T08:25:58Z","timestamp":1602231958000},"page":"229-250","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":42,"title":["Affordances for information practices: theorizing engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"77","author":[{"given":"Yuxiang Chris","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Yan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Jian","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Shijie","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"issue":"4","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"776","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.21441","article-title":"Working with activity theory: context, technology, and information behavior","volume":"62","year":"2011","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology"},{"key":"key2020122407171158100_ref002","first-page":"51","article-title":"An activity theory approach to affordance","year":"2002"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"256","DOI":"10.1080\/0960085X.2018.1512945","article-title":"An affordance lens for wearable information systems","volume":"28","year":"2019","journal-title":"European Journal of Information Systems"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"353","DOI":"10.1207\/s15327051hci2004_1","article-title":"Complex mediation","volume":"20","year":"2005","journal-title":"Human-Computer Interaction"},{"key":"key2020122407171158100_ref005","volume-title":"Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior","year":"2016"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"181","DOI":"10.1207\/S15326969ECO1502_5","article-title":"An outline of a theory of affordances","volume":"15","year":"2003","journal-title":"Ecological Psychology"},{"issue":"8","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"608","DOI":"10.1080\/0144929X.2016.1175507","article-title":"Making HCI theory work: an analysis of the use of activity theory in HCI research","volume":"35","year":"2016","journal-title":"Behaviour and Information Technology"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"176","DOI":"10.1177\/0165551511435881","article-title":"An exploration of the practice approach and its place in information science","volume":"38","year":"2012","journal-title":"Journal of Information Science"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"61","DOI":"10.1177\/0165551512469767","article-title":"Information in social practice: a practice approach to understanding information activities in personal photography","volume":"39","year":"2013","journal-title":"Journal of Information Science"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"264","DOI":"10.2307\/40324302","article-title":"Texts at work: some thoughts on \u2018Jus\u2020 for you\u2019 service in the context of domain expertise","volume":"39","year":"1998","journal-title":"Journal of Education for Library and Information Science"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"78","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.21422","article-title":"Death of the user: reconceptualizing subjects, objects, and their relations","volume":"62","year":"2011","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology"},{"key":"key2020122407171158100_ref012","article-title":"Situated motivational affordances of game elements: a conceptual model","year":"2011"},{"issue":"12","key":"key2020122407171158100_ref013","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2554","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.21189","article-title":"Digital artifacts as quasi\u2010objects: qualification, mediation, and materiality","volume":"60","year":"2009","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology"},{"key":"key2020122407171158100_ref014","volume-title":"Learning by Expanding. 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