“Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe”: Information Poverty, Information Norms, and Stigma

When information practices are understood to be shaped by social context, privilege and marginalization alternately affect not only access to, but also use of information resources. In the context of information, privilege, and community, politics of marginalization drive stigmatized groups to develop collective norms for locating, sharing, and hiding information. In this paper, we investigate the information practices of a subcultural community whose activities are both stigmatized and of uncertain legal status: the extreme body modification community. We use the construct of information poverty to analyze the experiences of 18 people who had obtained, were interested in obtaining, or had performed extreme body modification procedures. With a holistic understanding of how members of this community use information, we complicate information poverty by working through concepts of stigma and community norms. Our research contributes to human information behavior scholarship on marginalized groups and to Internet studies research on how communities negotiate collective norms of information sharing online

"Am I Doing it Right?": Examining Authenticity as a Key Mediator of Insider/Outsider Dynamics among US LGBTQ+ Young Adults

A key mechanism of information marginalization, insider/outsider dynamics shape who gets to seek, share, and use information within a specific context. However, these dynamics are limited because LIS literature often treats them as myopic, totalizing, and static. This study deepens understanding of these dynamics by examining how they are shaped by authenticity narratives of identity among US LGBTQ+ young adults (ages 18-37). Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 30 LGBTQ+ young adults between 2015-2016. Data analysis was iterative and employed both deductive and inductive qualitative coding. Findings demonstrate how authenticity both assisted and hindered participant seeking, sharing, and use of identity-related information. Participants seldom reported barriers to access, often citing readily available information in the form of lifeworld and small world narratives describing the "right" or "correct" way to be a particular identity. This information influenced participant decision-making since they had to engage in prescribed activities to be deemed authentic by others. However, authenticity limited participants' information practices to fit within insider, regulatory frames. Embodied subjectivity via individual perceptions and experiences emerged as a valuable information source for participants to counter these limitations. This phenomenon did not shut off participants from outside information as previously argued by Merton and Chatman but rather opened participants up to new, information avenues outside of those provided by authenticity narratives. Findings have theoretical implications for a better understanding of insider/outsider dynamics as a critical dynamic of information marginalization. Pre-print first published online 8/14/202

“Don’t Talk about It”: Investigating the Effects of PEI’s Cultural Silence on Abortion Access and Advocacy from the Perspective of Advocates and Support People

As an arm of a greater study that investigates the impacts of PEI\u27s abortion restriction over the past two decades, Don\u27t talk about it explores the situation from the perspective of support people and advocates to abortion access including; their emotional experiences of support and advocacy, the associated risks and repercussions, as well as their understandings of the barriers, facilitators and impacts of compromised access to off-Island services for PEI women and girls. Key findings show an overarching culture of silence and blame surrounding abortion on PEI, reinforced by stigma and repercussions for those speaking out. This silence serves to limit the voices of support people, advocates and women seeking the procedure, limiting awareness and stifling attempts at systemic change. However, the recent cultural and policy changes that have emerged since the time of data collection may represent a shift away from this harmful cultural silence. Recommendations for policy change include providing local and streamlined access to abortion, as well as breaking the silence at the individual, community and systemic levels

Looking for the Intersection: Public Libraries, Adult Literacy and Homelessness

Homelessness is a problem which has proven resistant to both short-term solutions and to efforts to address root causes. Illiteracy may be a major factor, yet few studies have addressed how a library\u27s mission to promote reading intersects with the informational needs of adults experiencing homelessness. An understanding of literacy as more than a set of reading skills may help to guide librarians who wish to fully implement ALA\u27s standard of facilitating access to information for all, including marginalized patrons and those who not read well. As public libraries respond to questions about their continued relevance in a digital age, an understanding of how libraries can contribute to solutions to community social needs, including homelessness, may help to broaden community support for more extensive and more inclusive library programming

Disentangling HIV and AIDS Stigma in Ethiopia,Tanzania and Zambia

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), in partnership with organizations in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia, led a study of HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in these three countries. This project, conducted from April 2001 to September 2003, unraveled the complexities around stigma by investigating the causes, manifestations and consequences of HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in sub-Saharan Africa. It then uses this analysis to suggest program interventions. Structured text analysis of 730 qualitative transcripts (650 interviews and 80 focus group discussions) and quantitative analysis of 400 survey respondents from rural and urban areas in these countries revealed the following main insights about the causes, context, experience and consequences of stigma: The main causes of stigma relate to incomplete knowledge, fears of death and disease, sexual norms and a lack of recognition of stigma. Insufficient and inaccurate knowledge combines with fears of death and disease to perpetuate beliefs in casual transmission and, thereby, avoidance of those with HIV. The knowledge that HIV can be transmitted sexually combines with an association of HIV with socially “improper” sex, such that people with HIV are stigmatized for their perceived immoral behavior. Finally, people often do not recognize that their words or actions are stigmatizing. Socio-economic status, age and gender all influence the experience of stigma. The poor are blamed less for their infection than the rich, yet they face greater stigma because they have fewer resources to hide an HIV-positive status. Youth are blamed in all three countries for spreading HIV through what is perceived as their highly risky sexual behavior. While both men and women are stigmatized for breaking sexual norms, gender-based power results in women being blamed more easily. At the same time, the consequences of HIV infection, disclosure, stigma and the burden of care are higher for women than for men. People living with HIV and AIDS face physical and social isolation from family, friends, and community; gossip, name-calling and voyeurism; and a loss of rights, decision-making power and access to resources and livelihoods. People with HIV internalize these experiences and consequently feel guilty, ashamed and inferior. They may, as a result, isolate themselves and lose hope. Those associated with people with HIV and AIDS, especially family members, friends and caregivers, face many of these same experiences in the form of secondary stigma. People living with HIV and AIDS and their families develop various strategies to cope with stigma. Decisions around disclosure depend on whether or not disclosing would help to cope (through care) or make the situation worse (through added stigma). Some cope by participating in networks of people with HIV and actively working in the field of HIV or by confronting stigma in their communities. Others look for alternative explanations for HIV besides sexual transmission and seek comfort, often turning to religion to do so. Stigma impedes various programmatic efforts. Testing, disclosure, prevention and care and support for people with HIV are advocated, but are impeded by stigma. Testing and disclosure are recognized as difficult because of stigma, and prevention is hampered because preventive methods such as condom use or discussing safe sex are considered indications of HIV infection or immoral behaviors and are thus stigmatized. Available care and support are accompanied by judgmental attitudes and isolating behavior, which can result in people with HIV delaying care until absolutely necessary. There are also many positive aspects of the way people deal with HIV and stigma. People express good intentions to not stigmatize those with HIV. Many recognize that their limited knowledge has a role in perpetuating stigma and are keen to learn more. Families, religious organizations and communities provide care, empathy and support for people with HIV and AIDS. Finally, people with HIV themselves overcome the stigma they face to challenge stigmatizing social norms. Our study points to five critical elements that programs aiming to tackle stigma need to address: Create greater recognition of stigma and discrimination. Foster in-depth, applied knowledge about all aspects of HIV and AIDS through a participatory and interactive process. Provide safe spaces to discuss the values and beliefs about sex, morality and death that underlie stigma. Find common language to talk about stigma. Ensure a central, contextually-appropriate and ethically-responsible role for people with HIV and AIDS While all individuals and groups have a role in reducing stigma, policymakers and programmers can start with certain key groups that our study suggests are a priority: Families caring for people living with HIV and AIDS: programs can help families both to cope with the burden of care and also to recognize and modify their own stigmatizing behavior. NGOs and other community-based organizations: NGOs can train their own staff to recognize and deal with stigma, incorporate ways to reduce stigma in all activities, and critically examine their communication methods and materials. Religious and faith-based organizations: these can be supportive of people living with HIV and AIDS in their role as religious leaders and can incorporate ways to reduce stigma in their community service activitie

Challenges facing women living with HIV in Upper Egypt

This research aims to identify challenges that face women living with HIV in Upper Egypt in order to help policy makers and different stakeholders to overcome those challenges. Interviews with women living with HIV from different governorates in Upper Egypt were conducted. In addition, this research included interviews with national AIDS program officials and NGOs managers to obtain different perspectives about the condition of women living with HIV. Women represent half of people living with HIV around the world. The burden of disease on women is even more challenging in many countries due to gender inequality. The effect of culture in Upper Egypt on women living with HIV was an added value to this research as there is shortage in researches that tackled this problem in this particular area in Egypt. Despite efforts to fight HIV in Egypt and to reduce stigma and discrimination, women living with HIV in Upper Egypt face many challenges. What are those challenges and how can Egypt overcome them? Main findings included that women living with HIV in Upper Egypt need a stigma free reproductive health services. They need to disclose about their illness without fear of stigma. Women face many difficulties to access reproductive health services upon disclosure about their status. Women might transfer the virus to their children due to mismanagement of their cases or lack of proper services in health care provision during child birth. Moreover, there is a shortage in the services provided for PLHIV in Upper Egypt including medications’ distributing centers and laboratory tests. Finally, there is a pressing social stigma against PLHIV which results in low utilization of testing services

The attitude towards keeping menstruation a secret and its relation to patriarchal beliefs and menstruation knowledge. Findings from a survey in secondary schools in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Master's Thesis in Global DevelopmentGLODE36

Suicide Prevention & Response: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for Indiana Schools 2018

Document created for the Indiana Department of Education for Suicide Prevention and Response

"Expanding on the Almost": Queer World-Building and Institutional Information Worlds

The theories of information poverty and small worlds, both developed by Elfreda Chatman, address how information behaviors and practices are shaped by social norms and insider and outsider dynamics. The application of these theories in the information science literature, to date, has largely focused on individual information behaviors practiced by people who are described as information poor. There is, therefore, opportunity for theoretical development concerning the role of systems and structures in both information poverty and small worlds. Drawing on data from interviews with eleven queer entertainment media creators as well as content from episodes of Emmy award-winning television programs, we use constructivist grounded theory to extend Chatman’s theorizing by investigating how both information poverty and small worlds operate and connect on an institutional level. We present two extensions of small worlds and information poverty: institutional small worlds and queer world-building. Institutional small worlds in this context consist of entertainment media producers and content that possess and reflect epistemically-privileged heteronormative standpoints. Epistemic knowledge created by queer individuals is left out of these small worlds, and participants report experiencing information poverty due to symbolic violence in content that erases and misrepresents their identities. However, participants also engage in entertainment media creation to construct their own rich small worlds. These queer world-building practices reflect participants’ epistemic authority and thus challenge normative discourses produced and reified by powerful institutions. Still, queer world-building occurs within institutional contexts that continue to impoverish queer creators. Despite lacking resources and facing risks, participants continue their practices because creation provides them with rich information outside of normative structures. The constructs we present may be transferable to other populations and have implications for both researchers and practitioners interested in elucidating ways in which library and information science work can better account for institutional forces and inequities in information practices. Pre-print first published online 1/13/202