A theory of life in the round

Reviewer: Jack Noel Rose

Chatman's paper represents a cross-disciplinary view of an ethnographic research project. One might see the work as essentially a sociological paradigm variation. Viewed from the standpoint of information science, it has a definite connection to information theory. As indicated by the title, this paper is essentially a set of interrelated propositions that examine the connection between information seeking and social life within a variety of settings and contexts. In particular, 80 female prisoners in a maximum-security institution were studied. Overall, the paper is interesting and reads well. Numerous references to classic works in the field are offered, which show excellent selectivity and diversity. I was unable, however, to find a specific reference to the work of Lofland. This paper should be well received and appreciated by those working in the aforementioned disciplines.