Re-enactment and its information practices; tensions between the individual and the collective

Abstract

Purpose This study seeks to explore the practices used by Australian re-enactors in working to achieve authenticity, a communally agreed measure of acceptability in the creation of an impression, the dress, behaviours and accoutrements of the period. The driving concepts in the study are serious leisure and information practices. Design/methodology/approach Re-enactment is a practical, information-based performative activity. In this article, the research styles and decision-making processes developed and employed by its enthusiasts to create authentic impressions are examined through an ethnographic case study. Findings The re-enactors are identified as "makers and tinkerers", in Stebbins's categorisation of serious leisure. Research, documentation and the sharing of information, knowledge and skills are commonly accepted by re-enactors, and acknowledged as integral to the processes of creating an impression to a collectively agreed standard of authenticity. Their "making" includes not only the creation of the impression but also the documentation of their process of creating it. These re-enactors prize individual knowledge and expertise and through this, seek to stand out from the collective. Originality Although communities of re-enactors are often studied from a historical perspective, this may be the first time a study has been undertaken from an information studies perspective. The tension between the collective, social norms and standards that support the functioning of the group in understanding authenticity, and the expert amateur; the individual with specialist skills and talents, encourages a fuller investigation of the relationships between the individual and the collective in the context of information practices.

Queries in authentic work tasks: the effects of task type and complexity

“…Traditionally, studies of information seeking or other information practices (e.g. Lingel, 2015;Robinson and Yerbury, 2015) do not discuss IR in detail, such as queries. Nicholas et al (2009Nicholas et al ( , 2010 combined questionnaires, interviews and observation to log analysis when studying information seeking and IR of researchers.…”

Educating in History: Thinking Historically through Historical Reenactment

“…From this point, we should explore the main methodological principles involved in inserting historical reenactment practices into formal settings (Robinson and Yerbury 2015) using historical thinking as a reference framework at all times (Lévesque 2009). This is crucial for understanding how important a role historical reenactment can play in history and heritage didactics.…”

“…Cooperative work is another strength of this methodology (Robinson and Yerbury 2015). It promotes collective feeling and social interaction.…”

Information activities in serious leisure as a catalyst for self-actualisation and social engagement

“…In general, during the past two decades serious leisure has been an emerging and evolving topic in information behaviour scholarship and several studies have been done on this topic. For examples, leisure information behaviours in hobby quilting sites (Gainor, 2008), communities of hobbyist collectors (Lee and Trace, 2009), dietary and food blogging (Savolainen, 2010; Cox and Blake, 2011), online fantasy sports (Hirsh et al , 2012), retired investors, (O'Connor, 2013), music record collectors (Margree et al , 2014), re-enactment (Robinson and Yerbury, 2015), motorsport enthusiasts (Joseph, 2016), gardening (Cheng et al ., 2017), genealogy (Hershkovitz and Hardof-Jaffe, 2017), car restoration (Olsson and Lloyd, 2017), media fan communities (Price, 2017; Price and Robinson, 2017), information activities in ultra-running (Gorichanaz, 2017), fun life-contexts (Ocepek et al , 2018), information practices of music fans (Vesga Vinchira, 2019), basketball Twitter community (Sanchez, 2020) and music information seeking in fan clubs (Bronstein and Lidor, 2020) are among the long list of scholarly publications in this field.…”