PUB TYPE

A "collective voluntarism " framework can be used to achieve greater analytical precision and improve theoretical development of the landmark "knowledge gap hypothesis " which has stimulated considerable research and debate about the nature and existence of socially structured public affairs knowledge. The original knowledge gap hypothesis locates differential acquisition of public affairs knowledge within the social structure and explains the emergence and consequences of gaps for collectivities, particularly co,nmunities. Combining the two dichotomies of: (1) whether sociocultural phenomena are represented as naturally occurring or as voluntary human constructions; and (2) whether these phenomena are best explained by analyzing the propensities of individual actors or those properties unique to collectivities produces four categories. The categcries are: societal naturalism, individual voluntarism