How information becomes a resource for action in an uncertain and complex world : Sense-making and contingency in the knowing process

Following their study of how farmers look for and make sense of information to develop their farming projects, the authors argue that more attention should be paid to sense-making and contingency in the knowing process to increase the stakeholder’s capacity to act in an uncertain and complex world. Their analysis shows that sense-making is contingent on the way farmers characterize the here and now as problematic and depends on the purposes and functions they assign to information resources. It also suggests that farmers assign purposes according to the development of their productive activity and of their own identities and capacities