How do the Angels Share? A holistic approach to understanding information practices in scotch whisky production

Introduction. Scotch malt whisky is very important to Scotland’s economy and also to ideas about its culture, heritage and identity. The whisky production process involves a highly complex intersection of industrial, cultural and embodied informational aspects. There is nonetheless a dearth of scholarship regarding the information practices associated with cultural products such as whisky and conducting research in such a complex space poses many challenges to researchers. Approach. In this poster, we ask how the information practices around such cultural products should be investigated. Using Polkinghorne and Given’s framework for holistic research, we outline a proposed approach to the research design of such an investigation by first identifying the research problem then articulating research questions and suggesting methods and methodology. Conclusion. We invite poster session attendees to engage with us in a dialogue regarding what might be needed to conduct a holistic investigation of information practices in this space and, further, to consider how and which other cultural products and related practices should be studied.