Short description:

This book explores major themes related to where to live in America, not only about the acquisition of a home but also the ways in which where one lives relates to one?s cultural identity. It shows how changes in media and information technology are shaping both our housing choices and our understanding of the meaning of personal place.

Long description:

Deciding Where to Live: Information Studies on Where to Live in America explores major themes related to where to live in America, not only about the acquisition of a home but also the ways in which where one lives relates to one?s cultural identity. It shows how changes in media and information technology are shaping both our housing choices and our understanding of the meaning of personal place. The work is written using widely accessible language but supported by a strong academic foundation from information studies and other humanities and social science disciplines.

Chapters analyze everyday information behavior related to questions about where to live. The eleven major chapters are:

• Chapter 1: Where to live as an information problem: three contemporary examples
• Chapter 2: Turning in place: Real estate agents and the move from information custodians to information brokers
• Chapter 3: The Evolving Residential Real Estate Information Ecosystem: The Rise of Zillow
• Chapter 4: Privacy, Surveillance, and the ?Smart Home?
• Chapter 5: This Old House, Fixer Upper, and Better Homes & Gardens: The Housing Crisis and Media Sources
• Chapter 6: A Community Responds to Growth: An Information Story About What Makes for a Good Place to Live."
• Chapter 7: The Valley Between Us: The meta-hodology of racial segregation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Chapter 8: Modeling Hope: Boundary Objects and Design Patterns in a Heartland Heterotopia
• Chapter 9: Home buying in Everyday Life: How Emotion and Time Pressure Shape High Stakes Deciders? Information Behavior
• Chapter 10: In Search of Home: Examining Information Seeking and Sources That Help African Americans Determine Where to Live
• Chapter 11: Where to Live in Retirement: A Complex Information Problem

While the book is partly about the goal-directed activity of individuals who want to buy a house, and the infrastructure that supports that activity, it is also about personal activities that are either not goal directed or are directed at other goals such as deciding in which geographic location to live, personal entertainment, cultural understanding, or identity formation.

Emphasizing the crucial role of information and information science in vital decisions about "where to live," this complex, well-researched, multifaceted, multi-authored volume provides an exhaustive perspective on the economic and technical aspects of the real estate industry and its historical, demographic, and social-psychological influence. Contributing authors are accomplished researchers and professors specializing in information science at major universities in five states: Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, and Texas?. Offering much more than a compendium of real estate facts and figures, this edited volume is a unique contribution to the field. The book will be useful to general readers searching for new homes and to real estate specialists and interested academics, including instructors and students.Recommended. All readers.

Table of Contents:

Preface

Chapter 1: Where to live as an information problem: three contemporary examples - William Aspray and Melissa G. Ocepek

Chapter 2: Turning in place: Real estate agents and the move from information custodians to information brokers ? Steve Sawyer

Chapter 3: The Evolving Residential Real Estate Information Ecosystem: The Rise of Zillow - James W. Cortada

Chapter 4: Privacy, Surveillance, and the ?Smart Home? - Philip Doty

Chapter 5: This Old House, Fixer Upper, and Better Homes & Gardens: The Housing Crisis and Media Sources - Melissa G. Ocepek

Chapter 6: A Community Responds to Growth: An Information Story About What Makes for a Good Place to Live." - Hannah Weber, Vaughan Nagy, Janghee Cho, and William Aspray

Chapter 7: The Valley Between Us: The meta-hodology of racial segregation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Judith Pintar

Chapter 8: Modeling Hope: Boundary Objects and Design Patterns in a Heartland Heterotopia- David Hopping

Chapter 9: Home buying in Everyday Life: How Emotion and Time Pressure Shape High Stakes Deciders? Information Behavior - Carol F. Landry

Chapter 10: In Search of Home: Examining Information Seeking and Sources That Help African Americans Determine Where to Live - Jamillah R. Gabriel

Chapter 11: Where to Live in Retirement: A Complex Information Problem- William Aspray

Chapter 12: Closing Statement

About the Editors and Contributors