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Using Freedom of Information to study organisational information technology practice

Primary supervisor

Reuben Kirkham

Freedom of Information is an important tool for investigating a public authority or organisation. Subject to certain conditions, it creates an obligation to provide recorded information, provided an organisation is a public authority.

I am interested in supervising projects that make use of Freedom of Information as a tool for investigating information management practices within public-sector organisations. For example, this might include information security, policies around information retention, or any other topic that can be investigated using Freedom of Information.

 

Student cohort

Single Semester
Double Semester

URLs/references

Walby, Kevin, and Alex Luscombe, eds. Freedom of information and social science research design. Routledge, 2019.

Kirkham, Reuben. "How long is a piece of string? The appropriateness of search time as a measure of ‘burden’in Access to Information regimes." Government Information Quarterly 35.4 (2018): 657-668.

Required knowledge

An interest in conducting qualitative research using FOI.

This project can be done without having technical skills, so is likely to be ideal for an MBIS student.