ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1, we proposed three types of sensemaking. This chapter will elaborate on the first of these types. Sensemaking is, in the words of Ascoli et al. (2014, p. 82), ‘… a temporally extended inference task involving multiple cycles of information foraging, evaluation and judgement’. In other words, sensemaking involves an active response to a situation, taking in information from the world and structuring it in order to inform the choice of response. In this way, sensemaking requires an individual to engage in cognitive activity in which information is collected, collated and sifted (making) in order to produce a coherent and consistent account (sense). In this chapter, we consider how this activity might be performed, focussing in particular on ideas that are developed in the field of NDM. Central to this view is the notion that sensemaking is carried out by individual experts weaving together different strands of activity (Figure 2.1).
