An introduction to, exploration of, and examination of the fundamental intellectual landscape of information research. Topics include: (i) an historically, conceptually and methodologically grounded understanding of the use of concepts of information and knowledge across the academy (in philosophy, history, social science, politics, engineering, etc.); and (ii) contemporary uses of ‘information’ as a substantial theoretical notion, both in the world in general (e.g., in public political discourse, in such constructions as “the information or knowledge age, economy, society, etc.”), and in such fields as political theory, biology, medicine, computing, etc.