[CITASA] Take two-Will the real sociology of technologies stand up?

[Jessie Daniels]

Just seconding Tracy's comment about the 'disconnect' within sociology
around studying Internet technology, but I remain hopeful that this may
change.

I was recently asked by Patricia Hill Collins, incoming ASA president, to
organize a thematic session for the 2009 meetings about race, gender and the
'new politics of community' on the Internet.   I could pretty easily think
of lots of scholars doing interesting work in these areas, but in order to
be included on the panel the people needed to be current ASA members and
that requirement narrowed the pool of rather dramatically.   I ended up
including 2 current ASA members, 1 person from outside the field (political
science) and 1 person from outside the U.S. (UK) - (and, offered to sponsor
the membership of the 2 non-ASA members).

In part, I think this disconnect reflects the fact that the field is
international and interdisciplinary - both good things in my view.   And
yet, there's still this 'lag' in terms of sociology's participation in this
area of study.   As Paul DiMaggio and colleagues pointed out in their 2001
Annual Review of Sociology article, *"sociologists have been slow to take up
the challenge of studying the Internet." *  It was true in 2001 and, from my
view, it continues to be true.   Still, I remain hopeful it's changing.


~ Jessie

-- 
http://www.jessiedanielsphd.com
http://www.racismreview.com
http://www.homelessyouthservices.org

On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 9:06 AM, T. Kennedy <tkennedy at netwomen.ca> wrote:

> What about creating a wiki for this discussion? would be interesting to
> create a knowledge base for all these interesting tid-bits.
>
> I find the discussion interesting, useful & timely. As a PhD candidate in
> Sociology, I've been wondering about my place in the discipline; I teach
> all
> of my - cyberculture, digital culture, virtual culture, gaming,
> info/network
> society etc etc - in communications, popular culture, film or media studies
> depts (for the last 7 years). I have yet to find a 'home' in sociology for
> my research or teaching interests. The courses I have taught in socio -
> tech
> & society (co-taught with Barry Wellman) and women & IT (mostly work
> related) and have a different slant/focus than my other courses.
> This is not to say that I don't use soci theories in these
> communications/media classes - I certainly do (and there is overlap) - so I
> wonder why sociology (and many depts across the US & Canada) seem so
> distant
> to me (and certainly don't call out to me in job postings)....I've stopped
> going to soci conferences (except for citasa & depending on distance &
> funding) and have looked to other disciplines when thinking about a future
> tenure position.
> Is it just me - or do others feel this same disconnect with sociology?
> Tracy
>
>
>
> ..|::.|.::|::.|.::|..|::.|.::|::.|.::|..
> |::.|.::|::.|.::|..|::.|.::|::.|.::|..
>
> Tracy L. M. Kennedy
> PhD Candidate
> Dept of Sociology
> University of Toronto
>
> Course Instructor
> Dept of Communications, Popular Culture & Film Brock University
>
> Research Coordinator
> NetLab
> University of Toronto
>
> Second Life: Professor Tracy
>
> ..|::.|.::|::.|.::|..|::.|.::|::.|.::|..
> |::.|.::|::.|.::|..|::.|.::|::.|.::|..
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org [mailto:
> citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org]
> On Behalf Of Andrea Tapia
> Sent: February 3, 2009 8:47 AM
> To: gustavo at soc.haifa.ac.il; citasa at list.citasa.org
> Subject: [CITASA] Take two-Will the real sociology of technologies stand
> up?
>
> Wow. Double wow.
>
> These questions of mine have generated a lot of discussion yesterday and
> today, both on and off the list.
>
> Thank you! This has spurred me on to think in new ways about what we do and
> find new ways to translate it to others!
>
> I think the discussions have been very interesting. So much so, that I
> think
> I'm going to anonymize and aggregate them for everyone to read. I think
> more
> than myself might benefit from the responses.
>
> One line of questions keep popping up.
>
> Why did I exclude this or that? Why did I draw artificial boundaries
> between
> sociology of technology and other things? Wouldn't if be better if "X" were
> included?
>
>
> So, I pose a few questions back to the list...
>
> 1.  Is the sociology of technology an umbrella term? discipline? That
> others
> fit inside? If so, what fits inside?
>
> 2.  If the sociology of technology is just sociology applied to technical
> things--then does the sociology of technology offer anything that overall
> sociology doesn't in terms of theories/methods/etc.?
>
> 3.  One author suggested that the sociology of technology exists only in
> the
> overlap of other things. I think this is an intriguing idea. Do you think
> it
> hold water?
>
> 4.  Imagine that you found yourself on a six person team. The other members
> of the team were an HCI (human-computer interaction) scholar, a scholar of
> communications, an STS (science and technology studies) scholar, a
> sociologist of science/knowledge, and a philosopher of technology. After a
> few beers and some good pizza they all look at you and ask you what you add
> to the team that they don't already have.
>
>
>
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