[CITASA] Take two-Will the real sociology of technologies stand up?
Joseph Simpson
josephmsimpson at hotmail.com
Wed Feb 4 01:26:26 EST 2009
I am new to the section in ASA and have to say this discussion is very
useful for me as a PhD candidate. I am working out of Oklahoma State
as a sociologist of technology in a department that is predominantly
focused on environmental sociology.
I agree with the previous responses that technology is a great overlap
field. I do work with virtual worlds, social movements, community,
consumption, environmental impact, and sociological theory. And to
adequately have a discussion about these areas, technology must be
considered.
Just as an example research in social movements, with issues of
framing, resource mobilization and political process must take into
account the changing nature of the discourse field, (i.e youtube,
facebook, myspace, internet news sources) changes in resource
generation (economic, social, and cultural capital transmission
through IT) , the changes in the very process of political
participation and policy formation. a great example is the 08 Obama
campaign and the new approach his administration has taken with
information dissemination.
Sociology of technology in this sense should be an important keystone
for sociology as a whole. Theory generation, and methodological
insights that we develop ( and have developed) will guide others in
the discipline to incorporate IT into their dialogue about more
traditional areas.
I feel at home as a sociologist and would like to see the
sociology of technology area grow more broadly in the discipline. I
think we have a strong contribution to offer the entire field not just
in the areas that concern us directly such as virtual worlds, or web
2.0.
Also, it would be nice to have a job. :)
Joseph M. Simpson M.S.
College of Arts & Sciences
Sociology
Oklahoma State University
josephmsimpson at hotmail.com
P to conserve our natural resources, consider the environment before
printing this email.
On Feb 3, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Jessie Daniels wrote:
> 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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