[CITASA] Take two-Will the real sociology...- apologies to Jesse Daniels!

Wed Feb 4 03:43:56 EST 2009

OMG, PUBLIC APOLOGIES to Jesse Daniels!!!

Jessie ~ I'm sorry if my blunt email sounded like it was directed at you! It
wasn't at all - I was just upset and overwhelmed by all the emails relaying
stories of academics (including people in our own discipline) claiming that
the "good" work on internet communities have been done outside our
discipline. *sigh*  Obviously, it's untrue given all the great work CITSA
members (and others who may not have yet joined) are doing.

Anyway - thanks to all who have contributed and brought this to our
attention!  I truly appreciate it!

Take good care,

Emily (who will be much more careful with her words next time!)

From: citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org]
On Behalf Of Joseph Simpson
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 10:26 PM
To: Communication and Information Technologies ASA
Subject: Re: [CITASA] Take two-Will the real sociology of technologies stand
up?

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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