Monthly Archives: November 2014

Coursenotes, Cyberspace Sociology

Coursenotes, SOCI221 – Sociology of Cyberspace, Meeting 11

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SOCI221 – Sociology of Cyberspace

Meeting 11: November 24, 2014
Cultural Contexts to Posthumanism

Posthumanism

Self portrait for LinkedIN profile picture. SteveMann with EyeTap, by Glogger (CC-BY-SA–3.0))

Last Week

Cultural Contexts

Activity: Online Interview

  • How easy was it to find an interviewee?
  • How did you prepare?
  • How did you conduct the interview?
  • What kind of insight did you gain?
  • Would a face-to-face interview be preferable?

Required Texts

Horst, Heather “Free, Social, and Inclusive: Appropriation and Resistance of New Media Technologies in Brazil.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 437–462.
Kelty, Christopher. “Geeks, Social Imaginaries, and Recursive Publics.” Cultural Anthropology 20, no. 2 (May 2005): 185–214. doi:10.1525/can.2005.20.2.185.

Horst

Horst, Heather “Free, Social, and Inclusive: Appropriation and Resistance of New Media Technologies in Brazil.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 437–462.

  • Unexpected uses
  • Networked sociality
  • Similar experiences?
  • Different Internets?

Kelty

Kelty, Christopher. “Geeks, Social Imaginaries, and Recursive Publics.” Cultural Anthropology 20, no. 2 (May 2005): 185–214. doi:10.1525/can.2005.20.2.185.

  • (Re)constructing the Internet (links to Leiner et al.)
  • Science and technology studies
  • Technology and law (copyright…)
  • Dense network of influential people
  • Transhumanism

Next Monday

Activity: Project Plan

  • Based on your experience with an online group (field entry, interview), what type of research could you do in this context?
  • What type of insight would you try to gain?
  • Which methods would you use?
  • How would you explain your project to others?

Required Texts

Chapters 1–2 in Human No More: Digital Subjectivities, Un-Human Subjects, and the End of Anthropology, edited by Neil L. Whitehead and Michael Wesch. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2012. doi:10.5876/9781607321705
Cool, Jennifer. “The Mutual Co-Construction of Online and Onground in Cyborganic: Making an Ethnography of Networked Social Media Speak to Challenges of the Posthuman.”
Tufekci, Zeynep. “We Were Always Human.”

Cool

Cool, Jennifer. “The Mutual Co-Construction of Online and Onground in Cyborganic: Making an Ethnography of Networked Social Media Speak to Challenges of the Posthuman” in Human No More: Digital Subjectivities, Un-Human Subjects, and the End of Anthropology, edited by Neil L. Whitehead and Michael Wesch, 11–32. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2012. doi:10.5876/9781607321705

  • Post-/Transhumanists
  • Cyborganic ethnography
  • Liberal subject
  • Who decides?

Tufekci

Tufekci, Zeynep. “We Were Always Human” in Human No More: Digital Subjectivities, Un-Human Subjects, and the End of Anthropology, edited by Neil L. Whitehead and Michael Wesch, 33–47. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2012. doi:10.5876/9781607321705

  • Technology and society
  • Facebook ethnography and surveys
  • Responding to media
  • Embodiment
  • Cyberasociality

Ethnography

Descriptive approach to cultural diversity. – Alex

  • Fieldwork
  • Establishing rapport
  • Insider and outsider
  • Participant-observation
  • Cultural translation (making exotic familiar and familiar exotic)

Surveillance Society

  • Panopticon
  • Sousveillance
    • Surveillance, sousveillance and PRISM – an op-ed for Die Zeit | … My heart’s in Accra http://lar.me/2zk
  • Internet Bill of Rights
Coursenotes, Cyberspace Sociology

Coursenotes, SOCI221 Meeting 10

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SOCI221 – Sociology of Cyberspace

Meeting 10: November 17, 2014
Ethnography to Cultural Contexts

Diversity

Diversity-Discrimination by Kurt Löwenstein Educational Center International Team from Germany (CC-BY–2.0))

Last Week

Ethnography

Activity: Field Entry

  • Which groups?
  • Expectations?
  • Entering the group?

Required Text

Coleman, E. Gabriella. “Ethnographic Approaches to Digital Media.” Annual Review of Anthropology 39, no. 1 (October 21, 2010): 487–505. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.104945.

  • Diversity
  • Almost historical
  • Anthropology and sociology
  • Global inequalities

Next Week

Cultural Contexts

Activity: Online Interview

  • Find someone from your new online group who’s willing to serve as an interviewee.
  • Prepare a few questions to gain her/his insight on the online group, the importance of technology to group members, or any other topic you find interesting.
  • Conduct a brief interview through whichever means you find appropriate (email, Skype, chat…).
  • Post one thing you find insightful about the exchange.

Required Texts

Horst, Heather “Free, Social, and Inclusive: Appropriation and Resistance of New Media Technologies in Brazil.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 437–462.
Kelty, Christopher. “Geeks, Social Imaginaries, and Recursive Publics.” Cultural Anthropology 20, no. 2 (May 2005): 185–214. doi:10.1525/can.2005.20.2.185.

Horst

Horst, Heather “Free, Social, and Inclusive: Appropriation and Resistance of New Media Technologies in Brazil.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 437–462.

  • Understanding Brazilian society offline and online
  • Digital inclusion
  • Technological appropriation
  • Distinct usage

Kelty

Kelty, Christopher. “Geeks, Social Imaginaries, and Recursive Publics.” Cultural Anthropology 20, no. 2 (May 2005): 185–214. doi:10.1525/can.2005.20.2.185.

  • Geek culture
  • Distinct fieldwork experiences
  • Public sphere: Habermas
  • Recursivity
  • Ron Eglash on African fractals (TEDtalk) http://lar.me/ig

Ethnography

Descriptive approach to cultural diversity. – Alex

  • Fieldwork
  • Establishing rapport
  • Insider and outsider
  • Participant-observation
  • Cultural translation (making exotic familiar and familiar exotic)

Surveillance Society

  • Panopticon
  • Sousveillance
    • Surveillance, sousveillance and PRISM – an op-ed for Die Zeit | … My heart’s in Accra http://lar.me/2zk
  • Internet Bill of Rights
Coursenotes, Cyberspace Sociology

Coursenotes: SOCI221 – Sociology of Cyberspace, Meeting 9

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SOCI221 – Sociology of Cyberspace

Meeting 9: November 10, 2014
Generations to Ethnography

Digital Natives?

Bronislaw Malinowski with natives on Trobriand Islands in 1918. (Public domain)

Last Week

Generations

Activity: Knapsacks

  • Features of privilege
  • Intersectionality
  • Online privilege

Required Texts

Digital Natives?

  • Us/Them
  • Birthyear
  • Early access and comfort?
  • Residents and visitors

Next Week

Ethnography

Ethics

Ethnography

Descriptive approach to cultural diversity. – Alex

  • Fieldwork
  • Establishing rapport
  • Insider and outsider
  • Participant-observation
  • Cultural translation (making exotic familiar and familiar exotic)

Activity: Field Entry

  • Select an online group (forum, network, service, community) of which you’re not a member.
  • From the outside, take some notes about features of that group, how it works, what seem to be unspoken rules, etc.
  • Enter the group, introducing yourself to everyone. Notice reactions. Are you able to establish rapport?
  • Post a description of the group and your fieldwork

Required Text

Coleman, E. Gabriella. “Ethnographic Approaches to Digital Media.” Annual Review of Anthropology 39, no. 1 (October 21, 2010): 487–505. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.104945.

  • Review article (like annotated bibliography or metastudy)
  • Recent research
  • Diversity
  • Program for future research
Coursenotes, Cyberspace Sociology

Coursenotes: SOCI221 – Sociology of Cyberspace, Meeting 8

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SOCI221 – Sociology of Cyberspace

Meeting 8: November 3, 2014
Identity to Generations

Generations

Digital Natives?

First Nations CEF soldiers: By Canada. Dept. of the Interior. (Public domain)

Last Week

Social Identity

Activity: Online Reputation

  • Expectations
  • Factors in ease of finding
  • Public/private

Required Texts

Halford & Savage

Halford, Susan, and Mike Savage. “Reconceptualizing Digital Social Inequality.” Information, Communication & Society 13, no. 7 (2010): 937–955. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2010.499956.

  • Inequalities vs. divides
  • Links to other texts

Berman & Bruckman

Berman, Joshua, and Amy S. Bruckman. “The Turing Game: Exploring Identity in an Online Environment.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 7, no. 3 (September 01, 2001): 83–102. doi:10.1177/135485650100700307.

  • Playing with identity
  • How is identity constructed?

Next Week

Generations

Activity: Knapsacks

  • Go through one of the following checklists.
  • For your own benefit, document the process. Any discomfort? Any realization?
  • Based on the exercise, post something more general about privilege. In other words, no need to share about your own privilege, but go from that experience to something broader.
  • Feel free to add something about online interactions, but that may not be necessary.

Required Texts

Alternative

Digital Natives?

Online Traces

If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.” – blue_beetle http://lar.me/2zh

“I’m Not The Product, But I Play One On The Internet.” –Derek Powazek http://lar.me/2zi