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
  • Surveillance & Society, Foucault Issue http://lar.me/2zj
• Sousveillance
  • Surveillance, sousveillance and PRISM – an op-ed for Die Zeit | … My heart’s in Accra http://lar.me/2zk
• Internet Bill of Rights
  • Let’s Write a Digital Bill of Rights http://lar.me/2zl