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Coursenotes, Cyberspace Sociology

Coursenotes, SOCI221 Meeting 7

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SOCI221 –Sociology of Cyberspace

Meeting 7: October 27, 2014
Digital Inequalities and Reputations

Reputation

Reputation Management

By Lindsay Wheeler (Own work) [CC-BY–3.0],

Second Half

Doing Sociology in Cyberspace

Meetings and Texts

  • October 27: Social Inequalities (Kendall and van Dijk)
  • November 3: Social Identity (Halford and Berman)
  • November 10: Generations (Prensky, Bennett, Selwyn)
  • November 17: Ethnography (Coleman)
  • November 24: Cultural Contexts (Horst, Kelty)
  • December 1: Posthumanism (Cool, Tufekci)
  • December 2: Facebook (Lim, Madge)

Since Last Class Meeting

Networks and Inequalities

Activity: Network Graph

  • Identity
  • Types of connections

Required Texts

Van Dijk

Van Dijk, Jan AGM. “Inequalities in the Network Society.” In Digital Sociology: Critical Perspectives, edited by Kate Orton-Johnson and Nick Prior, 105–124. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

  • Digital Democracy?
  • Egalitarian
  • Public Education

Kendall

Kendall, Lori. “Meaning and Identity in ‘Cyberspace’: The Performance of Gender, Class, and Race Online.” Symbolic Interaction 21, no. 2 (May 1998): 129–153. doi:10.1525/si.1998.21.2.129.

  • Social Constructs
  • Identity Play

Next Week

Social Identity

Activity: Online Reputation

  • Take a few quick notes on what you expect to come up in your online reputation.
  • Pair up with somebody else from the class. It’s easier if it’s someone you don’t know so well.
  • Each of you will do searches for publicly available information about the other person. (i.e. “Google” one another…)
  • Report back to one another and post something about the results (not the information you gathered).

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.

  • From divides to inequalities
  • Constructs and essentialism
  • Some ANT
  • Bourdieu and “capitals”
  • Link Van Dijk

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.

  • Alan Turing
  • Turing Game
  • Humanness
  • Who has agency in identity play?
  • Linked Kendall
Coursenotes, Cyberspace Sociology

Coursenotes, SOCI221 Week 4

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SOCI221 –Sociology of Cyberspace

Meeting 4: September 29, 2014
From Social Structure to Social Dynamics

Social Structure

1984 Social Classes

By IAMTHEEGGMAN, AnonMoos, Stannered, Public domain

Past Week

Social Structure

Online Activity: Geek Test

  • Geekness
  • Popular Culture
  • Identity
  • Geeks in social contexts

Required Texts

  • Ritzer, G., and N. Jurgenson. (2010) “Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The Nature of Capitalism in the Age of the Digital ‘Prosumer’.” Journal of Consumer Culture 10 (1): 13–36. doi:10.1177/1469540509354673. http://joc.sagepub.com/content/10/1/13.short
  • Warschauer, M., and T. Matuchniak. (2010) “New Technology and Digital Worlds: Analyzing Evidence of Equity in Access, Use, and Outcomes.” Review of Research in Education 34(1): 179–225. doi:10.3102/0091732X09349791. http://rre.sagepub.com/content/34/1/179

Ritzer

Ritzer, G., and N. Jurgenson. (2010) “Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The Nature of Capitalism in the Age of the Digital ‘Prosumer’.” Journal of Consumer Culture 10 (1): 13–36. doi:10.1177/1469540509354673. http://joc.sagepub.com/content/10/1/13.short

  • Prosumption
  • Postindustrial?
  • Consumer society
  • Product or consumer/user/producer?

Warschauer

Warschauer, M., and T. Matuchniak. (2010) “New Technology and Digital Worlds: Analyzing Evidence of Equity in Access, Use, and Outcomes.” Review of Research in Education 34(1): 179–225. doi:10.3102/0091732X09349791. http://rre.sagepub.com/content/34/1/179

  • Usage
  • Digital Divide(s)
  • 21st Century Learning Skills

Next Week

Social Dynamics

Activity: Digital Inclusion

  • Divide in small groups (by numbers)
  • Scenario: a schoolboard meeting during which digital inclusion is discussed, a policy is devised to ensure that all students have equal opportunities for success in a digital world.
  • Advising: Based on what you’ve seen so far in the course, what should this policy take into account? What are the relevant criteria, factors, dimensions? What insight can sociology give, in this case?
  • Feel free to use an actual example from your own experience or to create a fictional case from your diverse experiences.
  • Each member of your group should post something about this activity.

Required Texts

  • Latour, Bruno. “Networks, Societies, Spheres: Reflections of an Actor-network Theorist.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 796–810. http://lar.me/2-o
  • Kreiss, D., M. Finn, and F. Turner. “The Limits of Peer Production: Some Reminders from Max Weber for the Network Society.” New Media & Society 13, no. 2 (October 12, 2010): 243–259. doi:10.1177/1461444810370951. http://lar.me/2-p

Latour

Latour, Bruno. “Networks, Societies, Spheres: Reflections of an Actor-network Theorist.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 796–810. http://lar.me/2-o

  • Playful but potentially difficult
  • Philosophical (onthology)
  • Actor-Network Theory (ANT) vs. classical sociology
  • Context: International Seminar on Network Theory (Manuel Castells)
  • Deep on “network”
  • Agency

Kreiss et al.

Kreiss, D., M. Finn, and F. Turner. “The Limits of Peer Production: Some Reminders from Max Weber for the Network Society.” New Media & Society 13, no. 2 (October 12, 2010): 243–259. doi:10.1177/1461444810370951. http://lar.me/2-p

  • Bureaucracy
    • Weber
    • Rational-legal authority
    • Iron cage
  • Peer-production
    • Web 2.0
    • Participatory culture
    • Link to prosumption
  • Polemic
    • Rhetoric
    • Reply to Benkler, Jenkins, etc. (conversation with interlocutors)
  • Making links
    • Identify common names
    • Threads between texts