November 2002 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Re: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #540 - 20 msgs
by Adrian Miles 07 Nov '02

07 Nov '02

At 12:01 -0500 6/11/02, Matt wrote: >My contribution is, however, to ask if there is value in shifting the debate >away from the noun, discipline, to the verb 'to discipline' (obviously >following Foucault here)? I think that disciplines are defined, mostly, by >the processes and actions which maintain and perpetuate them, rather than by >the boundaries or terrain which they enclose. I would assert that the >difficulty for transdisciplinary scholars, such as found in areas of study >such as Internet Studies, is not in traversing the ground, nor crossing the >borders, of the many disciplines which they might encounter; rather, the >difficulty is one of connection with and deep understanding of processes. well put. i also think the key thing that needs to be acknowledged in this discussion is we are not talking about what makes a discipline but (to follow Foucault and i imagine Derrida), more particularly how the discipline is disciplined. ie a discipline is only constituted by the act that disciplines it. that's where the debates and arguments (the power) lies. cheers adrian miles -- + lecturer in new media and cinema studies [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/vlog] + interactive desktop video developer [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/] + hypertext rmit [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au] + InterMedia:UiB. university of bergen [http://www.intermedia.uib.no]

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Re: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #540 - 20 msgs
by Adrian Miles 07 Nov '02

07 Nov '02

At 12:01 -0500 6/11/02, Irene B (hi Irene) wrote: >It would seem to me that a discipline operates within a conceptual >framework that represents a set of paradigmatic structures which are >commonly subscribed to by members of that discipline-- meaning a >somewhat shared philosophic or methodological sets of approaches which >give validity to the work that is produced within that framework. nah. film studies, cultural studies, english lit. have multiple conceptual frameworks with multiple paradigmatic structures. in film, but the post feminist post lacanian psychoanalysis inspired theorists with the cognivists (cognitivists?) and you will not see anything resembling a conversation let alone a common vocabularly. > How >else could we legitimize the notion of a "juried journal" or "juried >anything" for that matter? Because many disciplines, particularly in the humanities, will have multiple journals and many represent specific methodological views/orientations. > The basic mission and functionality of a >University itself, and the social/ institutional role that the >University fulfills is to some degree based on the idea that we somehow >maintain credentialing authority (knowledge capital) which is based on >our ability to somehow assess "legitimate academic knowledge." And that >this knowledge is some way is unique in it's production and is of high >value to the society relative to other types of knowledge production. yes, though i'd pluralise it all :-) knowledges, authorities, and i'd also suggest not only 'legitimate academic knowledge' but also the processes that inform the construction of legitimate (and illegitimate) knowledges. i think it is more important for students to know the processes that inform legitimacy (such as the dialogue on the list at the moment) than the specifics of the content. cheers adrian miles -- + lecturer in new media and cinema studies [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/vlog] + interactive desktop video developer [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/] + hypertext rmit [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au] + InterMedia:UiB. university of bergen [http://www.intermedia.uib.no]

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studying discplines
by Barry Wellman 06 Nov '02

06 Nov '02

To my pre-postmodern mind, the study of disciplines is heavily informed by the sociology of professions. Of which there is a sizeable theoretical and research literature . (For example, Merrijoy Kelner and Beverly Wellman are studying the professionalization of complementary and alternative medicine.) The work that most people I know in this area start from is: Abbott, Andrew. 1988. The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Enjoy, Barry ___________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 ___________________________________________________________________

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updating cddc's links
by jeremy hunsinger 06 Nov '02

06 Nov '02

Over the next week I'm going to be updating the center for digital discourse and culture's link pages http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/links. I already have quite a few links in quite a few categories. If you have say 10 or so favorite links related to all things internet that you'd like to share, send a note to cddc(a)vt.edu and I'll see if i can put them in the update. jeremy hunsinger jhuns(a)vt.edu on the ibook www.cddc.vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Re: [Air-l] What is a discipline.
by Irene Berkowitz 06 Nov '02

06 Nov '02

Dear All, Since I more or less posed the original question, allow me to say I would not assume at all that I came from a position of determining "institutional strategy," nor, however, would I say that this shouldn't be an issue of concern. I may have a more difficult time than others separating the issue of ethics (I particularly like all of the framing of interdisciplinary ethics), institutional strategies, political economics and the notion of processes of discipline, and more specifically defined "disciplinary space." This comes from my bias of trying to look at this question in terms of "the historical versus ahistorical perspectives." I am simply thinking that we need to examine not only the issue(s) of whether "Internet ______" is a discipline, but rather what is/are the issues that lie at the heart of the debate. I am most concerned that to the degree that we don't try to grapple with these definitions we are easily consumed by hegemony and the processes that define context for us, without our conscious intervention into the more subtle actions which ultimately have significant consequences. In particular, I think the ethical issues are particularly vulnerable in scenarios experiencing radical shifting of boundaries, and random blending of "stuff." In fact, I think that this is exactly the kinds of scenarios that lead to the kinds of corporate scandals that have emerged within the past ten years. This type of reasoning takes me right back to my inability to easily separate institutional structures from cultural processes and ultimately issues of great social import such as ethics. There have been many excellent points raised by a number of people in this discussion, but I am also yet not willing to cave in on the point that the construct of academic discipline, is not central to the political and economic organization of the university and therefore is integrally linked to the university's primary social institutional functions, and certainly it's ethical behavior within the society. I think Matt's post is very intriguing re: the processes of a discipline, and I whole-heartedly agree with almost all of what Charles is saying. I guess I'm suggesting that it is within these processes that the political and economic nature of organization will manifest itself to define the "space" or territory of a discipline, and this is certainly one of the places that ethics becomes central to the processes and where our antennae need to be focused or we easily can become misguided. I think beyond interesting discussion, we have a serious responsibility to try to bring as much light to these issues as possible and that strategies are part of a legitimate discussion of ethics. I should hope that more people will continue to post. The range of discussion has been enlightening and quite worthy of our effort. IB Irene Berkowitz Coordinator for Curricular Publications and Systems Office of the Vice Provost Temple University tel. 215-204-7596 fax. 215-204 3175 berkowitz(a)mail.temple.edu >>> cmess(a)lib.drury.edu 11/06/2002 1:36:02 PM >>> radhika gajjala writes > ethics of inter/trans/disciplinarity sounds pretty good - but who will lay > down the Law on this one? Hmmm. It seems to me that aoir-ists, as interdisciplinarians par excellence, should attempt to articulate these ethics. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, but my experience with the ethics working committee convinces me that a) we - by which I mean, a bunch of different people working out of a bunch of different disciplines in a bunch of different kinds of institutions and cultural contexts - already have some sense (partly overt and articulate / partly covert and tacit) of what such an ethics would "look like," based on our experiences, our own ethical reflections, etc. (In particular: one of the most important sources for the development of the working committee's guidelines were the ethical reflections of many different researchers in a variety of contexts. In addition to some of the hallmark articles and values statements, these individual works meant we did not have to start de novo and in a vacuum: we were able instead to begin exploring some paths worked out in practice that turned out to be very helpful and substantive.) b) with enough good will and patience (in the case of the working committee, nearly two years - but hey, that's not much in the scope of the history of world philosophies - smile!) people from a variety of disciplines, experiences, and cultures, can achieve a reasonable degree of success both in articulating commonly shared values and orientations, and in marking out irreducible differences that help demarcate important distinctions between disciplines, methodologies, and larger cultural/national traditions. It would seem to me, then, that an ethics of inter/trans/disciplinarity would share with the current ethical guidelines precisely an emphasis on a pluralism that avoid both monolithic dogmatism (what most of us seem to find unsatisfactory about "disciplines" in the narrow sense) and a sheer relativism that by endorsing everything may not endorse much of anything (and renders attempting to make qualitative judgments about research and scholarship more or less a meaningless exercise). It would also share with those guidelines a sense of on-going dialogue and openness - i.e., a sense that discerning and articulating these sorts of things is very much a continuing process, one open to pursuing new insights and new directions. (A good thing we have these documents on the web - they can be changed easily!) Finally, if such an ethics were to have these characteristics, they would not look entirely like the Law (e.g., as brought down from on high, carved in stone, by a single prophet who enjoyed exclusive access to the Absolute) but more like an emergent _ethos_, a description and prescription of what our best habits (ethos), our best practices might be under the current circumstances. (This may be part of radhika's point?) They would be the work of a collective dialogue - one marked by sometimes passionate but respectful debate over important differences. They would be the result of a lot of hard work - but also a lot of fun. In sum, I'd encourage aoir-ists to jump in and start articulating! cheers, Charles Ess Director, Interdisciplinary Studies Center Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC 2002: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac02/ Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23 > From: radhika gajjala <radhika(a)cyberdiva.org> > Reply-To: air-l(a)aoir.org > Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2002 07:16:05 -0500 > To: air-l(a)aoir.org > Subject: Re: [Air-l] What is a discipline. > > > ethics of inter/trans/disciplinarity sounds pretty good - but who will lay > down the Law on this one? _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l(a)aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

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Discipline(s) or not
by Adrian S. Petrescu 06 Nov '02

06 Nov '02

Just my two cents: Did Newton's work achieve disciplinary status inside the discipline of pre-Newtonian Mechanics? but even more so: Did Einstein's work achieve disciplinary status inside the discipline of pre-relativistic Physics? Did Einstein get a job in the discipline, let alone build a career? While (self-)recognition of disciplines is a social/epistemic communities driven self-categorization exercise (thus potentially exclusionary against non-mainstream participants), it is of course more than that. I think an important answer to the original operational definition(s) question can be informed not just by asking only (1) what disciplines are, but also asking as well (2) what disciplines DO... For (1), pragmatism suggests disciplines _are_ if they are available as categories in the Chronicle for example;-) That may be much lesser of an answer than the question intended/expected, but it certainly leads to a measurable construct... if a much simplicist one. For (2), I think the structure of inter-relationships with other bodies of knowledge (and the communities behind them), whether those are disciplinary organized or not, and the overall facilitating/constraining dual nature of these relationships should matter. I have more about these relationships somewhere. Suffice it to say: disciplines (and people/administrators/knowledgeables in/representing them!) should be flexible enough to allow and even promote non-mainstream approaches, instead of blocking them. It is from these non-mainstream approaches that disciplines themselves develop further, whether such developments shall occur at inter- or cross-disciplinary borders, and mainstream later inherits back from such evolutions or not. Beyond Internet Studies itself, there are ongoing debates for years about the disciplinary nature of public policy, or public administration and many more such "hybrids". Are these debates relevant? I shall hope not in terms of those communities' ability to effectively produce usable knowledge. Unfortunately, much too often they are relevant in terms of an individual scholar's ability to raise research money, get tenured etc., or a department's ability to navigate/survive University budget cuts etc. The problem occurs when the latter starts to impact the former, and thus to drive good scholars away from doing good work simply because that good work is not mainstream enough... And this is where [established] disciplines fail in what they do (inadvertently or not putting constraints on their very development). My strong hope is that Internet Studies (IS) shall not fall into this trap and the epistemic community defining IS now and in the future won't let "mother" disciplines allow this to happen... Thank you for your patience...;-) BTW, since it is my first post since Maastricht/my joining: it was one of the greatest experience I ever had, and boy, am I glad I finally found such a lovely group of people. I'm only hoping to be able to get to know the group and each of its members better in the future. -- Adrian S. Petrescu Phone: (734) 487 3160 (o) "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy" (Sir Ernest Benn)

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Video game addiction
by Heidi Monroe 06 Nov '02

06 Nov '02

BlankI am looking for a resource who can comment on camera for a major news network regarding female gamers and the growing trend. The segment is on GameHouse.com, an online gaming developer. The site is the No. 1 destination for female gamers, attracting 40 million women a month, making 80% of total gamers. Timing is essential! Please contact me ASAP! Many thanks... best, heidi ********************* Heidi Monroe Dittoe Public Relations 317.202.2280 x11 heidi(a)dittoepr.com

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section name change of Am Soc Assn
by Eszter Hargittai 06 Nov '02

06 Nov '02

Dear AoIR Folks, I'm happy to report that what used to be the American Sociological Association's Section on Sociology and Computers is now the Section on Communication and Information Technologies. Keith Hampton (MIT), Anabel Quan Haase (Toronto) and I formed the Ad Hoc Committee to Rename and Redefine the section last year and it worked. Here's the new mission statement: The purpose of the Section on Communication and Information Technologies is to support, enhance and promote research, teaching and other professional activities related to: - the social aspects of computing, the Internet, new media, computer networks, and other communication and information technologies - design and use of technology in teaching and research If you're a member of the ASA but didn't know if Soc and Computers was a relevant section for you, hopefully the new name and mission statement make the connection more clear. Please join the section so we can get more panels at the ASA meetings. http://www.asanet.org Eszter --- Eszter's List: http://www.eszter.com/elist My Weblog: http://www.esztersblog.com How to win the Nobel Prize: http://www.roadtostockholm.com

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Fwd: Postdoc in Information Science in UK
by jeremy hunsinger 06 Nov '02

06 Nov '02

Begin forwarded message: > From: Shobita Parthasarathy <sp73(a)cornell.edu> > Date: Wed Nov 6, 2002 8:07:53 AM US/Eastern > To: STSGRAD-L(a)cornell.edu (STSGRAD-L) > Subject: Postdoc in Information Science in UK > Reply-To: sp73(a)cornell.edu > > > ################################################### > Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Information Science > ################################################### > - to Study the Impact of European Science, > Technology and Innovation Research on the Web > > A position has become available for a postdoctoral > researcher to work on a 3-year long EU funded project > into developing and implementing Web link based metrics > to analyse the impact of science, technology and > innovation research on the Web. The Wolverhampton > research group (http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/) has > played a significant part in laying the foundations for > this exciting new area of research and the successful > applicant will have the opportunity to use the tools > developed by the group and to build on the methodologies > in order to make an important contribution to the > development of this new field. > > In the nature of the post it is not expected that > applicants will have prior experience of similar work > but those with a Ph.D. in an area related to Information > Science, Computer Science or Maths will be considered. > The successful applicant will have working knowledge of > the Web, the Internet and basic statistics, and will be > able to apply their existing research skills to this new > area. > > The project involves international collaboration and the > researcher should expect to have to occasionally visit > other countries in Europe for team meetings and > conferences, in addition to attending a conference in > China. Good communication and team working skills are > essential, and knowledge of one or more other European > languages would be an advantage. Applicants from European > countries outside the UK are particularly encouraged to > apply. The salary will be on the researcher B scale from > £17624 - £22948 per year and the starting date will be as > soon as possible after the interview. > > Please contact Mike Thelwall m.thelwall(a)wlv.ac.uk with > any queries. > > For detailed further particulars and an application form > (returnable by 22 November 2002) and quoting the reference > number Ref A3164, contact the Personnel Services Department, > University of Wolverhampton, Molineux Street, Wolverhampton > WV1 1SB, UK. Tel: 01902 321049 (ansaphone). > For hearing impaired candidates our minicom number is > 01902 321249. Email address: per(a)wlv.ac.uk > The University is eager to attract larger numbers of > applications from groups of people currently under- > represented in the staff population, especially from women > and people from ethnic minority groups. > > Related jobs are also available in Amsterdam, see also > http://www.webindicators.org > > > > Dr. Andrea Scharnhorst > NERDI > Netherlands Institute for Scientific Information Services (NIWI) > KNAW > Joan Muyskenweg 25 > > Postbus 95110 > 1090 HC Amsterdam > The Netherlands > Tel: +20 4628 670 > www.niwi.knaw.nl/nerdi </blockquote></x-html> > > jeremy hunsinger jhuns(a)vt.edu on the ibook www.cddc.vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Fw: [Air-l] Weblogs in education
by tmr_s 06 Nov '02

06 Nov '02

hello list, another aspect of weblogs for your contemplation: http://www.thehomelessguy.blogspot.com/ tamar schori www.tamar-schori.net

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