I may be a little late in joining but my research on female fan communities focusses on the intersection of gender and class (as a mobilization of linguistic capital). Bury, R. (2004). Language on (the) line: class, community and the David Duchovny Estrogen Brigades. Electronic Journal of Communication, 14 (1-2). To be retrieved at <http://www.cios.org/www/ejcmain.htm>. Bury, R. (2005). Cyberspaces of Their Own. Peter Lang: New York. Rhiannon Bury Assistant Professor and Interim Director Women's Studies University of Waterloo rbury@uwaterloo.ca Denise N. Rall wrote:
Yes, the issue of class in computing generally was of special interest to noted ethnographer David Hakken, and I would suggest that his/Barbara Andrew's research applies as well (with some new wrinkles of course) to online coummities:
Hakken, D., & with Andrews, B. 1993. Computing myths, class realities: An ethnography of technology and working people in Sheffield, England. Boulder: Westview Press.
Hakken, D. 1991. If computing is a cultural process, what constructs should inform its practice? Paper presented at the Annual Meeting American Anthropological Association, Chicago, IL
Hakken, D. 1993. Computing and social change: New technology and workplace transformation, 1980-1990. In Annual Review of Anthropology (Vol. 22, pp. 107-132).
Actually my PhD thesis looks at internet scholarship as a potential exercise in cross-purposes between academic theory and real life pursuit of knowledge in the community of internet scholars, and to explicate that arena, I used Hoggart: Hoggart, R. 1957. The uses of literacy: Aspects of working-class life, with special reference to publications and entertainments. London: Chatto & Windus.
Of course it is a different use of Hoggart's theory as the working-class became an extended metaphor for "real life pursuit of knowledge" rather than a measure related to class itself. But Hoggart's tensions between 'home' and 'school' might be useful within virtual worlds.
If this makes no sense query me off list, thanks!
Denise
Denise N. Rall, PhD thesis submitted, School of Environ. Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA Tuesdays: Room T2.17, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 or Mobile 0438 23 33 44 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/ Virtual member, Cybermetrics Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/index.html
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