Re: first post (An Internet without Space)
Thanks to Ben and other colleagues for the developing citations. I have read Harrison and Dourishs Re-Place-ing Space: The Roles of Place and Space in Collaborative Systems as well as other works. I believe that place is not a better term than space. As Dourish suggests, places largely exist within spaces. There may also be reasons to be concerned about the idea that: Physically, a place is a space which is invested with understandings of behavioural appropriateness, cultural expectations, and so forth. I would be concerned that to theorize the Internet or particular technologically mediated settings as places is to suggest that they are geographically situated and to relate a variety of practices, conflicting desires, and diverse users to a singular culture or experience. All my best, Michele
Michele (and others) - out of curiosity, do you have an alternative suggestion? You reject "space" and "place" and much of the terminology and research that is connected to those meanings. I understand that you may have started this discussion primarily because you feel flabbergasted (or something similar) and would love for someone else to provide you with new terminology. But maybe you have an idea already? Or at least a tendency? I'm curious to hear what you can suggest constructively in addition to pointing out flaws of the space and place metaphors. Personally, I don't have much of a problem with the "cyberspace" notion, tough I'm aware that cyberspace is measured in quite different 'units' than offline space. But then, I can even imagine Charles notion c), objects not floating in space (to me, the universe is a perfect example of that, but then that gets confusing because we refer to what's beyond the earth as "space" as well, when really it's a whole lot of dark matter and dark energy that we don't even know what it is. It seems to be matter so compressed that it acts as if it is nothing, sucking in other matter to fill a void; now isn't that fascinating? Sorry, for the digression, but I'm an avid Discover Magazine reader and - not being further educated on astrophysics - I tend to believe what I read there.). I'd be grateful for alternative suggestions (instead of space or place) to wrap my mind around. Ulla -- Ulla Bunz Assistant Professor Department of Communication Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901
-----Original Message----- Thanks to Ben and other colleagues for the developing citations. I have read Harrison and Dourishs Re-Place-ing Space: The Roles of Place and Space in Collaborative Systems as well as other works. I believe that place is not a better term than space. As Dourish suggests, places largely exist within spaces. There may also be reasons to be concerned about the idea that: Physically, a place is a space which is invested with understandings of behavioural appropriateness, cultural expectations, and so forth. I would be concerned that to theorize the Internet or particular technologically mediated settings as places is to suggest that they are geographically situated and to relate a variety of practices, conflicting desires, and diverse users to a singular culture or experience. -------------------------- Michele, I don't think the conceptualisation of cyber/Internet places necessarily requires this kind of singularity. In fact, I think it's pretty much accepted that there are (infinite?) subjective multiple readings of any place - be they on or offline. Internet/Cyber places *are* situated in terms of human geographies and the physical geographies of infrastructure. In terms of cultural singularity - all places are sites of different forms of power and resistance, on or offline. Just as the Troll, virus writer, cracker etc resists the bounding of their cyberspace so graffiti artists, skate boarders and protestors resist in offline space. I'm not trying to explore (and be limited by) metaphors here - just pointing out paralells. If you haven't already, you might be interested in engaging some of these references for a different reading of space and place: Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, University of Minnesota Press, 1990 Ed Casey, The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History, University of California, 1996 Tim Cresswell, In Place/Out of Place: Geography, Ideology and Transgression, University of Minnesota Press, 1996 As well as Edward Soja's Thirdspace trilogy (The City, Thirdspace, Postmetropolis) Paul
Lycos has announced the closure of its chat, message boards, clubs and image galleries as of February 1st. http://www.specials.lycos.com/communities.asp Lois Ann Scheidt MPA MIS SPHR CCP Doctoral Student School of Library and Information Science Indiana University Bloomington IN USA Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com
participants (4)
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Lois Ann Scheidt -
Michele White -
Paul Bevan -
Ulla Bunz