KATERINA D. on 12 Mar 2001 16:16:42 -0000 |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> a question |
I was wondering if anyone could answer this question, that has to do with the Delphi research methodology. Does a Delphi research project have to be quantitative and statistical or can it also be analysed qualitatively in a way similar to the analysis of interviews? Thank you in advance, Dionisis Panou, Ph.D. , Communication University of Athens, knd@hol.gr ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andreas Broeckmann" <abroeck@transmediale.de> To: <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net> Sent: &Tgr;&egr;&tgr;&aacgr;&rgr;&tgr;&eegr;, 7 &Mgr;&agr;&rgr;&tgr;&iacgr;&ogr;&ugr; 2001 10:13 &mgr;&mgr; Subject: <nettime> [RRE]New European Research on the Information Society > from: Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE) > http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html > > > New European Research on the Information Society > > Phil Agre > http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/ > > Version of 6 March 2001. > > This is a draft. You are welcome to forward it, but please do not > quote from it or cite it. > > 3360 words > > > Research on the role of information and communications technologies > in social change has become a global industry. As usual, we in the > United States assume that we lead the field. Publications that have > appeared in the last year, however, make it clear that the leaders > are actually in Europe. Below I've prepared an annotated bibliography > of recent European research, but first some rough generalizations. > Research on the "information society" in the United States and Europe > can be compared and contrasted in many ways: > > * Americans talk about "the Internet" but use the term broadly and > inconsistently; they like the term because it connotes revolution and > because, of course, we invented it. Europeans talk about "information > and communications technologies" or "ICT's", a much broader and more > accurate term that includes areas like wireless where the Europeans > are ahead, but also one that connotes bureaucracy and does not provoke > the arthritic post-and-telecom (PTT) bureaucracies that continue to > oppress European telecommunications customers. > > * American research is organized largely through individual graduate > students' thesis projects, although large multi-site projects are > becoming more common; European research is organized largely through > collective research projects that are accountable to and closely > regulated by funding agencies. This is one of many reasons why the > American university system works better than the European system, and > why European social research is better integrated with institutions > outside the university than American social research. > > * American research is divided between NSF, which allocates a few > crumbs to social research once the networks and databases get their > millions, and private foundations, which increasingly (though not > exclusively) do their own research, usually driven directly by their > policy agendas, rather than funding others. In Europe, by contrast, > the European Union is deeply committed to research on social aspects > of computing, which is thoroughly integrated into its policy-making > process. Remarkably, all of these funding agencies, American and > European alike, are run by intelligent people. > > * The American research is more creative; the European research is > better grounded in institutional reality. The Americans are stronger > at hard economics, the Europeans at institutional economics. The > Americans are stronger at engineering design, the Europeans at design > methods derived from the arts and from democratic theory. American > research is stronger in organizational studies; European research is > stronger in studies of broad social trends. American theory in this > area is more fashion-driven (again, as a broad average); European > theory is more traditional. American research is preoccupied with > cyber hype -- propagating it or refuting it; European research is > preoccupied with the policy agenda of the European Union. > > * American research struggles endlessly to get free of technological > determinism, for example in phrases like "impacts of computing" and > "cyberspace" as a separate realm and a revolutionary break with the > past whose laws are dictated simply by the workings of the machinery. > Europeans have less of this problem. They talk about an "information > society" that does not denote a discontinuous break. They produce > vast, boring policy documents in which every issue gets its place. > Americans hate these documents, but in many ways American thinking, > for all its creativity, is fragmented as a result. > > * The Americans have a more evolved infrastructure, so they have more > complex technology-driven social practices to study. This is largely > because the US scientific leadership, led by ARPA but including the > top ranks of NSF, the major supercomputer labs, and IBM, is extremely > intelligent and well-organized. (Silicon Valley makes noise, but no > way does it set agendas for technological development.) The Europeans > are better than the United States at setting standards. They are > also better at industrial policy, for example supporting industrial > regions like the wireless industry in Scandinavia. (Our industrial > policy is to hire big-shot professors and let them start companies. > Beyond that, however, lots of American jurisdictions have shallow > and wasteful ideas of what it would take to get themselves a Silicon > Valley of their own.) So the European research is more driven by > industrial agendas. In the United States you get digital library > research, which Silicon Valley has barely heard of even though it's > concentrated in California; and in Europe you get research on people > using wireless. Wireless is changing the world now; digital libraries > will change the world in ten years; both require social research if > they're going to be done well. > > * The United States and Europe both have enormous public concern with > the impact of new technologies on social equality, but the Europeans > have a much stronger conceptualization of the issues. The American > language of "information haves and have-nots" hardly names the problem, > much less pointing toward a solution. The European (especially British) > language of "social inclusion and exclusion", while sounding much like > fingernails on a chalkboard to many people, names the problem in a way > that's actionable, and that places ICTs into a vastly broader context. > Europeans will no doubt lecture me on the inadequacy of the European > policy response to date, but my only point is the comparison to the US. > > * Reports on the American research are hard to get hold of because so > many are published in new journals that many research libraries don't > carry; reports on the European research are hard to get hold of because > so many are written for granting agencies. > > * Final caveat: Just to be clear, I'm not saying that all European > research on the information society is valuable or that all American > research is bad. To the contrary, the EU system produces a lot of > vacuous consultant reports along with the legitimate work, and this > list has already recommended piles of high-quality research being done > in the US. > > With those rough generalizations out of the way, here is an annotated > bibliography of European research on the information society. I have > focused on new books (rather than older works, journal articles, or > book chapters), with a couple of exceptions. This list is by no means > complete, and I am sure that it could be doubled. Some of the entries > have already been recommended on this mailing list; others have not. > > Cristiano Antonelli, New information technology and the evolution of > the industrial organisation of the production of knowledge, in Stuart > Macdonald and John Nightingale, eds, Information and Organization: A > Tribute to the Work of Don Lamberton, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1999. > This is a frighteningly sophisticated theoretical account of the > role of networked information services in the evolution of industry > structure. It emerges from a large community of people with economics > training working in management schools who study the interaction > between technical architecture and industry structure. This is > an area where good work is being done in the United States as well, > though on this specific topic Antonelli's article in a class by itself. > > Joan Bliss, Roger Saljo, and Paul Light, eds, Learning Sites: Social > and Technological Resources for Learning, Oxford: Pergamon, 1999. > This is an interesting collection of work about learning technology > based on the educational theories of the Russian psychologist L. S. > Vygotsky. (Good research on educational technology in this tradition > is also happening in the US as well, for example at UC San Diego.) > Lengthy excerpt from this book can be found in the RRE advertisement: > <http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Social.and.Technolog.html>. > > Susanne Bodker, Morten Kyng, and Kjeld Schmidt, eds, Proceedings of > the Sixth European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, > Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1999. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), > as it name implies, is the field that develops technical tools to > support cooperative work. It turns out that so-called groupware > tools fail ignominiously without a strong understanding of the social > processes of group work, and so CSCW research must integrate its > technical and social sides to a greater degree than perhaps any other > field. This is very hard because technologists and social scientists > live on entirely different planets. This can make for conferences > with the two sides standing at opposite sides of the room, wondering > how to interact. Both the Americans and the Europeans try hard to > overcome the differences, but the Europeans have had more success. > > Gro Bjerknes, Pelle Ehn, and Morten Kyng, eds, Computers and > Democracy: A Scandinavian Challenge, Aldershot, UK: Avebury, 1987. > I'm including this book even though it's old by now. It is one of > the first manifestos of the participatory design movement that got > started in Norway in the 1970's, and that has subsequently become > institutionalized throughout Scandinavia. It began with projects > to include labor unions in the design of workplace technologies, > and it has generalized into a whole culture of design for involving > users in the design process. This means contending with the problem > that "users don't know what they want", and with the consequences > of bringing the inevitably political nature of design to the surface > in formal democratic design processes. I'm not clear why there have > been so few edited volumes or major theoretical works on participatory > design in the last few years. Research in the field is hardly dead, > as the proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference makes clear. > It's more that the Scandinavians take participatory design for granted > and move forward from there. > > Hans-Joachim Braczyk, Gerhard Fuchs, and Hans-Georg Wolf, eds, > Multimedia and Regional Economic Restructuring, London: Routledge, > 1999. This is perhaps the strongest collection of studies of the > impact of information technology on economic geography. > > Mark Casson, Information and Organization: A New Perspective on the > Theory of the Firm, Clarendon Press, 1997. This is a very original > theoretical analysis of the place of information in industrial > organization. Economics worldwide is dominated by the neoclassical > school, which tends to assume away most problems of information. > But the UK is home to a number of interesting heterodox economists, > and Casson is particularly interesting because he moves easily between > the neoclassical and institutional camps. In this book his starting > point is the observation that every organization is an intermediary > between individual workers and individual consumers. So in a sense > every organization's existence needs to be justified, and one way > to justify an intermediary is in terms of its role in gathering and > processing information. A few simple observations along these lines > generate a tremendous variety of interesting consequences, or at least > interesting hypotheses. > > Claudio U. Ciborra, ed, From Control to Drift: The Dynamics of > Corporate Information Infrastructures, Oxford: Oxford University > Press, 2000. This is a project from Oslo about the organizational > realities of information technology standards. They draw on network > economics and actor-network theory in some extended case studies of > frustrated standardization projects in various European companies. > Any large organization will have a legacy of heterogeneous systems, > and transitions to new standards such as the Internet are inevitably > political and logistical messes. > > Sally Criddle, Lorcan Dempsey, and Richard Heseltine, eds, Information > Landscapes for a Learning Society, London: Library Association, 1999. > The British are leaders in rethinking information services in the > new digital world, for example by integrating library services with > instructional media services and the like in the university context. > This book gathers reports on initiatives from (mostly) British library > people. > > Ken Ducatel, Juliet Webster, and Werner Herrmann, eds, The Information > Society in Europe: Work and Life in an Age of Globalization, Rowman > and Littlefield, 2000. This volume is a good sample of the sort of > critically minded research on the information society that happens > under the umbrella of the European Union without being by any means > dictated in its substance by the bureaucracy. It has many outstanding > qualities, starting with its clear grasp of the many-dimensional > concrete reality of a functioning information society on planet Earth. > Topics include regional development, new organizational forms, the > labor market, and ICT applications in health, education and politics. > > Anthony Dunne, Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic > Experience and Critical Design, Art Books, 2000. This book comes > from a thesis at the Royal College of Art in London, which is > one of the most interesting sources of artistically minded design > of digital products. It indulges more in fashion-theory than I > probably would; it takes Baudrillard seriously in a way that I can't. > It is challenging and often confounding. But it is also a serious > and sustained inquiry into the meanings of digital products, and > particularly the strange problem of the meaning of an object that > gives physical form to information. > > William H. Dutton, Society on the Line: Information Politics in the > Digital Age, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. The author is > American, but the book is a summary and synthesis of research done > in the UK under the sponsorship of the Economic and Social Research > Council (ESRC), which has sponsored a great deal of high-quality > work, most recently the Virtual Society? project led by Steve Woolgar > (see <http://virtualsociety.sbs.ox.ac.uk/>). (I hear that another, > similar large-group ESRC project is in the works.) Its unifying theme > is what Dutton calls tele-access: the socially constructed conditions > under which people get access to technology and information of various > sorts. This includes privacy and data protection, free speech issues, > equity issues of access to technology, and so on. Although pretty > much written by Bill, the book includes brief sections contributed > by people involved in the project. You can find the RRE advertisement > for the book here: <http://www.tao.ca/wind/rre/0618.html>. > > Richard Hawkins, Robin Mansell, and Jim Skea, eds, Standards, > Innovation and Competitiveness: The Politics and Economics of > Standards in Natural and Technical Environments, Aldershot, UK: Elgar, > 1995. This book on standards dynamics is one of several books on the > list from SPRU <http://www.susx.ac.uk/spru/>, a research center at the > University of Sussex which gained fame as the Science Policy Research > Unit but is now called Science and Technology Policy Research. Like > much SPRU work, this book is based on case studies without presenting > case-study material at great length. > > Jens Hoff, Ivan Horrocks, and Pieter Tops, eds, Democratic Governance > and New Technology: Technologically Mediated Innovations in Political > Practice in Western Europe, London: Routledge, 2000. This is, to my > knowledge, the best book about information technology and democracy. > Although it is an edited book, the chapters result from an integrated > project and the book unfolds more or less linearly. The strength of > this book, as with much European work about technology and democracy, > is its grounding both in democratic theory and in the practice of > public administration (as opposed to the electoral and legislative > systems). The first couple of chapters, which are short and dense, > are the best outline of the relationship between various visions of > Internet democracy and the historical philosophies of democracy such > as corporatism and republicanism. The book is, unforunately, too > trapped by the cyberspace / virtual-reality theory of politics to > develop a strong alternative theory. Nonetheless, all paths forward > lead through close study of this book. > > The November/December 1999 issue of the ACM Magazine "Interactions", > which is a special issue about an EU research project called Maypole > on family snapshots and their migration to digital media. The EU > has gone to great lengths to organize international research programs, > and this magazine issue reflects the coordinated nature of the project > in its unified graphic design. This kind of advanced culture of > collaboration means that the project crosses disciplinary boundaries > in a productive way, for example mixing ethnographic studies of family > snapshots with industrial design studies of products and services that > the families might find useful. Some details can be found on the Web: > <http://www.acm.org/pubs/contents/journals/interactions/1999-6/#6>. > I particularly recommend Dick Rijken's article, "Information in space: > Explorations in media and architecture". > > Toru Ishida and Katherine Isbister, eds, Digital Cities: Technologies, > Experiences, and Future Perspectives, Berlin: Springer, 2000. The > editors are Japanese and American, and the best chapter is a very > strong theoretical piece by Bill Mitchell (an Australian now teaching > at MIT), but the core of this book is the European civic networking > movement, which has gotten much more support from city governments and > social movements than the stalled community networking movement in the > United States. Most of the chapters are straightforward descriptions > of the projects, some of which are more real than others. Still the > overall effect is impressive. > > Liberty, Liberating Cyberspace: Civil Liberties, Human Rights and > the Internet, London: Pluto, 1999. This is a worthwhile book about, > as the title says, civil liberties and human rights issues relating > to the Internet. The roster of issues will be familiar (copyright, > cryptography, content regulation, etc), and is not much different > in Europe than in the United States. But the context of the European > and global human rights movement provides a different philosophical > and social grounding to the analysis than the Bill-of-Rights analysis > in the US. > > Robin Mansell and Roger Silverstone, eds, Communication by Design: The > Politics of Information and Communication Technologies, Oxford: Oxford > University Press, 1996. This is another very strong book from SPRU, > largely about the role of political and economic factors in the social > shaping of standards for things like electronic commerce. What's most > impressive is not so mcuh the daring of their theories but the huge > amount of case study that the analysis is obviously based on. Mansell > and Silverstone are both now at the London School of Economics. > > Robin Mansell and W. Edward Steinmueller, Mobilizing the Information > Society: Strategies for Growth and Opportunity, Oxford: Oxford > University Press, 2000. This tome sums up SPRU's EU-funded research > on information society topics for the last several years. Although > it is consistently worthwhile, it is most interesting on the changing > role of intermediaries in an information-society industry structure. > Everybody knows that the simple story of disintermediation is not > right, and some American research has provided a theoretical basis > for the study of new patterns of intermediation, but it is SPRU > that has done the strongest and most sustained study of real cases. > > Robin Mansell and Uta Wehn, eds, Knowledge Societies: Information > Technology for Sustainable Development, New York: Oxford University > Press, 1998. This volume, yet another SPRU product, synthesizes a > large-scale collaborative project to provide advice on the role of > information technology in development in the third world. There's > an immense demand for this information, and this volume gathers all > the weightiest research findings and best common sense in one place. > > Roza Tsagarousianou, Damian Tambini, and Cathy Bryan, eds, > Cyberdemocracy: Technology, Cities and Civic Networks, London: > Routledge, 1998. This is a more theoretically minded book from the > European civic networking movement, including chapters on projects > from the UK, Italy, Greece, Germany, and the Netherlands, together > with one project from the United States. It is free of hype of both > the enthusiastic and skeptical sorts. > > W. B. H. J. van de Donk, I. Th. M. Snellen, and P. W. Tops, eds, > Orwell in Athens: A Perspective on Informatization and Democracy, > Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1995. This is a serious and thoughtful book > about ICT's in public administration. Like the Hoff, Horrocks, and > Tops volume above (not coincidentally also led by a Dutch group), > it brings a deep and sensible knowledge of democratic theory to > bear on a wide range of practical problems of computing in public > administration, such as the involvement of ordinary citizens in > bureaucratic decision-making, access to public information, merger > of data from different sources, and community access to government > through computer networks. (Wim van de Donk is also the coeditor > with Stephen Coleman and John Taylor of a book that I haven't managed > to get my hands on yet, Parliament in the Age of the Internet, Oxford > University Press, 1999; and the coeditor with Ig Snellen of another > book that has escaped me, Public Administration in an Information Age: > A Handbook, Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1998.) > > Jan van Dijk, The Network Society: Social Aspects of New Media, > translated by Leontine Spoorenberg, London: Sage, 1999. This is > one of the best all-around surveys of social issues raised by new > media. It is thoughtful and clearly reasoned, and it is theoretical > without being caught up in self-indulgent fashion. It will not be > news to people who follow these issues closely, but if I were running > a class and wanted to get beyond the tedious controversies between > enthusiasts and skeptics, I would consider assigning this as a text. > > end > > > > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). > You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use > the "redirect" option. For information about RRE, including instructions > for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold