Paul Erickson, Judy L. Klein, Lorraine Daston, Paul Rebecca, Thomas Sturm, and Michael D. Gordin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226046631
- eISBN:
- 9780226046778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226046778.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Cold War social scientists frequently adopted special experimental situations where they could scientifically model and code many aspects of human behavior, aiming to unravel the mysteries and smooth ...
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Cold War social scientists frequently adopted special experimental situations where they could scientifically model and code many aspects of human behavior, aiming to unravel the mysteries and smooth out the irrationalities of social systems, cultures and the human personality. One particularly vibrant example of the situation at work was in the small group research Robert Freed Bales conducted at the “Special Room” in Harvard University's Department of Social Relations between 1949 and the 1970s. The distance between experimental design and possible political-material interventions was radically shortened in such situations, for they offered dual sets of methodological advantages: real-world immediacy on the one hand and laboratory-like artificial control of conditions on the other.Less
Cold War social scientists frequently adopted special experimental situations where they could scientifically model and code many aspects of human behavior, aiming to unravel the mysteries and smooth out the irrationalities of social systems, cultures and the human personality. One particularly vibrant example of the situation at work was in the small group research Robert Freed Bales conducted at the “Special Room” in Harvard University's Department of Social Relations between 1949 and the 1970s. The distance between experimental design and possible political-material interventions was radically shortened in such situations, for they offered dual sets of methodological advantages: real-world immediacy on the one hand and laboratory-like artificial control of conditions on the other.
James Leach and Lee Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262027168
- eISBN:
- 9780262322492
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027168.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
Certain epistemologies, politics, and metaphysics are built into mass produced technological offerings. Apparently neutral seeming tools carry normative principles, and are built on unexamined ...
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Certain epistemologies, politics, and metaphysics are built into mass produced technological offerings. Apparently neutral seeming tools carry normative principles, and are built on unexamined assumptions about social relations. This chapter argues for comprehending the situated-ness of design by attending to how these assumptions and interests are exposed by the use, and the repurposing, of technologies in differing social and historical situations. As many of the examples detailed in the volume refer to cross-cultural appropriations, subversions, or unexpected (re)-uses of technologies, we discuss the specific treatment of knowledge in different social and cultural contexts, and the effects of particular Euro-American assumptions about knowledge and communication on the design of ICTs. The chapter discusses the potential of anthropology and ethnography as modes of approaching and understanding the design and use of technologies, and makes a strong argument, through examples from Papua New Guinea and the US, for the specificity of technology and design as emergent in particular social relations and forms.Less
Certain epistemologies, politics, and metaphysics are built into mass produced technological offerings. Apparently neutral seeming tools carry normative principles, and are built on unexamined assumptions about social relations. This chapter argues for comprehending the situated-ness of design by attending to how these assumptions and interests are exposed by the use, and the repurposing, of technologies in differing social and historical situations. As many of the examples detailed in the volume refer to cross-cultural appropriations, subversions, or unexpected (re)-uses of technologies, we discuss the specific treatment of knowledge in different social and cultural contexts, and the effects of particular Euro-American assumptions about knowledge and communication on the design of ICTs. The chapter discusses the potential of anthropology and ethnography as modes of approaching and understanding the design and use of technologies, and makes a strong argument, through examples from Papua New Guinea and the US, for the specificity of technology and design as emergent in particular social relations and forms.
Robert Tobin
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- April 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780190906146
- eISBN:
- 9780190906177
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190906146.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Progressive Episcopalians greeted Arthur Lichtenberger’s 1959 installation as presiding bishop as a sign that their church was waking up to the changing nature of its role and responsibilities in ...
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Progressive Episcopalians greeted Arthur Lichtenberger’s 1959 installation as presiding bishop as a sign that their church was waking up to the changing nature of its role and responsibilities in American life. Under the aegis of Christian Social Relations, the national church began to facilitate a more coordinated response to the rapid changes taking place in society. In Washington, Dean Francis B. Sayre, Jr., established an influential ministry among the power elite, while rebels such as Malcolm Boyd and Michael Allen sought to connect with young people and those alienated from the church. Increasing numbers of Northern Episcopalians joined in civil rights protests, a trend which caused friction with their Southern co-religionists. A new generation of liberal activist leaders emerged, with men such as Paul Moore, Kim Myers, John Burgess, and Robert DeWitt joining the episcopacy and seeking to place the Episcopal Church’s institutional strength at the service of social reform.Less
Progressive Episcopalians greeted Arthur Lichtenberger’s 1959 installation as presiding bishop as a sign that their church was waking up to the changing nature of its role and responsibilities in American life. Under the aegis of Christian Social Relations, the national church began to facilitate a more coordinated response to the rapid changes taking place in society. In Washington, Dean Francis B. Sayre, Jr., established an influential ministry among the power elite, while rebels such as Malcolm Boyd and Michael Allen sought to connect with young people and those alienated from the church. Increasing numbers of Northern Episcopalians joined in civil rights protests, a trend which caused friction with their Southern co-religionists. A new generation of liberal activist leaders emerged, with men such as Paul Moore, Kim Myers, John Burgess, and Robert DeWitt joining the episcopacy and seeking to place the Episcopal Church’s institutional strength at the service of social reform.
James Leach and Lee Wilson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262027168
- eISBN:
- 9780262322492
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027168.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
Subversion, Conversion, Development explores alternative cultural encounters with and around information technologies, encounters that counter dominant, Western-oriented notions of media consumption. ...
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Subversion, Conversion, Development explores alternative cultural encounters with and around information technologies, encounters that counter dominant, Western-oriented notions of media consumption. We include media practices as forms of cultural resistance and subversion, ‘DIY cultures’, and other non-mainstream models of technology production and consumption. The contributors—leading thinkers in science and technology studies, anthropology, and software design—pay special attention to the specific inflections that different cultures and communities give to the value of knowledge. The richly detailed accounts presented challenge the dominant view of knowledge as a neutral good—that is, as information available for representation, encoding, and use outside social relations. Instead, we demonstrate the specific social and historical situation of all knowledge forms, and thus of the technological engagement with and communication of knowledges. The chapters examine specific cases in which forms of knowledge and cross-cultural encounter are shaping technology use and development. They consider design, use, and reuse of technological tools including databases, GPS devices, books, and computers, in locations that range from Australia and New Guinea to Germany and the United States. Contributors: Laura Watts, Gregers Petersen, Helen Verran, Michael Christie, Jerome Lewis, Hildegard Diemberger, Stephen Hugh-Jones, Alan Blackwell, Dawn Nafus, Lee Wilson, James Leach, Marilyn Strathern, David Turnbull, Wade Chambers.Less
Subversion, Conversion, Development explores alternative cultural encounters with and around information technologies, encounters that counter dominant, Western-oriented notions of media consumption. We include media practices as forms of cultural resistance and subversion, ‘DIY cultures’, and other non-mainstream models of technology production and consumption. The contributors—leading thinkers in science and technology studies, anthropology, and software design—pay special attention to the specific inflections that different cultures and communities give to the value of knowledge. The richly detailed accounts presented challenge the dominant view of knowledge as a neutral good—that is, as information available for representation, encoding, and use outside social relations. Instead, we demonstrate the specific social and historical situation of all knowledge forms, and thus of the technological engagement with and communication of knowledges. The chapters examine specific cases in which forms of knowledge and cross-cultural encounter are shaping technology use and development. They consider design, use, and reuse of technological tools including databases, GPS devices, books, and computers, in locations that range from Australia and New Guinea to Germany and the United States. Contributors: Laura Watts, Gregers Petersen, Helen Verran, Michael Christie, Jerome Lewis, Hildegard Diemberger, Stephen Hugh-Jones, Alan Blackwell, Dawn Nafus, Lee Wilson, James Leach, Marilyn Strathern, David Turnbull, Wade Chambers.
Hildegard Diemberger and Stephen Hugh-Jones
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262027168
- eISBN:
- 9780262322492
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027168.003.0005
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
The use of digital technologies in reproducing texts has profoundly transformed attitudes towards books and to the production and format of literary texts. While it is often assumed that digitization ...
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The use of digital technologies in reproducing texts has profoundly transformed attitudes towards books and to the production and format of literary texts. While it is often assumed that digitization will lead to universalization in literary production, this chapter argues that the ways in which digital technologies are used in relation to books is predicated on what a book represents in a particular context. By way of a range of ethnographic cases from Asia and South America, the chapter makes the case that a book is not a simple conveyor of a message. Rather, culture specific understandings of books and book related technological innovations and digital objects show that books and their digital derivatives are not just produced through social relations, but themselves have an impact on social relations, often in unforeseen ways. Importantly, understandings of literary artefacts, and the ways in which they relate to oral traditions, shape the ways in which they relate to digital technologies. This relationship may indicate why the life of conventional books may still be long and varied, alongside their multifarious digital incarnations that make texts of different traditions accessible across the globe in an unprecedented way.Less
The use of digital technologies in reproducing texts has profoundly transformed attitudes towards books and to the production and format of literary texts. While it is often assumed that digitization will lead to universalization in literary production, this chapter argues that the ways in which digital technologies are used in relation to books is predicated on what a book represents in a particular context. By way of a range of ethnographic cases from Asia and South America, the chapter makes the case that a book is not a simple conveyor of a message. Rather, culture specific understandings of books and book related technological innovations and digital objects show that books and their digital derivatives are not just produced through social relations, but themselves have an impact on social relations, often in unforeseen ways. Importantly, understandings of literary artefacts, and the ways in which they relate to oral traditions, shape the ways in which they relate to digital technologies. This relationship may indicate why the life of conventional books may still be long and varied, alongside their multifarious digital incarnations that make texts of different traditions accessible across the globe in an unprecedented way.