And, so, I have clearly decided that there is a project in this. In this course I am working through what the terrain is for sociology's professional role in understanding digital sociality. We are beginning by "getting curious", per Zora Neale Hurston.
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A few years ago it would not have been as easy to pick a random survey of public debates about digital sociality . I chose: 1. A news package from The NYTimes, "Everything is Gamer Gate". "The Data Is Ours" from Logic Magazine. "Debating The Sharing Economy" by Juliet Schor
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These readings are about practical issues - time to get books and for final registrations to sort out - but also about how our culture is talking about digital stuff.
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The NYTimes package is very timely because there is a growing consensus that political rhetoric (i.e. the rhetoric that matters) borrows heavily from pop culture rhetoric (i.e. the rhetoric that doesn't matter).
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The piece from Logic introduces the popular idea that "data is the new oil", which opens up a line of questions about property, ownership, class, financialization and regulation.
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And Juliet Schor has, of course, done more "big" sociology on digital stuff that most anyone in recent years. Her MacArthur funded study is huge for being qualitative but for wrestling with political economy AND culture.
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The learning outcomes are to develop an "ear" for dialectics about what digital transformation means for society, some interest in a possible topic for their research papers, and an interest in the heavier class readings.
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My professional outcome is to figure out how sociology speaks directly to social problems of digital sociality, if there is a clear line through the most recent research, and if there is something important enough in that line to warrant dissemination.
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Replying to @tressiemcphd
*waits for Tressie to complete syllabus and then, ahem, “borrows” it, like and good teacher would*
On a serious note, yeah where are the straight up social theory to internet texts? Too many are polemics, hence too insider-baseball for teaching purposes.1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes -
Replying to @zeynep
That's EXACTLY what a good teacher does. :D My guess is there is a very small pool of people qualified to write the book we want & need. AND the incentives for writing it are null, at best. At worst, they are negative.
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*rest of thread devolves into trying to convince each other to write that book.* We need to volunteer someone! I think there’s a genuine and not a small audience for exactly that. Clickbait is tired, and there is a hunger for real conversation. But yep it’s structurally homeless.
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