Data, ideology, and the developing critical program of social informatics

The rapidly shifting ideological terrain of computing has a profound impact on Social Informatics's critical and empirical analysis of computerization movements. As these movements incorporate many of the past critiques concerning social fit and situational context leveled against them by Social Informatics research, more subtle and more deeply ingrained modes of ideological practice have risen to support movements of computerization. Among these, the current emphasis on the promises of data and data analytics presents the most obvious ideological challenge. In order to reorient Social Informatics in relation to these new ideological challenges, Louis Althusser's theory of ideology is discussed, with its implications for Social Informatics considered. Among these implications, a changed relationship between Social Informatics's critical stance and its reliance on empirical methods is advanced. Addressed at a fundamental level, the practice of Social Informatics comes to be reoriented in a more distinctly reflective and ethical direction

Os professores na virada do milênio: do excesso dos discursos à pobreza das práticas

Este artigo surge na sequência de uma palestra proferida na Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo, no dia 20 de Maio de 1999. Uma versão deste texto foi publicada na revista espanhola Cuadernos de Pedagogía (nº 286, Dezembro de 1999) e na Revista Educação e pesquisa: Educ. Pesqui. vol.25 no.1 São Paulo Jan./June 1999)Escrito na sequência de uma Conferência proferida na Universidade de São Paulo, este artigo procura analisar a 'realidade discursiva' que marca grande parte dos textos sobre educação neste final de século. A chave de leitura do artigo é a lógica excesso-pobreza, aplicada ao exame da situação dos professores: i) do excesso da retórica política e dos mass-media à pobreza das políticas educativas; ii) o excesso das linguagens dos especialistas internacionais à pobreza dos programas de formação de professores; iii) do excesso do discurso científico-educacional à pobreza das práticas pedagógicas; iv) do excesso das 'vozes' dos professores à pobreza das práticas associativas docentes. Não recusando um pensamento 'utópico', o autor critica as análises 'prospectivas' que revelam um 'excesso de futuro' que é, ao mesmo tempo, um 'défice de presente'.Rédigé à la suite d'une Conférence donnée à l'Université de São Paulo, cet article cherche à analyser la 'réalité discursive' qui marque la plupart des textes sur l'éducation dans cette fin de siècle. La clef de lecture de l'article est le couple excès-pauvreté, appliqué à l'examen de la situation des enseignants: i) de l'excès de la rhétorique politique et des mass-media à la pauvreté des politiques éducatives; ii) de l'excès des langages des experts internationaux à la pauvreté des programmes de formation des enseignants; iii) de l'excès du discours scientifique-éducationnel à la pauvreté des pratiques pédagogiques; iv) de l'excès des 'voix' des enseignants à la pauvreté des pratiques associatives des enseignants. Ne refusant pas une pensée 'utopique', l'auteur critique les analyses 'prospectives' qui sont porteuses d'un 'excès d'avenir' qui est, en même temps, un 'déficit de présent'

Electoral surveys influence on the voting processes: a cellular automata model

Nowadays, in societies threatened by atomization, selfishness, short-term thinking, and alienation from political life, there is a renewed debate about classical questions concerning the quality of democratic decision-making. In this work a cellular automata (CA) model for the dynamics of free elections based on the social impact theory is proposed. By using computer simulations, power law distributions for the size of electoral clusters and decision time have been obtained. The major role of broadcasted electoral surveys in guiding opinion formation and stabilizing the ``{\it status quo}'' was demonstrated. Furthermore, it was shown that in societies where these surveys are manipulated within the universally accepted statistical error bars, even a majoritary opposition could be hindered from reaching the power through the electoral path.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

'When I click "ok" I become Sassy – I become a girl.' Young people and gender identity: Subverting the ‘body’ in massively multi-player online role-playing games

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website through the link below. Copyright @ 2012 Taylor & Francis.This article explores young people's practices in the virtual spaces of online gaming communities. Based on a five-year ethnographic study of virtual worlds, it considers how young people construct and maintain identities within virtual social systems. In particular, the article discusses digital gender practices and considers the potential that these games offer for their young users to engage in alternate gender identities. We argue that these digital spaces offer spaces for the imagination and can enhance agency and, potentially, resistance. However, digital identity is simultaneously no ‘liberated space’ and it incorporates norms and practices that often mirror those of the material world. We argue that this ‘porosity’ is an important tool through which young people come to understand gender identity

The Production of Hospitable Space: Commercial Propositions and Consumer Co-Creation in a Bar Operation

This paper examines the processes through which a commercial bar is transformed into a hospitable space. Drawing on a study of a venue patronized by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual/transgender consumers, it considers how social and commercial forms of hospitality are mobilized. The paper argues that hospitable space has an ideological, normative and situational dimension. More specifically, it suggests the bar’s operation is tied to a set of ideological conceptions, which become the potential basis of association and disassociation among consumers. It examines the forces and processes that shape who participates in the production and consumption of hospitality and how. Finally, it considers the situational, emergent nature of hospitality and the discontinuous production of hospitable space. Rather than focusing exclusively on host-guest or provider-customer relations, which dominates existing work on hospitality, the paper examines how consumers’ perceptions, actions and interactions shape the production of hospitality. By doing so the paper offers an alternative approach to understanding queer spaces, bar operation as well as hospitality

Graduate dress code: How undergraduates are planning to use hair, clothes and make-up to smooth their transition to the workplace

This article explores the relationship between students’ identities, their ideas about professional appearance and their anticipated transition to the world of work. It is based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 13 students from a vocationally-focused university in England. It was found that participants viewed clothing and appearance as an important aspect of their transition to the workplace. They believed that, if carefully handled, their appearance could help them to fit in and satisfy the expectations of employers, although some participants anticipated that this process of fitting in might compromise their identity and values. The article addresses students’ anticipated means of handling the tension between adapting to a new environment and ‘being themselves’. It is argued that the way this process is handled is intertwined with wider facets of identity – most notably those associated with gender.The article is based on research funded by the University of Derby. © 2015 IP Publishing Ltd. ((http://www.ippublishing.com). Reproduced by permission

Can the Experience of Participatory Development Help Think Critically about ‘Patient and Public Involvement’ in UK Healthcare?

The expansion of spaces for ‘patient and public involvement’ (PPI) in health systems in the UK is a relatively recent phenomenon, and yet ‘participation’ as a principle for planned interventions in international development is well established as a field of practice and controversy. Development workers and scholars have passed through moments of enchantment and disenchantment with the idea that the true source of innovation, expertise and workable (and sustainable) solutions is to be found not in the professionals but in communities of experience. Making ‘local knowledge’ the basis of interventions has proved unexpectedly problematic. How could incommensurable forms of knowing, across steep gradients of power be bridged? This article describes a decade-long experiment in participatory development in a remote Adivasi (tribal) region of western India in order to suggest the relevance of this experience for the very different context of PPI in healthcare settings. In particular, it highlights some general points about knowledge practices at the interface, and the human tendency to adjust, mirror, mimic, loop and in other ways make the ‘patient-professional’ interface itself hard to navigate. The article suggests that self-reflective insight into these social processes is necessary for effective ‘engagement’ by professional and lay actors alike

Sharing a different voice: Attending to stories in collaborative writing

Through three stories, we hope to reveal how sometimes contradictory or unrecognizable aspects of our lives, selves, and stories can create tensions in the collaborative writing endeavor. We begin with a story that illuminates some of the narrative tensions that surface during a decade of writing collaboratively. In an effort to navigate these tensions, we explore two further stories in dialogue as a way to reveal how dominant narratives shape our lives and the stories we might tell. One aim of sharing these stories is to reveal how problematic ways of being are often inseparable from one’s cultural legacy. Making previously obscured narratives visible paves the way for imaginary leaps that are necessary for change. We hope these insights are useful for other writers and collaborators and those who seek caring, responsive, and nurturing writing relationships yet realize this journey can be problematic