Ethics and social networking sites: A disclosive analysis of Facebook

Paper has been accepted for publication in Information, Technology and People.Purpose: This paper provides insights into the moral values embodied by a popular social networking site (SNS), Facebook. We adopt the position that technology as well as humans has a moral character in order to disclose ethical concerns that are not transparent to users of the site. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based upon qualitative field work, involving participant observation, conducted over a two year period. Findings: Much research on the ethics of information systems has focused on the way that people deploy particular technologies, and the consequences arising, with a view to making policy recommendations and ethical interventions. By focusing on technology as a moral actor with reach across and beyond the Internet, we reveal the complex and diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in our case and the consequent implications for governance of SNS. Research limitations/implications: We situate our research in a body of work known as disclosive ethics and argue for an ongoing process of evaluating SNS to reveal their moral importance. Along with other authors in the genre, our work is largely descriptive, but we engage with prior research by Brey and Introna to highlight the scope for theory development. Practical implications: Governance measures that require the developers of social networking sites to revise their designs fail to address the diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in this case. Such technologies need to be opened up to scrutiny on a regular basis to increase public awareness of the issues and thereby disclose concerns to a wider audience. We suggest that there is value in studying the development and use of these technologies in their infancy, or if established, in the experiences of novice users. Furthermore, flash points in technological trajectories can prove useful sites of investigation. Originality/value: Existing research on social networking sites either fails to address ethical concerns head on or adopts a tool view of the technologies so that the focus is on the ethical behaviour of users. We focus upon the agency, and hence the moral character, of technology to show both the possibilities for, and limitations of, ethical interventions in such cases

Growing work based learning in Europe

This doctoral project is a case study of how work based learning began to grow in Europe through the conceptualisation and development of a common European work based learning platform in a pan-European partnership. The partnership, known as DEWBLAM (Developing European Work Based Learning Approaches and Methods), was established in order to introduce higher education institutions to work based learning, enabling them to pilot their own programmes relevant to local needs and situations. The project was framed within European protocols, such as the Bologna Process that aims to modernise and transform different national higher education systems into a transparent and comparable European system. The methodological approach is interpretative and constructivist, enabling me to theorise the how and why of events, and allowing theories to emerge from the data. I use an explanatory case study, which is retrospective as the DEWBLAM project has ended and no further intervention is possible, test validity through action research indicators, and draw relatable inferences. I analyse the multi-layered ecology of the DEWBLAM project, identifying how changing postmodern epistemologies and internal/external environments affected the partnership, highlighting the need to establish a meta-narrative and drawing on my previous professional practice to support my role in facilitating the processes of knowledge creation. I then critically analyse the definitions and distinctive features of work based learning that were collectively conceptualised, referencing these within current thinking, and raising concerns at these definitions as job-related competences. I consider the case for meshing academic and work based knowledge with competence to form the concept of competent knowledge and analyse the bounded relationships of universities and the work place, proposing new ways of engagement that allow multi-directional knowledge flows. Finally, I give an overview of the doctoral project outcomes, evaluate the potential impact of DEWBLAM, highlighting the contribution to knowledge and local knowledge economies made by the platform and the ensuing pilot programmes. I reflect on my achievements and on my own practice, and conclude by recommending that, inter alia, the expert practitioners at Middlesex University need to contribute more to informing current debates on new European educational realities, in order to avoid the prevalence of too narrow interpretations of work based learning

Rape Myth Acceptance in Social Fraternities and Sororities Compared to Nonaffiliated Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of the acceptance and attitudes toward rape myth and sexual assault among fraternity and sorority members and nonaffiliated students as well as the differences in acceptance between men and women. Utilizing the data gathered through a quantative survey using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA), the researcher found that although there is no definite difference between Greek-affiliated students compared to nonaffiliated students or between men and women, there are some differences to take note of

Learning masculinities in a Japanese high school rugby club

This paper draws on research conducted on a Tokyo high school rugby club to explore diversity in the masculinities formed through membership in the club. Based on the premise that particular forms of masculinity are expressed and learnt through ways of playing (game style) and the attendant regimes of training, it examines the expression and learning of masculinities at three analytic levels. It identifies a hegemonic, culture-specific form of masculinity operating in Japanese high school rugby, a class-influenced variation of it at the institutional level of the school and, by further tightening its analytic focus, further variation at an individual level. In doing so this paper highlights the ways in which diversity in the masculinities constructed through contact sports can be obfuscated by a reductionist view of there being only one, universal hegemonic patterns of masculinity