snapshots

=SEANF=

Project Abstract B
Developing HASS

Methodological
--Incorporating institutional ethnography into sociological discussion of evolving institutions and institutionalization of social movements

Empirical (or what I think I might find)
--The interplay of farmers, extension services, and research institutions. --Industry isomorphism promoted by existing manufacturing facilities and assumed consumer preferences. --Consumer advocacy groups developing ties to manufacturers --Alternative investment organizations targeting particular green or socially beneficial companies

Conceptual / Theoretical
--Extend on understanding social movements as "enunciatory communities" that are heterogenous and historically contextual and play critical roles in managing the complexities and tensions developing from risk societies.

Practical
--Help in the development of bioplastics and other sustainably produced goods or if they are troublesome put breaks on development. --Help in development of state and national policy for sustainable development and Ag policy --Improve the marginal position of farmer networks and small innovative companies --Educate consumers on their product selections and market signaling opportunities.

=KEVIN=

Methodological
- Tracking a problem across the policy arena and the educational arena to see how it developed, why it developed, and barriers to change. Many analyses concentrate on defining the problem and defining solutions, but don't do enough to discover where the problem came from and really articulate the barriers to change.

Empirical
- Research on what computer scientists are being taught in the classroom about programming for accessibility, research on what organizations are doing with regard to programming for accessibility. Interviews with software designers about programming for accessibility, and interviews with the disabled about their experiences. The field does not have much in the way of these four items.

Theoretical / Conceptual
- Ways in which cyberspace and IT are constructed for the disabled, and ways in which disability is redefined (in both directions) through the frame of IT.

Practical
- How to make IT more useful for the disabled, and how to make the disabled more able by using technology.

=DENVER=

Methodological
-My main object is the industry-college-students triangle. I attempt to combine the scale model with an input/output framework to analyze my object, and try to assess the input/output (and their interaction) of each group at each scale. -Try to study an area horizontally (between different cultural context) and vertically (along history).

Empirical
-Improving the understanding of people's attitude and experience of higher education. Expose how the education varies in under different political atmosphere.

Conceptual / Theoretical
-Continue the discussion between means and ends. -Explore the possibility of using discordance as a thread to reverse the construction of ideas.

Practical
-Find some possible alternatives for the reform of Engineering Education.

=R.B. Mitchell=

Conceptual
-Developing what I just realized is somewhat similar (though quite different) to Kim’s double binds…in that my “exceptional spaces” stuff presents two conflicting “choices” for people…however, it works on different levels…the meta (e.g. national policy and ethical landscapes) and the micro (subject formation). Moreover, it is about the “norm” and the “good” becoming entangled with the “abnormal” and “negative” (e.g. producing life saving medicines is considered a “norm” and a “good” but producing chimeras is for many considered “abnormal” and “negative”...the normal and abnormal become one)…I am sure I can find other cases of this. -Furthermore, I hope to look at how when things are thrown into these “exceptional spaces” the new norm is constituted on the other end…if it is in fact reconstituted.

Empirical -No one has done ethnography on chimera research -Also, an ethnography on a “funky” research space that is caught in many in-betweens.

Methodological
-Hope to look at the interaction of a whole bunch of “things” on the formation of norms…e.g. policy, research techniques, the research subject, the patient, policy makers, etc.

Practical
-Such strange research landscapes will no doubt come up more and more with the ascension of biotech.

=Brandon Costelloe-Kuehn=

Methodological

 * The study will be based on data collected through participant observation, ethnographic interviews, analysis of tactical media "texts," and representations of alternative media in both the U.S. and India.
 * It draws insights from previous attempts to negotiate advocacy and ethnography, activism and scholarship.
 * While researching and writing this dissertation, I hope to develop innovative, more enchanting ways to display information at (and outside of) conferences. I will experiment with different "artful" uses of the data amassed through fieldwork and reading.

Empirical

 * Focusing on tactical media production in the United States and India, this study will contribute to the empirical record of ways (alternative, independent, community, tactical) media are produced and circulated collectively and individually.
 * I will compare and contrast the strategies and communities of practice of independent, community, and tactical media in order to better map "alternative" media?
 * the expertise required and developed
 * how orientations to discursive space are generated and changed
 * the "constrablements" of collectivity around alternative media production, in and across specific cases
 * social movements knowledge production and flows
 * big goal is to open up the category of "social movements" by illuminating distributed, non-hegemonic collectivities formed around shared constrablements, stratgegies, tactics, use of tech., etc. Distributed groups (with somewhat shared ideologies, identities) are networked and draw off each other (SM's "spillover," but in much faster timeframe). Evidence: conferences on "tactical" media have participants with countless, diverse goals and social spaces.

Conceptual/Theoretical

 * This study will advance conceptualization of power/resistance
 * what is the relationship between new formations and technologies of power (neoliberal projects, "societies of control," other articulations?) and resistance (the "newest social movements," global justice movement, etc.)?
 * beyond the "hegemony of hegemony": what non-hegemonic (anarchistic?) forms of collectivity and practice are emerging in response to new formations of power?
 * what double binds call these new enunciatory communities into being, to speak?
 * what forms of non-hegemonic sociality are possible, or even desirable, beyond the "local" level?
 * The study will draw on and contribute ot scholarly literatures that examine the concept of "community." "Community" will be interrogated along with poststructuralist and postanarchistic insights.
 * how are communication and community articulated?

Practical

 * Results of this study can help valorize, without romanticizing, alternative media production
 * perhaps increase funding?
 * point out need for autonomy in these projects (like Tacchi, et al.'s evaluation of the Kothkale Community Radio and Internet Project)
 * Drawing on epistemological insights developed within STS, this project will map out strategies for alternative media producers responding to accusations of "bias" or lack of "objectivity."

=**LOGAN W.**=

METHODOLOGICAL

 * 1) I have been thinking a lot about what Fortun discussed (briefly) a week and a half ago in respect to Steven Feld's work on soundscapes. I believe an important methodological component of my work on knowledge & technology transfer of surgical technology-practice will be to incorporate some sort of performative narration (i.e. the audible rendered in text, and, or, the visual rendered in text I am not sure). I was inspired by Kevin's assertion that he would do something to 'translate' the experience of a blind person using the internet in his future book. I believe something similar (perhaps a first person account of a blind person describing their daily routine before they have Small Incision Cataract Surgery and again after they have surgery) would be a good way to highlight how a five minute surgery can cause such huge increases in quality of life for an individual and, perhaps, a nation.
 * 2) I expect that my dissertation will provide another example of how to do ethnographic work, though I am not sure if it will contribute any sort of new methodology.
 * 3) I am interested in using quantitative methods --- but not sure why ore how yet. Heh.

EMPIRICAL

 * 1) I would like to contribute to medical anthropology scholarship with a description of small incision cataract surgery technology-practice (Willoughby) where this idea of technology-practice shows the holistic nature of what Ruit, et al are doing in Nepal.
 * 2) I would like to contribute to SCOT literature with an analysis of the intraocular lens as a boundary object and, or, political artifact. Specifically, I am interested in how the definition of the intraocular lens changes subtly with respect to its place (e.g. manufacturing laboratory, shipping box, operating room, operating tent, human eye) and how because each place is socially constructed depending upon political and cultural factors, some with a more static frame of reference than others, the definition of IOL navigates space and time in a very particular way. I am not sure how this contributes to SCOT literature (i.e. if there will be anything 'new' as far as theory), but it will be fun to write, and hopefully interesting to read.

THEORETICAL/ CONCEPTUAL

 * 1) I am interested in creating a more general theoretical framework for international medical technology transfer that recognizes that medical technology transfer is not just transferring medical artifacts and techniques, but also involves the translation of culture and values between industrialized and developing societies. This framework would not just describe the technological content of transfer, but would also articulate the decision-making process at multiple levels of participation by multiple actors.
 * 2) I am interested in making explicit connections between organizational theory and theories of transnational networks. What this specifically would entail, I am not sure yet.

PRACTICAL
Willoughby, K. W. Technology Choice: A Critique of the Appropriate Technology Movement. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990.
 * 1) I would like to show exemplars of medical technology transfer for sustainable development. This together, with the (hopefully robust) theoretical framework for medical technology transfer will be useful for local NGOs and governments looking at world development from the perspective of energy or other appropriate technology. So I guess, the international aspect is less of a focus, and more of a "I'm a good researcher so I am showing you how this fits together at the international level" but I am more interested in national and regional analysis.

I will conduct a comparative study where I will explore policy procedures and structures between two policy cultures, EU and US, through ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and analysis of policy documents, reports and official webpages. Identify the differences in policy development in the two cultures. Explore the public participation, power structures, and the outcomes in the case of nanotechnology policy and regulation with a focus in nanotechnology standards development and harmonization procedures.
 * ANNA **
 * Methodological: **
 * Empirical: **

Contribute and expand the literature concerning comparative studies in policy making of different policy cultures in my case study EU and the US. Contribute and expand the technology studies literature on standards and harmonization processes. Practical: ** Contribute in making more effective, valuable, and democratic the public participation in policy making procedures and political decision making.
 * Theoretical /Conceptual: **


 * JESSICA**
 * Methodological**
 * I will be using comparative study to build my case, a method which is under utilized. Also, this project will be one of the first integrations between cognitive science and science studies, as it is an STS project utilizing cultural cognition.
 * Theoretical**
 * This project addresses the knowledge gap in the construction of Western science. It acknowledges that some of the roots of institutionalized science lie within the activities of social groups who are generally credited with making little to no beneficial contributions to society.
 * This case study can be used to provide additional support to discussions of lay contributions to scientific knowledge; it also makes a significant contribution to the study of experts/expertise and how expertise relates to Western science practices.
 * Perhaps one of the largest contributions that this study provides is an analysis of the ways in which technology can shape and alter lives. The sociology of technology is underdeveloped in comparison to the sociology of science and this project will add to that body of literature.
 * Empirical**
 * Since the communities I am studying were of mixed ethniticities and cultures and had close contact with indigenous peoples, these knowledge networks have added a distinctly non-Western perspective to the development of modern science. Continue exploration of these areas is necessary in order to achieve a better understanding of science and to appropriately direct both science and technological momentum.
 * Practical**
 * The rise of piracy and its impact on government and trade further demonstrates the ways in which access to technology can allow a politically insignificant class to become an influential economic force.

=__NATE__= My study contributes to the fields of STS and Sociology(?) in a variety of ways: Sonya //**  I would follow steps of the thesis by observing the interactions of schizophrenic patients and robots in a 10 month period, and then reviewing its consequences on the psychological and social conditions of schizophrenic people,  Since the tendency toward using robots in treating psychological disorders(Autism for example) is growing and on the other hand, based on this fact that most individuals with psychological disorders, schizophrenic patients in particular, have weak social networks , I think this project will benefit both groups. So I Think this project can be a supplement to socio robotic researches and a basis for initiating a new major –robophscyhotherapy -I just coined this name;) J ) .On the other hand, this project could help individuals with schizophrenia to improve their social interactions, to fortify their social and emotional supports and to make a mutual face to face communication based on their desires. I am interested in introducing this idea that by using humanoid robots that are more personified, making trustworthy communications between them and schizophrenic patients and establishing more common grounds in human robot interactions, robots can help psychiatrists in recovering the social isolation of schizophrenic patients who are suffering of lack of emotional support by their families and community members. How psychiatrists can use humanoid robots to reduce social isolations of schizophrenic patients
 * At a methodological level, this study will expand on Fisher's policy analysis methods, providing a means by which to recontextualize quantitative data within competing discourses.
 * At an empirical level, this study will contribute to the growing literature on youth and the Internet, examining the ways in which youth shape, and are used to shape cyberspaces and Internet policy, providing a clearer view of youth, deviance and the Internet which is grounded in quantitative and qualitative data.
 * At a conceptual level, this study will expand on the scholarly literature surrounding moral panic, in three ways:
 * Moral panic will be reframed as a tool of opportunity which is mobilized by both elites and grassroots social movements within various discourses, rather than as a machination of either.
 * The role of technology in constructing and shaping moral panic will be introduced.
 * Criticisms of "disproportionality" - the claim that public concern does not match the "reality" of a social problem - will be revisited, expanding the concept of moral panic to make claims about the construction and mitigation of social problems and risk.
 * At a practical level, this study will provide policy recommendations for legislators and school administrators concerned with protecting youth Internet users, which has recently developed as a significant concern. Additionally, the information gathered in this study will be developed into workshops for parents and teachers across New York State, providing them with grounding in empirical data, allowing them to more effectively supervise youth Internet users and critically reexamine the discourses of moral panic.
 * //
 * Methodological **
 * Empirical **
 * Theoretical / Conceptual **
 * Practical **

=__**JEN**__=

Conceptual/Theoretical
This study will contribute to the theoretical understanding of social movements by exploring the roles of place-based identity and media creation in building coalitions and challenging and changing hegemonic discourses. The project will also contribute to the theoretical understanding of the power dynamics of the lay/expert knowledge divide by explaining how activist organizations challenge what is accepted as knowledge (i.e. place-based identity) in political and economic decision-making arenas and how activists learn to recognize and counter pseudo-expertise as promulgated by authorities.

Methodological
I'll be using interviews and participant observation of activist groups, contemporary media analysis, and analysis of relevant laws/regs and general historical background. I don't know that that's particularly new...

Empirical
This study will contribute to the historical record/Appalachian Studies by documenting the effects and practices of a growing coalition of regionally-based activist groups responding to one of the dominant issues facing the region.

Practical
Results of this study will help communities and activist organizations expand the grounds on which governments, industry, and national environmental groups make decisions through better articulation and representation of the value of place-based identity and local knowledge.

Methodological: to introduce a conceptual framework for studying circulation between different levels of analysis in STS Empirical: first ever STS of hydrology, adding a crucial element to the emerging STS of water. Theoretical: to develop a middle-level theory showing how social structural forces shape scientific organizations and practices. Practical: to suggest how Left political forces can better intervene in political struggles involving water.
 * Jon**